feeding the baby

To all of you who follow my blog and have already heard this rant in person, I'm sorry. I have been talking and talking about this over the last few days but still have not figured out how to tackle the problem.

Jude is a great eater. From the time he started noticing the world he focused on our food and meal time, watching everything Chris and I placed in our mouths. I remember him staring intently into a bowl of raspberries and cream, anxious to be big enough that he could try such deliciousness.

We had a few hiccups with starting solids - I wasn't super consistent with it at six months, preferring to nurse and really only starting new foods occasionally to see what he enjoyed. And then so many foods aggravated his belly and we'd have nights full of gas, cramps and restlessness. So with doctor's approval, we stopped until he was seven months and we'd returned from the Bahamas.

Then it was magic - his digestive system was so much more mature and he was interested in whatever we fed him. Also being bigger he didn't need to have such thin purees and we fed him thicker, chunkier homemade foods. Although we initially started with rice cereal (as recommended) I had my doubts that filling his belly with grains was the best nutrition he could get and we quickly put that behind us, feeding him off the table or altered portions of whatever Mom and Dad were eating.

So I restate - Jude is a great eater! He eats beef, chicken, egg yolks, bread, cereals, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, fruit, veggies, ... Yes I've exaggerated how wonderful each of these foods are and yes I've made silly faces and demonstrated "chew chew chew and swallow" more times than I can count, but all that hard work has paid off. He's not picky, he smiles and giggles at the table, he clearly shows when he wants water and when he's done and he loves trying new things.

But soon we are coming to a time when I can't control everything he eats. I'm returning to work in less than 2 months, at which point I'll be gone a minimum of 3.5 days at a time. I have no worries about Chris feeding him whatsoever as we are both on the same page but there will be times when he'll be staying with his grandparents, aunts and uncles or friends while Chris works a shift. I've always expected any caregiver to be respectful of our choices in what to feed him - we'll likely send meals along for him so there's no guesswork involved.

Now, I will preface this by saying that I always knew that my mother-in-law would have opinions and really push the envelope when it came to caring for the baby. She has a strong personality, has raised three kids and believes she knows best in every situation imaginable. I had watched her ply her other grandkids with treats every time they came to visit, circumventing the parent's attempts to stop her and always trying to get away with a little more. I fully expected a battle when it came to food, although I guess I always thought she would at least feed him his meal before capping it off with junk food.

At the zoo last Saturday for my nephew's birthday party, Nanny decided (halfway through me feeding him a healthy lunch) to shove cupcake into my nine-month old's mouth while my head was turned. And proceeded to do it twice more. Now of course, said nine-month old had no interest in continuing his meal after getting a taste of sugar. Was that necessary? Did she ask whether it was alright? Of course not. Aside from the fact that I don't want my son eating sugar and spurning the good, healthy food he currently loves in favor of processed junky crap, she had no idea what ingredients were in that cupcake and whether he would have a reaction to any of it. Later on I intercepted a bottle of Gatorade that she was attempting to feed him. Great.

So now I have to have the conversation with her. I know there is no reasoning and explaining because she can do no wrong, and I think it will come down to an ultimatum that unless we know what she is feeding him, we won't bring him over unless one of us is present. God that sucks to have to do that but I don't see any way around it. She so badly wants to feed him whatever she wants that I wouldn't put it past her to throw out the food we bring over and give him junk without telling us.

"Don't feed me junk Nanny! I need good food to grow up big and strong"


On a side note, we met another baby Jude at the kiddie pool today :) Mine was cuter ;)