The new thing is gourmet, local, organic baby food.

First I read this in the P-I (Locally made baby foods becoming big business, 7/19/06):

> Not satisfied with the quality of the usual grocery-store baby products, parents-turned-entrepreneurs have taken their desire to feed their children unadulterated foods made from the freshest locally sourced ingredients and turned it into a micro-industry.

> Across the country, several regional companies–including Sprouts Baby Food and TotPots in Seattle–have established themselves in the past couple of years as an alternative for food-conscious parents.

> The foods these companies produce generally contain no preservatives, sugars, salt, artificial colors or starchy fillers that many national brands depend on. They are fresh products that must be stored in the refrigerator–and used within several days–or frozen.

Then, yesterday, the New York Times discovered the same phenomenon (A New Tasting Menu in the Baby Section, 8/2/06):

> For years baby food changed little. Now there has been a growth spurt of alternatives, from single-ingredient purées to complete toddler meals in designer packages. Most can be found in the frozen-food section of supermarkets, like Whole Foods, which has freezers dedicated to baby food in some of its stores.

> These baby food start-ups, mostly the brainchildren of parents who searched in vain for alternatives to jarred food, address the way parents’ dietary concerns are magnified by a highchair. The new baby foods are all organic, and they are sold fresh or frozen, not in shelf-stable jars, which, Ms. Kiene said, “are often older than the baby you’re feeding them to.”

I think of myself as more understanding than the average person of the demands placed on parents in today’s fast-paced world. And if you think that sounds like the sort of thing someone would say before handing out a generalized smackdown, you’re right. I was all set to launch into a rant, but then I figured I’d gather some data first.

So I asked a couple of friends with kids (hi, Mark, [Stephen](http://www.granades.com/), and Duchess!) who did use (or continue to use) jarred food. Why? I asked. They gave me the same answer, and it wasn’t the one I expected. (I expected to hear more about time constraints, babysitters, and so on.)

All indicated that their primary concern was that they weren’t sure their babies would get an adequate and balanced diet on grownup food. “I wasn’t sure how he’d take to e.g. curry,” added Stephen. “I think when you boil it down, it comes down to convenience: getting the jars is as easy as getting other food in our grocery store, and require no additional preparation.”

Sure, I can understand that. But it does require additional money.

The especially puzzling thing about the New York Times article is that it seems to be saying that the new baby foods are, in their flavor combinations and textures, more like adult food. If that’s the case, aren’t you already buying adult food that you could just share with your baby?

I don’t see this as a nutrition issue. A baby can easily get an adequate diet on traditional jarred baby food, fancy baby food, or mashed grownup food. Babies from seven to twelve months tend not to be picky eaters, especially when it comes to flavor. Curry is a *perfect* food for a baby of this age, because it’s interesting but soft.

For some families, jarred food is necessary. If you travel a lot with your baby or you live on take-out, I can see relying on the jar. When we lived in New York, we had a tiny kitchen and ate take-out for a majority of our meals. If we’d had Iris there, we probably would have bought jars, and maybe even the fancy stuff if it had been available.

For most families, however, I think jarred food is entirely superfluous, possibly because one of these things is going on:

1. You’ve started your baby on solids too early, and therefore the baby can’t handle anything with any texture. Four months, the recommendation of many pediatricians, is too early. For most babies, five months is too early. Don’t take my word for this. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding until six months. Ellyn Satter, considered the nation’s foremost authority on infant feeding (she’s first in the rolodex of all the parenting magazines) recommends starting solids between five and seven months, when the baby can sit up unassisted and seems interested in what you’re eating. We started Iris right after she turned seven months.

2. You’ve gotten lazy advice from your pediatrician, who assumes that everyone other than hippies uses jarred food, and hippies use hippie jarred food. If your pediatrician is talking “stage 1” and “stage 2” food, that is baby food industry talk.

3. You think your own diet is inadequate and would like to start your child on a path to good eating from day one. This strategy will, of course, fall apart in a matter of months. While you’re at it, try training your kids to only like good music.

Let me make something clear. We didn’t feed Iris mashed grownup food because we were trying to make a point. We did so because somehow we missed anyone recommending anything else, and because it was cheaper and more convenient than the alternative. We did sometimes rely on canned food, especially black beans and sweet potatoes. And some grownup foods don’t translate well, so they were uninvited from our dinner table for a long time. Non-tender meats are no fun to chew without teeth no matter how fine you chop them. But plenty of delicious things are great for eaters of all ages:

* enchiladas
* stews (regular beef stew, but also chicken paprikas, beef rendang, carnitas, Indian and Thai curries)
* tofu
* ground meat (larb!)
* peas
* eggs
* mushrooms
* lasagna
* spinach
* sweet potatoes (especially mashed fresh sweet potatoes)
* beans
* oatmeal
* dozens of other things that aren’t leaping to mind

Iris was eating all of these things by the time she was nine months old. On New Year’s Eve 2004, the day after her first birthday, she put away a stunning amount of cassoulet–not just the beans, but plenty of duck confit and garlic sausage, too. She had two teeth. Fancy baby food is fine, certainly preferable to the old gray stuff. But why buy it, any more than you’d buy specially packaged teen food? And if you’re not eating as many vegetables as you’d like or stop for fast food more often that you want to admit, isn’t having a baby the perfect excuse to make a few changes?

Yeah, I know: guy has one measly kid and thinks he’s Dr. Spock.