Baby Food and Lindsey the Vaccuum

Last year I got very sick and I ended up limiting my already limited celiac sprue diet (for anyone who doesn't know what that is, spend a good half hour looking up the symptoms and then another hour looking up all the foods I CAN'T eat and you will know why my diet is limited- I don't blame you if it doesn't sound appealing) and my diet was limited even more. I dropped 60 lbs in a year and was SCARY skinny. It was NOT a fun year-though everyone else thought my body looked amazing, I felt like garbage. And 112 lbs is not a good weight. Now I am back to being not as huge as I was, but chubby and happy and back on gluten-free staples.

Now what does all this have to do with baby food? Well, I got very health contentious when all this was going on and when we were finally blessed with our second child I swore I was going to be a wonderful mom who was going to make all her baby food. Freshly cooked and pureed and organic as much as possible. I started it like that and then suddenly Lindsey turned into a sucking food machine! I can't get the spoon in her mouth fast enough. Robert and I joke that it is like getting an arm work out every time we feed her. In it goes "WAAHH!", okay more, "WAAHH". I am serious, my arm HURTS after feeding her. And she eats 3 jars in ONE feeding and other whole foods on top of that like apple bits, banana bits or tiny pieces of a bland pancake or she will much a whole carrot.

There is no WAY I could buy and make my own baby food with how much she eats! I would be at the store, cooking, pureeing, doing dishes, freezing, thawing ALL day LONG! She is also so skinny. You would think with all this she would be a balloon like her sister was, but nope, tiny little thing. We have a check up in a few weeks, perhaps I should address this with her doctor. "My baby is always hungry, but weighs as much as a newborn- WHAT DO I DO?" She is always hungry! We feed her about 3-4 times a day with snacks in between.

And speaking of baby food. Why is it SO expensive. I shop at Smith's or Kroger store and they give you "baby points", like some sort of consolation prize for ripping me off just to feed my starving baby. "Spend $20 on baby food- that's a LOT- and get $3 back". WHAT??! Then I tell myself, "At least it is something. I could spend $20 and get nothing back." I use every coupon I see on baby food to lower that bill. Won't it be nice when she can just eat with the family? Course that all depends if she didn't inherit my lovely disease. Then that will be another disaster of trying to find something for me and her to eat every day. I already hate this chore that some days it is easier not to eat- or eat gluten-free cereal all day.

Oh, and have they decided to make the packaging more irritating for a reason? Why must they add another thing to throw away like the cardboard packing around the outside of the plastic containers? Instead of unscrewing the death grip jar lid, now I have to take it out of the cardboard, but I have one left so I have to throw the card board part out, otherwise it hangs around and I have 5 empty cardboard pieces in the pantry. And for some reason I can never quite get the plastic part off the container (biting nails does that I guess). I am always trying to avoid shooting it across the room when I open it, so now I have started to use... my teeth, so what squirts ends up right in my mouth. Squash in a jar with corn is NOT good. EW! I really thank the makers of baby food for making food that my baby will eat so I don't wear myself out all day trying to do it, but apparently, something isn't sticking right because she is still hungry after 3 jars! And thanks for the grocery bill too.