It’s an every changing world in my house. Each month the kiddo grows, and I’m learning new things about being a parent. This month we embark into solid foods. That means I’m purchasing food and nutrition that is going straight to her digestive system, sans the mom. Like any parent, I want what’s best for my kid, and so comes the time to embark into more conscious grocery shopping. In the past I’ve gone with a couple different methods, we’ve joined CSA’s and gleaned from community gardens, but otherwise by and large we shopped at Aldi. My goal is and has been to find a healthy balance between affordability and nutritional value. But, now I’m trying to do what’s best for the kiddo too. So, Does it really matter what we eat?
When it comes to food it seems that there are those that are overly paranoid and those that don’t care at all. I’d like to find a place some where in between those two extremes. I’ll be honest though, I’m not exactly sure where to start. The only thing I’ve found so far that gives specifics on what foods to stat on is an article from Dr. Greene of 10 food items to buy organic. I’ll start there. Here’s the list:
- Milk
- Potatoes
- Peanut Butter
- Baby Food
- Catsup
- Cotton
- Apples
- Beef
- Soy
- Corn
Basically, I plan on buying these items at the Coop that we joined. Cotton is a tough one because as the article explains, cotton seed is in a lot of different food items, so I’ll learn about it as I go. I don’t want to simply switch and buy all of my groceries at the Coop, because I don’t see that as an affordable option for me or an available option for the community at large. I want to live on a food budget that can be an example to others of an option that keeps in mind important issues of nutrition, fair trade and sustainability, but is also affordable to the general population.
The journey begins. Any advice?
I found that making our own baby food was a great experience. It adds very little to your grocery budget because you are eating anyway. And I enjoyed it because I felt I was still contributing as much as when I breastfed exclusively.
We bought commercial baby food with our first and she is just as healthy as ever. I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I do know it gets really expensive.
There is much more to food than simply sustaining life. there are many learning experiences during mealtimes and tryng new foods. Best of luck as your explore a new world with your daughter!
The environmental working group has produce listed in order of worst to best based on pesticide levels.
http://www.foodnews.org/
Also, any animal products should be at the top of the list because they concentrate toxins in their fat and then you eat it. Of course organic animals are also exposed to the environment so lower fat options will have less pesticide buildup.
Bananas and avocado are two great first foods that are also low in pesticides so you could still get them at Aldi, unless you are wanting to get fair trade bananas.
We also made our own baby food which is cheap and easier to do organic. I didn’t start my first on solids until she was 7 months and she didn’t really start eating much of anything until 9 months. My second was ready when we started at 6 months. So if the baby doesn’t seem really interested, don’t sweat it and just keep up with the breastfeeding.
If you have room in your yard, grow a garden and plant an apple tree.
I would say read the labels…don’t buy anything with MSG (monosodium glutamate), any sugar substitute, anything that says “modified” (this means its genetically modified), or high fructose corn syrup. And you probably know that I will also say not to give your kid fluoridated water. 🙂 I would also not give my kid multi-dose vaccines. You can request single dose vaccines and these are supposed to not contain the preservative ‘thymerasol’, which is the mercury. I would make sure it does not contain the thymerasol even before giving my kid…if I had a kid…a single-dose vaccination.
Also, there is a great book out there for making your own baby food. It’s called “Feed Me, I’m Yours.”
Good luck!
Modified does not mean genetically modified. The only way to tell with something premade is to buy organic. Occasionally something non-organic will be label GMO free. For produce, look at the PLU code on the sticker, bag or display. If it starts with an 8 and has 5 numbers it is genetically modified. If it has only 4 numbers, it is not.
As for single dose vaccines, what Connie means is that vaccines with each dose stored in its own container (single use) doesn’t have thimerisol (mercury) (or only trace amounts) because thimerisol is a preservative used in multi-dose vials. All but trace amounts of thimerisol has been eliminated from most childhood vaccines with the notable exception of the flu vaccine (some have it some don’t) You can ask your doctor to read the package insert and they are also available on the pharmaceutical companies websites. Some people choose to get vaccines one at a time and/or split up vaccines that are made to vaccinate against multiple illnesses. If you do the latter, keep in mind that some of these vaccines do still contain thimerisol (like tetanus and diptheria without pertussis, for example).