Friday, September 6, 2013

On Feeding Parker

So my baby girl is, as of yesterday, a year and a half! She's getting sooooo big and I can't believe where the time has gone! Just yesterday she was still nursing...well, it was literally almost yesterday but I'll get to that in a few. 

I've never been a super health nut but I've always maintained a balanced diet. It is definitely the doing of my mother who cooked everyday and made sure all the food groups were present...including dessert :). So even as I made my way through the broke college life, I still drank plenty of water and made sure I had something like a vegetable at least every other day. When I found out I was pregnant during my senior year, I knew I needed to adopt a healthier diet (especially since I threw up my prenatal vitamins). I also knew that I didn't want to be the pregnant woman that gains like 80 lbs and have a hard time losing it...no offense mamas! Anyway, this began my journey of feeding who came to be my daughter Parker...

So like I said, I'm not a health nut and I have an extreme sweet tooth so I probably eat more sweets than the average bear. During pregnancy I craved pop which I never drank before, literally I had probably only had pop a handful of times since high school and when I did it was Sprite/Sierra Mist. When I was pregnant I craved the strong stuff...helloooo Coke :). Besides the coke and my Wendy's fully loaded baked potato fetish, I snacked rather healthy. I love oatmeal so I'd eat it multiple times a day (thanks McDs), I also snacked on apple slices. Omg, best food ever! I'd eat a whole family sized bag every day. I also ate lots of green things because those have always been my favorite veggies anyway. It's not that hard to eat good while pregnant, you're hungry all the time anyway just make sure something green goes into the stuff you shove in your mouth. I had Parker at a healthy 6 lbs, 3.4 oz. (Btw I gained 30 lbs during my pregnancy.)

I made one of the most important decisions, what to first feed my baby girl...I chose breast milk. I'm sure you're all aware of the health benefits of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding has been linked to reduction in allergies, obesity, childhood illnesses, etc etc etc. Now this is not to say I necessarily believe every thing claimed to be a benefit of breastfeeding (*cough* obesity reduction *cough*) but it does help the immune system. Breast milk contains antibodies that fight off disease. Grown people have been exposed to lots of germs so we have lots of immunity to everyday things, babies are new so they don't. Mothers can pass their immunity to their children through breast milk. [Disclaimer: I'm not saying breast milk makes babies immortal, your child can still get sick. Note you also can't pass on immunity to things you aren't immune to.] According to the CDC and WHO, the longer you supply your kid with breast milk the (for lack of a better word) healthier they'll be. So I breastfed Parker for 14 months. (If you're curious, so far Parker has had 1 ear infection and 1 cold, other running noses/fevers were due to teething.)    

Solid food has been the hardest part of deciding what to feed my baby. At 6 months, I started giving her baby food...the normal stuff: sweet potatoes, bananas, oatmeal, apples (which she's allergic to), green beans, etc. She enjoyed most of it except squash and peas...I don't blame her. On her first Thanksgiving, she was 9 months so we gave her table food and she never turned back. This is where I have spent the most time monitoring what she eats. My family thinks it's because I don't want her to be fat, which is true but I'm less worried about obesity at this age (not that it can't happen). I'm more concerned about if what goes into her body is going to sustain an active toddler's lifestyle. I don't avoid fat, she needs fat for her brain growth...I just avoid unnecessary, unhealthy fats. I'll list some of the things she's never had and some of her favorite snacks.

She's never had: pop, juice (maybe 4 times watered down), candy, sugary cereal or Cheetos. She occasionally has cake (mainly on birthdays), ice cream (see aforementioned), chips (my mom and Parker's dad are serious chip eaters, they've given her some to my chagrin) and popsicles.

I've traded some of the yucky snacks for healthier options: 

- Frozen yogurt instead of ice cream (still occasional). 
- Fruit! My daughter LOVES fruit. Her dad will go to the store and buy a bunch of fruit, he'll make a big fruit salad and it'll be our snack for the week. I don't limit how much fruit she eats...except close to dinner time or the really acidic ones (tooth health). He makes sure to cut everything into baby friendly pieces.
- Frozen blueberries. I buy fresh blueberries, wash them and put them in the freezer...it makes for a healthy snack and some relief for swollen teething gums. Keep this one in the arsenal mamas, Parker goes crazy for them!
- Yogurt. She looovesss yogurt. She could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let her. I make sure to buy whole milk yogurt, not the fat free stuff again she needs the fat for brain growth and development. She eats fruit and/or granola in her yogurt. Watch out for the sugars though...some have more sugar than candy bars!
- Granola. Get the raw stuff not the sugar covered stuff.
- Peanut butter crackers. Ok, these aren't the healthiest but there are worse snacks. Really the bad thing is the salt covered crackers, not the peanut butter but you have to take some bad with the good right?
- Fruit thins instead of crackers. If you haven't heard of them they're new. They're basically whole wheat crackers with dried fruit bits in them! The blueberry ones are great!
- Yogurt filled crackers. These are new too...exactly what they sound like. Yogurt sandwiched between graham crackers. We don't do these often either because of the sugar content but it's an option.
- Babybel cheese. Good source of good fat and dairy. Parker gave up drinking milk when it stopped coming from the tap (lol) so I have to find other ways to get dairy in her. They're just the right size for little toddler hands too!
- And the biggest one: WATER! That's all Parker drinks since she gave up milk. Babies don't NEED juice. My family has the hardest time accepting this, I'm not sure why people think of juice as a kid food...? I've heard of so many grown people who don't like water, you know why? Because you know there are other options out there, Parker doesn't. I believe strongly in education but the longer I keep her in the dark about juice and pop the longer she'll love her sippy cup of water ;)    

These are just the snacks, obviously meals are also monitored. Mainly in preparation..watch how you prepare your foods, swap out your Cisco for some olive oil and your white rice for brown rice...it tastes the same. Pan grill instead of frying, try white wine sauces instead of gravies. Parents or parents to be I urge you when you have your children to ask yourself this question "Does a baby/toddler/child/person need that?". If the only answer you can come up with is "it tastes good" you should probably rethink the decision because once you start, it's hard to go back. Also, you don't have to eat all organic things to be healthy. Healthy kids are good kids :) 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

"Piece of paper"

We've all heard people say this in regards to two things really: degrees and marriage. Some of you have said it yourself. I'm going to tell you why these words piss me the hell off.

"Piece of paper": Degree.

So often people attempt to belittle degrees as pieces of paper. They throw around names like Bill Gates, who dropped out of college or Mark Z or whoever. There is a major flaw in this logic................................you are not Bill Gates. I know, it seems almost mundane to mention but I think people need that wake up call. Gates is one of the most brilliant minds in the world, chances are you are not. He also has a great respect for education, hence why he pays for thousands of students to attend university. For those of you who don't know, which if you've ever mentioned him during this "piece of paper" debate you probably don't know...Gates himself mentioned how it was timing that caused him to drop out of school. A huge part of success is your market entry point and he knew to be successful and ride that impending dotcom bubble he had to act at that moment, tis why he left Harvard to start his company. Oh yea, not to mention he was at Harvard to begin with so that says a lot in itself...and his parents were very well off so these are all reasons he differs from the average person and is not good for this argument.

Now that we understand why Bill Gates isn't a good argument for this "piece of paper" debate, let's talk about this piece of paper. My (as is everyone else's) piece of paper is a representation of what's in my brain. Could I have mastered chemical engineering without studying it in school? Maybe, books are available to everyone. The likelihood that someone without a chemical engineering degree (or 100 years of experience) is more versed in chemical engineering than me? Slim to none. That's the point of this "piece of paper". It proves to anyone upon glancing that one knows more in a certain subject than the layman. It's the reason you go to a licensed doctor for surgery instead of yo patna' nem. Because of that piece of paper you trust a (wo)man you've probably never met to cut you open. So yes, I hang my piece of paper in an expensive frame in my dining room because I worked 4.5 long years for the knowledge that that paper represents.

This is not to say a degree is the only way to success or that money is success. However, in this day and age a degree greatly increases your chances of feeding yourself. Our children will have it even worse so don't downplay education for them...what was once considered a luxury will be a necessity for survival for the next generation. I measure success in a lot of ways...family, spiritual life, the good you've done for the world, monetarily is last. Statistics even lean toward people with degrees having a higher marriage rate...which makes sense because college is a great place to meet a potential mate. I know dozens of newlyweds or newly engaged classmates. It appears that piece of paper could be helpful in more ways than one in life.

"Piece of paper": Marriage.

I've heard people say they don't need that "piece of paper" or "piece of jewelry" to know they are loved or whatever. I think this is something people say to make themselves feel better. It's usually only women that say it too...well that say it publically, probably because their boyfriends have told them that privately ha! Now, I'm not married so I'm speaking as an outsider but it seems utterly disrespectful to the institute of marriage to reduce it to a piece of paper or a piece of jewelry. If you are religious, or at least believe in a god you know that marriage is more than a piece of paper. It's a uniting before God...one soul, inhabiting two bodies. In most religious dominations it's one of the single most important things you can do...besides having faith. Marriage allows you to reproduce favorably in God's eyes, it allows you to multiple your love and travel through this life sharing God with another person.

If you're not religious, in this country being married offers you a lot of advantages and responsibilities. In the eyes of the law, you literally become one...all your assets merge, even if you don't put the other's name on your bank account if push came to shove they can still access it because they're your spouse. You are giving a person full rights to your estate and your last breath if it comes to it. Not to mention, fiscally marriage makes sense. One rent/mortgage, one insurance, one set of bills, etc. My boyfriend and I live together and it's much more expensive for us both to pay separate health insurance than it would be to have a family plan. There are all types of other little discounts I'm probably unaware of that come with being married, haha.  That piece of paper might save you some paper!

Lastly, for the pure vanity of the situation. Even wild animals like to mark their territory, we have those same urges (minus the piss please). I've heard stories of atheists saying once they were married, it "just felt different" than when they were dating. There's something truly special about confessing before your friends, family and the world that you want to be with another person for the rest of your life. It garners respect kinda in the same way I mentioned having a baby does. I'm a young person in the professional world so no one expects for me to be married (which I'm not), but I know how tones change around people that are. Older people find it pleasantly surprising and a camaraderie is born. There's something vulnerable about a man giving a woman access to his checkbook and monogamy, women like that. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's just a piece of paper because you know it means more.

These two things aren't all life is about, I hope that's not how this post came across. They are however, important parts of life and should not be minimized to just a "piece of paper".