Thursday, January 17, 2013

The Beauty of Whole Food Through a Child

I just took a sweet potato out of the oven that was baking for an hour. No oils, no salt or pepper, no spices or herbs, just a plain sweet potato pierced with a fork a few times, baking away. I was making it for my little guy's lunch and just tore off the skin and tasted it. Wow. I forgot how delicious a plain sweet potato could be! This also reminds me of how grounding and life-giving whole food is and how this is such an amazing time in establishing for Owen, how good, real food really is. This is when it starts -- healthy food habits for life. I know there will be bumps along the way and that even my naturopathic baby may not like kale and quinoa -- but I am excited to see Owen's discovery of all tastes and textures. His introduction to food was very different than mine. My mom has told me countless times that she started food with me at 4 months at the advice of the pediatrician because I had horrible reflux. I wanted no part of plain old fruits and veggies and so she was busy pureeing beef stews, and perogies and anything else they were eating that day for dinner! Our little guy was probably ready a month ago for food. Sitting up, intrigued with us eating, watching our every move at the dinner table, and his tongue thrust reflex (prevents him from choking) disappeared. However he had some eczema so I was determined to find out what food I was eating that was affecting him before we started introducing anything. So 3 weeks ago we started a cleanse. Less a cleanse for me as I'm breastfeeding, but more of an elimination diet with a careful reintroduction of foods. Owen's eczema disappeared within 3 days of starting..... sure enough my suspicion was right - eggs were the culprit!! I had been eating a lot of eggs as they were such an easy and healthy protein for me and I love our weekend brunches out filled with eggs. I also was planning on introducing egg yolk as one of his first foods so I'm glad I figured that out beforehand. So what have I introduced thus far for Owen? Well we've done butternut squash, pears, parsnips, banana, and today will be day one of sweet potato! It's so amazing to see the discovery in his eyes and here's hoping that he continues to love food and appreciate the beauty of whole food.