Sugar and The Line

So where do you draw the line on sugar in your baby's diet? I had a rather amusing moment with my Health Visitor yesterday when we took a trip in to get Baby Al's 8 month review done. I asked a million questions that I had on my mind and don't really think she answered me one bit.

Food came up as a question as my son refuses to eat anything mashed or any of the stage two jarred stuff that you can buy in supermarkets. Her reply was to mash the food instead of blending it, as if I wasn't smart enough to give that a go. He loves his blended peas, carrots and sweet potato but the moment I mash it then it becomes this evil meal that is no longer allowed in the mouth. The thing is he will eat a mashed up banana without any problems! I then asked what would be a good starter food for mashing. "Anything" was her response. Well thank you for such a helpful list. I will enjoy spending money on every food in the shops and wasting my time mashing up and having it spat back at me. Clearly banana has something that others do not have, my guess being is when it is mashed up it's rather watery with very soft lumps. So my brain clicks and ponders what other fruit or vegetable is like the banana when mashed? Sweet Potato tends to be soft and easy to mash when cooked so this will be one of my future tests, along with pears which are soft and juicy.

During the food talk and watching him move a small cube between each hand she asked about finger foods. I told her that he has all sorts but has become a fan of baby biscuits. She freaks out and says to stop giving him baby biscuits or rusks due to the amount of sugar in them. I protested by saying I have Organix rusks and biscuits which have grape juice in them. She said that's just as bad. Hold on a second! This woman is telling me that the natural sugars of a fruit is just as bad as the white powder we use in our baking and other food related produce? Well if I follow that sort of thinking my boy wouldn't eat a damn thing because most fruits have a natural sugar to them and they are far better then eating actual sugar. And yet here I find myself infront of a lady who believes anything that uses the word "sugar" should not be in my child's diet. Ha!

She ended on a low for me when I asked what his weight was in lbs as I forgot to ask. She said 18lbs which made me real proud because that would be 3lbs gained since last month! I got home, got my phone out to text my mom (I always keep her up to date on how he is doing) and opened his red book to read 15.14lbs. My heart sank. He gained 0.1lbs in a month. I know they say that any weight gain is healthy but my boy did the same thing at 5 months and then lost 2lbs because he wanted more food. I figured he was hungry still and what I was feeding him was not enough to keep him going. All this tied in with many problems we have been trying to resolve but have failed. It all fits. Even as I write this it's only just sinking in how this Health Visitor told me he had gained 3lbs when in reality it wasn't even 1lb gain like he usually puts on.