Since my daughter was born, it’s been an important goal of mine to maintain a frugal, “DIY” household. Accordingly, thus far we’ve purchased no commercially prepared baby food (aside from a few teething biscuits). My daughter is a pro at eating bite-sized pieces of baked root vegetables, fresh or steamed fruits, seared chicken and fish, and slow-cooker turkey meatballs (with chopped spinach mixed in!) - just like her dad and me.
But unlike her parents, and most other humans who’ve been living for longer than one year, she hasn’t quite gotten the hang of utensils yet. At one time, early on in our adventures with solids, she was on the cusp of proficiently eating mushy foods from a spoon. However, she seemed to prefer the hand-held foods, so we caved to this predilection and favored those. This trend gradually rendered pureed and mashed nourishment entirely counterproductive - when presented with yogurt or oatmeal or applesauce on a spoon, her instinct is to grab at the food with her fingers and bring it to her mouth directly. And that’s only if she actually decides the food merits eating; it feels like half the time she’d rather smear her pureed avocado on the tray of her high chair, or fling hummus at the wall.
Lest she never learn how to use one, we keep experimenting with food on a spoon... when we’re at home. Recently, the nice weather has kept us on the go more often than not, and I shudder at the thought of what might happen if I tried giving her spooned purees somewhere other than our dining room. Moreover, her increased mobility means that sometimes even our tried-and-true finger foods don’t work. Outings to the park or beach involve far too many apple slices dropped on the ground or carrot sticks contaminated (willingly, for some reason I can’t fathom) by sand. Seeking inspiration for snacks that can survive summer stroller walks, will fit in tiny little hands, and are chewable even if the eater only has four teeth, I didn’t know where to turn. Then, on a recent trip to our local mass baby retailer I found myself studying the pouched foods.
Over the past year, it seemed like every time I saw an older baby or toddler he or she was eating a snack of pureed food product by sucking it directly out of its pouch container. Notwithstanding the knowledge that the eaters involved are tiny people still learning to perform basic functions of life, the act of slurping down almost-liquefied foods always seemed slightly grotesque to me. The fact that the foods involved are commercially prepared didn’t do much to assuage my aversion... especially when I saw a pouch in the store containing “chicken casserole.” Several of the companies who make these pouched snacks purport to include few or no preservatives in their foods, but if they’re offering a product that contains chicken and doesn’t need refrigeration, I’m not sure I believe it.
Thankfully, I recalled a mom-and-baby meet-up that we attended a few months ago, to which a friend brought a reusable pouch full of homemade puree for her baby. Having resigned myself to the convenience of portable purees, but determined to continue making baby food myself, I returned home from the store and Googled “reusable baby food pouch.”
... and stumbled upon an article which summed up everything I didn’t know I was worried about re: pouched purees.
While my initial aversion to pouched-eating was rooted in the notion of impoliteness, the parents quoted in the above-linked New York Times piece highlight some deeper, systemic concerns about quick-and-easy to-go foods. Yes, infants with no teeth need, physically, to eat soft foods. But they don’t need to instantaneously suck down 100 calories worth of blended fruits and vegetables (or whatever else people think to mush up) at a moment’s notice, so they can immediately run off to do something else. My knowledge of human developmental phases also indicates that if they’re old enough to run off with minimal supervision they’re also old enough to chew food that hasn’t been blended into liquid form.
I definitely feel the pressure to maintain a busy lifestyle whilst keeping my child fed and happy, but thus far this still entails meals seated in a high chair, eating real food… even if I spend the duration of my daughter’s lunch standing at the counter simultaneously eating, doing dishes, and/or preparing food for that night’s dinner. Hummus on the wall notwithstanding, I’m enjoying the spoils of a fate forecasted a few months ago by a friend with an older baby: “Once they feed themselves, you can get stuff done while they’re eating.”
As with most aspects of parenting, a compromise is within reach. For the immediate future, I like the idea of a pouch of mashed fruit a few times a week when we’re out in the park and seek to avoid a snack that risks futility if dropped on the ground. Another benefit is that a pouch won’t make my daughter’s hands (which will inevitably touch dirt immediately after she finishes eating) sticky. And I can even reconcile keeping a few commercially made pouch snacks in the car as an emergency backup food, in case errands keep us out longer than expected.
But I’m hoping it’ll stop there, and that we can maintain healthy habits of slow and focused eating. In just a few years, she’ll be a get-up-and-go toddler, and will inevitably require a baggie full of crackers or cereal to keep her sated in the car between activities. Several more years down the road, she’ll be a too-busy-to-eat teenager, running out the door to school with a granola bar for breakfast. In the meantime, I’d rather not hasten that eventuality by encouraging the consumption of food as a mindless, multi-tasking activity.
And rest assured that we’ll be staying away from pureed-and-pouched chicken casserole.
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