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[shipwright]

quick NYT link + commentary, while waiting for a culture to come to time ('cause I just couldn't resist):

A New Tasting Menu in the Baby SectionIs it just me, or does it seem sort of silly (well, really silly) to shell out very large amounts of money to, basically, feed your baby what you (its parent) eat? Isn't that what, you know, food

Comments

[kid_prufrock]

My first response to that article, and the reason it gives me such great joy, has generally been that it doesn't seem prima facie as though the baby is the one who is doing the eating.

[shipwright]

Looking at urbanbaby.com, I am mystified by the degree to which some babies become extensions of their mothers' own style as a consumer. Will the $500 designer baby carriage really do a better job than the more frugal model? Will the baby notice? Does the baby care? It follows, I suppose, that this sort of thing would occur (mom always selects the very best for herself, wants very best for her child: "She simply refuses to eat strained peas from a jar!"), but, like weddings, there's an industry to be built there, and many, many lucrative niches to fill.

(but do you know what?)

(the filling of lucrative niches makes the Baby Jesus cry tears of bitter shame into his organic fruit-studded rice pudding.)

[rebeccapaul]

Actually, I believe you need a food processor and then a ricer/strainer to get any remaining bits out.

But the convenience of sometimes just breaking out a jar is appealing. Of course, it need not be a jar of risotto.

[shipwright]

Ah, that does make sense, with the ricer/strainer (strained peas, after all!).

And I'm all for jarred baby food; it seems indispensable, especially when traveling (and hey, I was raised on it and turned out perfectly healthy). But the argument for the super-fancy frozen delivered baby food seems to be that it is good to give babies and toddlers more variety in terms of what they eat - a menu that is similar to what mum and dad are having. I think this is a great idea too - but if mum and dad are already having asparagus risotto (and similar delicious things), why are they paying someone to deliver it to them in the strained form? Just seems silly.

But to each his own: I thought it was particularly interesting to read about the mother who says that, while she and her husband don't eat all-organic food, they make sure that their young children do. It makes sense; people want to give their kids a good start, even if time/convenience don't permit them to eat a similar diet themselves.