What better time to foster a close and knowledgeable relationship with our food system than while bringing a brand new, wriggling life into the world? Eating locally grown, organic whole foods before, during and after pregnancy is one of the very best ways to get both mama and baby off on a healthy footing.
While mainstream wisdom preaches ad nauseam about the very real negative effects of tobacco and alcohol during pregnancy, there’s little cultural encouragement for pregnant women to eat well. In fact, the idea that pregnant women are at the whims of their hormones and should eat whatever they damn well please is a celebrated part of pregnancy – and the more random the cravings, the more endearing it becomes! Pickles and ice cream, anyone?
In reality, there are many good reasons to eat well during pregnancy, not least of which is a link between good nutrition and a reduced risk of perinatal depression, which can occur during pregnancy and in the year following birth. A review of existing research published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association by University of Calgary researchers showed that nutrient deficiencies before and during pregnancy increase the risk of perinatal depression and that North American diets are typically nutrient deficient. Childbirth guru Ina May Gaskin puts it well: “Eat well. This means eat food. Avoid eating anything that isn’t food, such as preservatives, chemical additives, and anything that nature didn’t produce. Read labels. The same goes for what you drink. If you are addicted to carbonated sweet beverages, swear them off during pregnancy and breastfeeding and drink water.”
Once the tiny human is born, mothers have – through their breast milk – the wonderful opportunity to provide the exact nourishment their infants need through all stages of their early development. Unfortunately, corporations work hard to confuse mothers about the natural human ability to nourish our young, undermining this last best bastion of truly independent food production.
Though it provides token acknowledgement that “breast is best,” the baby food industry is massive and growing. It markets hard to sell us the perception that industrially produced formulas are better than breastfeeding, citing convenience, nutrition and food safety as reasons for women to stay covered up. Corporations undermine women’s ability to breastfeed by doling out free formula samples to complicit hospitals, which hand them out to brand new moms when they’re at their most vulnerable and before they’ve mastered breastfeeding, which can take a good six to eight weeks.
The formula-making industry also mimics breast milk’s naturally evolving nutritional makeup by marketing different formulas for every stage of babyhood. (E.g., “Similac Advance enriched with Omega-3 and Omega-6, the first and only formula with IMMUNOTIDE blend, is designed to support the normal development of your baby’s brain, eyes and immune system.”) But why switch up your formula every few months when breast milk changes daily throughout lactation to adjust for what babies actually need to grow? And despite reports of environmental contaminants in breast milk in some areas of the world, research has shown that the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risks, with breastfed infants showing fewer effects of contaminants than formula-fed infants exposed to similar environments.
Once learned, putting baby to breast anywhere and anytime is arguably much more convenient than taking the time to heat up a bottle of formula. Add to that the recent scares about melamine contamination in formula and the links between formula use and higher rates of diabetes and allergy in children, and breast milk starts to sound tastier and tastier.
Of course, you can’t breastfeed forever. Though the length of time babies are breastfed is mostly cultural, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends breastfeeding exclusively for six months before introducing appropriate complementary foods and continuing to breastfeed for up to two years or beyond.
When the little tyke is ready to start eating some solids, it’s just as important to make sure he or she is getting the best possible food for development. The foods we eat in early life have been shown to affect later rates of allergy and diabetes. Some large-scale studies have shown a 30 per cent or more increase in pediatric type 1 diabetes in children who had short durations of breastfeeding or early introduction of supplemental formula. Other studies have shown that breastfeeding exclusively for longer than five months significantly reduces rates of childhood obesity, as well as asthma and allergy development.
WHO recommends adding additional foods at around six months to increase a child’s nutritional intake, but not to fully replace breast milk. Complementary foods should be wholesome and varied enough to begin to replace the vital elements in breast milk and get the child’s system off to a good start in supporting its own development.
This is also the time when infants develop a taste for new foods. It can take a while for the “strange” taste of broccoli or parsnip to become palatable. Most parents probably understand all too well the challenges of managing picky young eaters, but there are many elements of pickiness that we don’t necessarily understand. For one thing, what tastes good to us is different than what tastes good to a baby, so being knowledgeable about what’s appropriate for young’uns is important. Introducing new foods slowly and one at a time can help identify allergies and provide valuable information about how a baby is responding to new things.
The easiest thing to do is make baby food while preparing the rest of the family’s meals. If you’re cooking carrots, mash some up for the wee one. Or if you’re going to the trouble of prepping carrots for baby, steam some for the rest of the family while you’re at it, increasing everyone’s veg count for the day. What we eat ourselves should be as nutritious as what we feed our kids, so if parental hypocrisy is setting in and you’re demanding that your kids eat spinach while you turn your nose up at it, take a good look at your own pickiness.
Though we tend to assume kids are just picky, their own natural wisdom might have more to teach us than we think. One local friend was amazed that her six-year-old son, who refused to eat any and all store-bought vegetables, happily started eating everything once their family subscribed to a local farmer’s organic food box. It’s not surprising. A study published in the February 2009 Journal of HortScience points to a decline in the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables over the last 50 to 100 years, the same time frame during which our food system moved from locally based subsistence farming to industrial commercial farming. Looks like baby might actually know best!
Recipes & Resources:
Homemade ice cream
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey
3 large eggs
Bring everything but the eggs to boil. Add to whisked eggs, stirring constantly. Return to heat and stir until it coats the back of a spoon. DO NOT BOIL.
Cool. Put in ice cream maker and stir until thickened. Or place in deep freeze (or your veranda in the dead of winter) and stir every hour or so to break up ice crystals. You can put it in the blender if you’d like. Near the end, add your favourite fruits or other confections.
Pair with homemade pickles, baked potato or other healthy cravings!
Placenta
Women have eaten their placentas after childbirth for thousands of years. Like breastfeeding, it doesn’t get more local than this. Not only is the placenta chock-full of nutrients needed by both mama and young’un, it’s also been associated with a lower risk of postpartum depression.
There are many ways to prepare placenta: some cook it the same way they would their favourite steak (it is very tender), while others substitute it in recipes that call for liver. You can also dehydrate a placenta and add it to other foods like smoothies and salads or take it in capsules like a vitamin. The Internet has hundreds of preparations for you to choose from!
Breast milk
Breastfeeding is one of the very best things we can do for a baby’s physical, psychological and emotional health and well-being. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to learn, which can add to the temptation to turn to industrially produced, chemical-laden formula. But don’t despair. Here are some excellent resources:
La Leche League has help available in person and over the phone. Look here for local resources.
Lactation consultants are available through your local health region.
Dr. Jack Newman is a breastfeeding guru who will even respond to personal emails. Check out his very helpful page.
Baby food
Start babies off with simple porridge or pabulums made from whole grains such as oats or rice and then introduce veggies and fruits cooked and puréed until smooth. Most typical baby foods are low in acidity and would require a pressure canner to can, so unless you have access to and are comfortable using that technology, making fresh or frozen homemade baby foods is probably the most accessible option. WHO recommends feeding infants simple, single-ingredient foods that are present in the family’s staple foods so that they are eased into eating with their families. No more than one food should be introduced every four days.
A great resource is Complementary Feeding: Family foods for breastfed children, available for free from the World Health Organization
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