Feeding the Baby

One would think that after five babies, I would have the feeding thing down.  Um, no.  I hate feeding them.  It is so messy and smelly and takes so long to clean up.  I put off starting solids because I dread having to deal with the mess the American Academy of Pediatrics says that I should only start introducing solids at six months of age and continue to nurse until he is a year old, and longer if I want!

"My favorite food is cottage cheese, but I'm not supposed to eat it for another two months."

I also hate highchairs.  My kids always seem to climb out of them.  Today I found D hanging off the edge of the counter...again.  Did I mention the highchair get so messy that I have to clean them after every meal (but I don't)?  And highchairs have lots of little cracks where food disappears.  Those highchairs may look cute with their soft little fabric covers, but you have to take them off and wash them after every meal unless you want moldy things crawling on your baby's legs!  I would never suggest letting your dog take care of clean up either, no matter how many times you hear a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's.  That is just gross.  And you have to wash the baby's clothes and change his diaper and give him a bath after every meal too (bathing babies is the other thing I don't like to do)!  Like I have time for all that.

My favorite way to feed them is to take a bunch of food, puree it in my Vitamix, and put it all in a sippy cup.  I haven't bought commercial baby food since IJ was a baby!  But look what I discovered today:

HappyBaby Food Pouches!  Wow!  It's like astronaut food for babies!  Imagine a Capri Sun drink pouch crossed with a toothpaste tube and you have the HappyBaby food pouch.  For the low, low (whatever) price of $.89, I bought a pouch of spinach, mango, and pear puree.  Who cares if I can buy a whole pound of spinach for $.89!  When I got to the YMCA, I popped the top and gave it to D.  He sucked it down, just like he was eating toothpaste!  I felt so guilty and...wasteful buying this product.  There sure was a lot of packaging going straight into the garbage for such a tiny bit of food.  But he was so happy!  And clean!  You can even buy a spoon attachment to screw on to the tip.  Sometimes I wish I had no problem consuming and dumping hundreds of pounds of plastic byproducts into the landfill every year.  But I do.

But anyway, when we got home from the YMCA, I had a herd of hungry, hungry kids on my hands.  Thank goodness I put dinner in the crock pot before I left!  D would NOT SIT in his highchair and kept fussing and whining and climbing out... I watched him for awhile and saw he was mainly frustrated because he was trying to eat, but the food kept falling out of his hands and on to his lap.  I pulled him out, sat down on the floor with him, and let him climb all over my lap while I fed him spoonful after spoonful of shredded pork, cottage cheese, peas, and noodles.  Dinner was all over me instead of all over him.

Now I know what my next sewing project will be: baby feeding clothes.  Instead of washing the highchair after every meal, I will change my head-to-toe apron and let the dog lick the floor clean.  The highchair can go to the dump Goodwill!