By Angela Smith of RunLikeKale
When my baby turned 6 months, I was so excited to begin giving him solid foods. Being the self-proclaimed foodie that I am, I was ready for my baby to experience all the glorious tastes and textures of food that awaited him. Naturally, I turned to my friend Google to find out how to approach this whole “starting solids” thing, and OH MY WORD!
My findings read like this: ”You should start solids around four months. No, wait until six months so their digestion is best. Food before one is just for fun. Feed them rice cereal. Don’t you DARE feed them rice cereal, it’s all sugar and will ruin their gut. Forever.
Buy them organic purees. Are you kidding me? Do you even know what’s actually in that? Just make your own dang food, Mom, it’s obviously so easy and you have all the time in the world.
Start with mashed up avocados, or sweet potato, or banana. Banana?! No way! Don’t feed your baby fruit for a long ass time or they will only want sweet things and be addicted to sugar for life. And you can say goodbye to the thought of them ever wanting veggies again.
Try mixing a few things together. Umm, slow down there. ONLY feed them one food at a time. You have to test for food sensitivities on every single thing that touches their lips.
Give them nuts early on. Your child could be allergic, so never give them nuts.
Nobody does purees anymore, it’s all about ‘Baby Led Weaning.’ Give your baby big chunks they can pick up by themselves and gnaw on. It’s great for improving fine motor skills. Are you kidding me?! Don’t do Baby Led Weaning or your child will choke and die.”
Dear internet, this is crazy. Calm it down. You’re stressing me out.
Why is it so hard to do anything right these days? I might not have learned how to start feeding my baby, but I did learn that no matter what I choose to do, I’m doing something wrong. How can there be so many varying opinions and approaches to one simple subject?
I shouldn’t have been surprised. There seems to be controversy around all things motherhood. Was there ever a time when being a mom wasn’t like this?
I’m pretty sure that 26 years ago when my mom was feeding me solids, she just grabbed whatever she had in the pantry and fed it to me. No harm, no foul. No judgment from other social media moms, or even better, the people giving opinions that don’t even have kids. She couldn’t “Google” anything that would send her anxiety through the roof. She just trusted what her one pediatrician (not even thinking about consulting ten other ones) said best.
Shockingly, my brothers and I are still alive, healthy, and happy. Can you even fathom a world like that? According to the internet, if she pulled some crap like that today, we apparently would not have survived.
With so much information out there it can feel as if I am doing everything wrong, yet at the same time, because there is so much information out there, it is as if I can do no wrong. At least that is what I have decided to start believing. I mean, surely something I do will be correct in some way, according to some approach…right?
So here’s to always being right while simultaneously always being wrong.
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About the Author
Angela Smith is a new mom trying to navigate this crazy, fun, scary, hilarious, uncharted territory while keeping a tiny human alive and maybe feeding her husband a meal that hasn’t had to be reheated 10 times…maybe. Once upon a time, her blog RunLikeKale used to be all about fantastic nutritious adult recipes and her rigorous running life, back when there was time for all that. Now you’ll find a lot more baby food and incorporating your baby into your workout. Oh how the times have changes. Come hang out with her on Instagram @RunLikeKale and Facebook.