Okay.
So my family farms. We are a grain farming operation, specifically growing corn and soybeans.
Grains.
We also grow kids around here. Lots of them. Healthy ones. Smart ones. Funny ones, and sometime ornery ones.
Har, har.
I don't contend to be an expert on anything, except maybe what NOT to wear to a school concert: answer, pajama pants, camo anything, and Kool Aid colored hair in adults should be outlawed. That, and talking during a concert.
But I digress.
Like I said, I do not contend to be an expert at anything, but I feel like after having six kids, I tend to be pretty well versed in all things baby/toddler/little kid. I'm getting there with early tweens, but that's uncharted waters that freak me out.
I'm digressing again.
Anyway, our babies are now nearly seven months old. They are getting better at sitting up, rolling around, and the other developmental milestones associated with living and thriving for half a year. So, we have started introducing grain cereals into their diet.
Like I did for the other children. Maybe at different times for each kid, but rice cereal and oatmeal are the first foods I used to introduce solids to my kids.
So far, so good. All children seem to be in good health.
However, today, I was alerted that there's a new suggestion for new moms: Do not feed your baby the first food of anything related to grains.
Oh new moms, bless you. Long, long ago, I was a new mom who had the time and energy to cut the dissolvable puffs in half (even though they were designed with a baby's throat in mind), so that my baby wouldn't choke. Long, long ago, I pored over articles and books and asked advice about everything. Again, I'm not claiming to be an expert, but I have learned in my ten years as a mom of a gaggle of kids, that all advice on kids are 1) just advice, a suggestion, if you will and 2) generally a trend someone is trying to push.
So, back to grains. Evidently, "food before one is just for fun" is a catch phrase as well as pushing no grains in a baby's diet. So, I did a little research (read: a google search, and let's be honest, the moms pushing this new trend probably did the same), and came across some suggested foods for babies instead of the bland, safe rice cereal some of us obviously idiotic mothers have been giving their sweet babies:
From the blog, The Healthy Home Economist, the suggestions of a soft boiled egg from a pastured hen is a good first food. In the same blog, she also suggests a bit of raw grass fed beef and/or a buffalo liver, but since I'm completely grossed out by those two, let's focus upon the soft boiled egg from a pastured hen. This writer claims that these hens, who are living the dream life waltzing around a pasture, have more of the good cholesterol and omega 3s that babies need, ones that are found in breastmilk or formula. Okay, I get that. Rice cereal is probably a whole lotta nothing special, but I would like to remind my new found friend (read: source of laughing out loud) that I'm not just feeding the girls rice cereal whenever they're hungry. I don't need to go into any more detail about being the source of their omega 3s, but my girls are doing just fine, and wouldn't you think that RAW BEEF would be worse for a baby's tender stomach than RICE CEREAL?
Seriously.
Like all debates on food, whether GMO, organic, conventional or feeding your baby buffalo liver, being extreme about food is sometimes just plain ridiculous.
It's just extreme.
It's making your life consumed by what you put in your mouth. If I had to think about finding a pastured hen and hard boiling an egg for the babies I may be someone who is, quite frankly, a rich, fat American with first world problems.
Please note that I am neither rich or fat, but that I do tend to have very, very first world problems.
In closing, let's quit being so danged extreme about everything. Eat to be satisfied and nourished. Try your best to eat well, and for heaven's sake, put the raw beef down. You'll thank me later.
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