Feeding Time

When Laura was a baby (she's thirteen now), Susan breast-fed her, which I think is important for building a bond between mother and child. My thoughts were that if the mother could have that bond with the child, the father should be able to have some sort of similar bond. When she got a little older, and we started introducing solid foods, I took over feeding her. I didn't feed her how you would think though.

If you look at all of the baby foods in the store, it's just pureed food. Some people get a blender and do it themselves because baby food is expensive. I thought about what people would have done before jarred baby food and blenders and came up with my own method of feeding.

My thoughts were also of the digestive system and chewing food is the first step. Saliva mixes with the food as you chew it and the enzymes start to break it down before you swallow. I decided that if I chewed the food for her, it would be healthier and better for her than if we got a blender or bought jarred baby food. Cheaper too.

I started with chewing my food very well and then take it out of my mouth with my fingers and feed it to her that way. It all made sense to me but other people didn't seem to understand, especially when our system evolved and Laura and I cut out a step.

She would sit on my lap as I ate and I would feed her by pushing a bit of the chewed food from my mouth directly into hers, just like birds. She would just eat what I ate at meal times. I felt a little funny about it at first but it turned out to be very natural. The more I thought about it, the better I felt because what the heck did people do to feed their children a hundred of years ago.

It became a bonding ritual and one that I'm very glad I pursued. We would get funny looks, especially when we went out to eat at restaurants but I didn't care and Laura just wanted her food.

I've never seen anyone else do this and I think that's sad. There are so many opportunities for bonding and getting closer to our children and my example here is so simple and natural, at least to me. I think that it was a great start to the good and healthy relationship that I have with her now.

When I tell people this story, they almost always have the same reaction, which is of disbelief. It doesn't matter what other people think though; I didn't care then and I don't care now. It was important to Laura and me, and I'm glad that we had that experience.