Hi Abbie!
Thanks for the thoughtful and articulate review of Nourishing Traditions by S. Fallon and M. G. Enig in your last post. The book had caught my eye in Saveur's top 100 issue as well, and after reading what you and other online reviewers had to say, I'm happy to skip this one! Although I'm sure the book had its pros, I agree with you; in this day and age, I find it irresponsible to recommend things like raw milk to infants if there are other options available. And you're so right - "There must be a way to preserve varied regional practices and avoid converging on a monolithic new "tradition" of Gerber," while hopefully avoiding the "cultural reductionism" employed by these and many other authors when examining different global traditions. This gets to the heart of what we are trying to explore with this blog; it is an issue that comes up routinely and one that you'll see rear its ugly head for me later in this post.
One new challenge my husband and I are facing with our nearly seven month-old is his overwhelming preference for solid food over his soy formula. We realize that breast milk (or formula) remains the most important part of a baby's diet until twelve months of age or more and that it provides an indispensable source of protein and fat, among other things. Our son is getting "enough" formula, but I want to supplement the good fats and proteins he's ingesting with his solid food. Until recently, American mothers were encouraged to hold off on meat until nine months or a year. One pamphlet I received at our local Women's Center cautioned to hold off on fish (not just shellfish) until 3 years! In general, however, the trend now seems to be more flexible - meat and fish as early as 6 months.
In Canada, meat is commonly among the first foods a baby is given, because the iron in meat is much more bio-available than that in fortified baby formula or cereals. (I know many breast fed babies receive supplemental iron, in vitamins or fortified cereals, but this has never really sat well with me; I would think that after hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, breast milk would pretty well cover all of the bases...but, I digress). One thing that I read over and over is that too much protein at once can be hard for little baby kidneys to process. A small amount of protein served in conjunction with other foods at each meal rather than one huge serving seems to be the way to go (probably true for all of us!).
One reason it has taken me so long to post this entry is that I kept hoping to magically uncover information from different regions of the world about first/early proteins fed to babies. I wanted actual recipes from firsthand accounts, not just "second-hand reports of the aforementioned "African native" or the "sturdy Alpine" ancestor" as you wryly put it in your last post in reference to Nourishing Traditions. I don't want the generic, stereotypical, and in many cases probably inaccurate list: China = tofu and fish, India = lentils and chick peas, etc. However, unsurprisingly, it does appear from my limited research that if and when babies are fed supplemental proteins, they are given small amounts of whatever proteins are common in the adult cuisine of the region. One near-universal seems to be the avoidance of too much grease or animal fat.
Alas, I have very little new information to report. In an interview with my friend from Nicaragua, beans, eggs, and meat broths came up as "more advanced foods" for babies. He also mentioned pork as a taboo food for young children, as it is "difficult to digest." I have already posted my friend Sandra's recipe for kichri, which calls for yellow lentils, in an early post (see 'An Indian Perspective'). My Taiwanese mother-in-law and her sisters served their babies tofu poached in chicken, beef, or fish broth. Other early selections included steamed "softer" fish (i.e. white river fish, not tuna steaks) and poached eggs.
I know there are concerns about introducing egg whites to young babies because of the potential for allergic reactions, but we started egg yolk this week. I just hard boiled it and mashed it with a little water. He loved it! I have found "recipes" online for scrambled egg yolk, which I think would be too dry for him at his age. We've also started salmon - baked and pureed with some water - plus, chicken and avocado. We're gearing up for tofu, beans, and more meats and fish. My investigations into hummus for babies revealed sesame seeds to be the 9th most common food allergy in the world. It is easy enough to prepare hummus without the tahini if one is concerned about this.
I would love to hear what kinds of proteins you started out with for your son and how you prepared them. Also, if you have come across some interesting recipes or traditions in your research related to early proteins/fats. I will keep looking and share more when I find it.
Hope all is well there!
Love,
Marjorie
Thanks for the thoughtful and articulate review of Nourishing Traditions by S. Fallon and M. G. Enig in your last post. The book had caught my eye in Saveur's top 100 issue as well, and after reading what you and other online reviewers had to say, I'm happy to skip this one! Although I'm sure the book had its pros, I agree with you; in this day and age, I find it irresponsible to recommend things like raw milk to infants if there are other options available. And you're so right - "There must be a way to preserve varied regional practices and avoid converging on a monolithic new "tradition" of Gerber," while hopefully avoiding the "cultural reductionism" employed by these and many other authors when examining different global traditions. This gets to the heart of what we are trying to explore with this blog; it is an issue that comes up routinely and one that you'll see rear its ugly head for me later in this post.
One new challenge my husband and I are facing with our nearly seven month-old is his overwhelming preference for solid food over his soy formula. We realize that breast milk (or formula) remains the most important part of a baby's diet until twelve months of age or more and that it provides an indispensable source of protein and fat, among other things. Our son is getting "enough" formula, but I want to supplement the good fats and proteins he's ingesting with his solid food. Until recently, American mothers were encouraged to hold off on meat until nine months or a year. One pamphlet I received at our local Women's Center cautioned to hold off on fish (not just shellfish) until 3 years! In general, however, the trend now seems to be more flexible - meat and fish as early as 6 months.
In Canada, meat is commonly among the first foods a baby is given, because the iron in meat is much more bio-available than that in fortified baby formula or cereals. (I know many breast fed babies receive supplemental iron, in vitamins or fortified cereals, but this has never really sat well with me; I would think that after hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, breast milk would pretty well cover all of the bases...but, I digress). One thing that I read over and over is that too much protein at once can be hard for little baby kidneys to process. A small amount of protein served in conjunction with other foods at each meal rather than one huge serving seems to be the way to go (probably true for all of us!).
One reason it has taken me so long to post this entry is that I kept hoping to magically uncover information from different regions of the world about first/early proteins fed to babies. I wanted actual recipes from firsthand accounts, not just "second-hand reports of the aforementioned "African native" or the "sturdy Alpine" ancestor" as you wryly put it in your last post in reference to Nourishing Traditions. I don't want the generic, stereotypical, and in many cases probably inaccurate list: China = tofu and fish, India = lentils and chick peas, etc. However, unsurprisingly, it does appear from my limited research that if and when babies are fed supplemental proteins, they are given small amounts of whatever proteins are common in the adult cuisine of the region. One near-universal seems to be the avoidance of too much grease or animal fat.
Alas, I have very little new information to report. In an interview with my friend from Nicaragua, beans, eggs, and meat broths came up as "more advanced foods" for babies. He also mentioned pork as a taboo food for young children, as it is "difficult to digest." I have already posted my friend Sandra's recipe for kichri, which calls for yellow lentils, in an early post (see 'An Indian Perspective'). My Taiwanese mother-in-law and her sisters served their babies tofu poached in chicken, beef, or fish broth. Other early selections included steamed "softer" fish (i.e. white river fish, not tuna steaks) and poached eggs.
I know there are concerns about introducing egg whites to young babies because of the potential for allergic reactions, but we started egg yolk this week. I just hard boiled it and mashed it with a little water. He loved it! I have found "recipes" online for scrambled egg yolk, which I think would be too dry for him at his age. We've also started salmon - baked and pureed with some water - plus, chicken and avocado. We're gearing up for tofu, beans, and more meats and fish. My investigations into hummus for babies revealed sesame seeds to be the 9th most common food allergy in the world. It is easy enough to prepare hummus without the tahini if one is concerned about this.
I would love to hear what kinds of proteins you started out with for your son and how you prepared them. Also, if you have come across some interesting recipes or traditions in your research related to early proteins/fats. I will keep looking and share more when I find it.
Hope all is well there!
Love,
Marjorie
No comments:
Post a Comment