Baby Refusing Gerber

[newyearspromise]

My daughter will be 9 months old next week.

We started her on solids at 7 months. We held off as long as possible because she was satisfied with only mommy-milk until she was about 7 months.

We have given her Gerber organic baby food since we started the solids. I started the 30 day challenge this week, though, and have given her some tastes of things.

Now she refuses the Gerber. For the past 3 days I have had to give up on giving her the Gerber and feed her my raw food...

I am not complaining about her obvious preference for raw food. This is, I know, a GREAT thing. But, I do have a problem...since Friday night she has refused the Gerber food, and I have given her raw instead, but at daycare she MUST eat commercial, factory-sealed food. It is a requirement. We send her to a military-run daycare (my husband and I are both AF officers), and while we don't like this rule about the food, we don't want to take her to another daycare because Viktoriya, the lady who is her provider, is awesome, Felicity loves her, and she speaks Russian to her all day, so she is getting this awesome linguistic advantage (my husband used to be an Army Russian Linguist, so he can speak Russian at home with her, too...).

Basically, what I want to know is, does anyone know of a company that makes organic, raw baby food? Viktoriya can struggle with trying to feed her for the next week or so, but I really don't want to force SAD food on my baby for OBVIOUS reasons... Does canning, by nature of process, make things not raw?

[Revvell]

Uh, yeah, sorry to say. Question is... who made the requirement? Can you get a note from a pediatrician stating that your child cannot eat commercial foods for fear of ummm, say, something in it which may promote allergies? Guess you can't do the religious convictions huh? O.k.! here ya go. Get some Gerbers or some crap; Eliminate the "some crap" ~ put your own foods in the jar. She had a little for breakfast which is why it's not sealed?

Revvell

[Rawkinlocs]

Just a thought...do you have to give the provider UNOPENED cans of baby food?

My mind is saying to puree some bananas, apples (skinned of course), carrots, etc. and put them in the baby food jars whose labels are the same as what you're putting in them! ;) To keep them from turning brown from oxidation, perhaps mix a little lemon juice in with the foods (mainly the apples and bananas)

[lavendarJ]

I agree with what both Rawkinlocs and Revvell said. Children are my first passion in life and I worked in both private and public day care for over 10 years (before decided to attend a university).... I say try puree those bananas and such and put them in the jars. Also, I say take a stand and exert your mommypower..... I just think that is so strange... I worked with parents who had all varieties of requirements when it came to feeding their children. That seems so odd to me that you have to follow some stupid rule and cannot give your baby what she wants all natural food........My mom and I opened a state licensed home day care and what was really nice about it was being able to tailor the childrens curriculum to their individual needs because I believe all children learn different and shouldn't be forced to adhere to one method of learning (stiffles creativity) and we also like being able to be versatile with the menu and tailor to the parents wishes - some of my mommies were vegetarians, some had eating preferences in line with their religion, some only ate organic, some wanted the SAD foods for their children, etc. That makes me angry that you cannot give your child what you want (and what she wants) her to have... I hope and pray that you will post on here soon and tell us that she is getting the good stuff :)

[newyearspromise]

The problem with getting a note from the doctor is that the doctor is also military...

Yes, while I do like my job it is a pain in the rear to deal with medical things and daycare things with the military running them. I could go on and on telling you about stupid rules that we have to follow, but I won't bore you with the details. I'll just leave it with saying that when the government runs everything, a LOT of things are not very intelligent...

Having said that, I am going to pull the whole, "we opened them yesterday" thing on Viktoriya tomorrow and see what happens. My husband agreed that this is better than Felicity starving all day, and maybe we can just start **lying** (I hate to call it lying when I am having to lie for the health of my child...it makes it sound like I am sinning or something...when I don't think this really counts...) everyday, like the stuff we give her for the next day is just leftovers from dinner the night before.

I'll let you know how it goes over tomorrow...

You know, I would normally not just roll over and not take a stand on this, but truthfully, I just think I would get nowhere with it, and it would just make it so they would make a new rule that nothing that is opened (aka, "leftovers") can be brought to daycare. That is how it is. Someone tries to get the rules changed, and all of these new, more prohibitive rules are erected.

It's not people trying to be mean, it's just ignorance... They would think she could get sick or something because the food isn't pasteurized or maybe it could grow bacteria in the jar, etc...

Very frustrating...

[newyearspromise]

Oh, just so you know, this is what the daycare contract says:

"Meals:
The Child Development Center will provide all meals, snacks, and drinks for your child. All food will be according to the USDA Food Program. No outside food or drinks will be brought into the CDC. Prior arrangements can be made to bring treats for birthdays and holiday parties. Enough formula or breastmilk must be provided by parents for the time daycare is provided daily. Baby formula must be in factory-sealed, un-opened containers. All bottles must be labled with the child's name."


So she is actually being nice by letting us even bring in our own food, because we insisted on it being organic (which is not what they provide for her to feed the children).

Again, I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. I am tempted to just tell her that I want Felicity on all breastmilk during the day and I'll feed her solids at night, if the opened containers of food doesn't work...

[newyearspromise]

Just an update--

I have pulled the "I opened them for her breakfast this morning" thing both yesterday and today. Worked just fine. Viktoriya doesn't seem concerned or confused by that reason for the jars being opened.

So baby girl has gone raw...but is gaining weight and on a growth spurt. I am not concerned. She is still getting milk from me, though. I need to read up on nutrition for children. I ordered the 10 ebooks from Strom and Jinjee, and one is on nutrition for children, so that will be a real bible for me for the near future.

I am really loving being raw!

[lavendarJ]

Happy to hear that Newyearspromise....

I hope everything continues to work for you and baby. That's the thing about government jobs...stupid rules and regulations. I worked for the government as a community social worker and was often frustrated with standard procedures...really limited being able to effectively interact with clients versus apply a quick fix solution and treating everyone as a text book case........

[berrienoire]

Just an update--

I have pulled the "I opened them for her breakfast this morning" thing both yesterday and today. Worked just fine. Viktoriya doesn't seem concerned or confused by that reason for the jars being opened.

So baby girl has gone raw...but is gaining weight and on a growth spurt. I am not concerned. She is still getting milk from me, though. I need to read up on nutrition for children. I ordered the 10 ebooks from Strom and Jinjee, and one is on nutrition for children, so that will be a real bible for me for the near future.

I am really loving being raw!

That is so wonderful!! Glad it's working :)