After several hours of looking into the Super Baby Food (SBF) diet, I broke down and bought my own copy on Amazon for $0.22. It turns out, 7 months is a good age to start focusing on baby’s weekly nutrition intake. Before that, I guess baby is just getting used to the idea of swallowing and trying out new foods. As I said previously, I really like SBF, but I’ll admit that the book is at times quite confusing. It really could be improved given proper structure. Is it only me or are most books on child development, nutrition and sleep poorly written? Maybe that is what you get when you write with kids running around in the room! So, to make the application easier, I spent a couple hours of my precious weekend to decorticate chapters relevant to Ayo and write down the 7-8 month essentials on one page. (Click to enlarge photo).

We’re only on day 4 so we’ll try the idea out for a little while and see if the preparation time and the health benefits are worth the investment. It will be interesting to read the other library books I ordered on childhood nutrition in addition to the SBF recommendations as I am curious why a few fruits and veggies don’t feature at all in the book. No problems with constipation yesterday morning, that’s for sure! Baby chowed down his brown rice and millet porridge with 3 prunes and a whole egg yolk! If one were to trust his two-teeth smiles and contagious cackles, Ayo seemed to thoroughly enjoy his breakfast. We haven’t started any enhancers yet. The idea of enhancers is totally new for our family (are we really prepared to get that crunchy? ;-)). I spent quite some time digging into the benefits and drawbacks of each of them. I have learned so much even personally but also know that I only understand the tip of the iceberg in terms of nutrition. I wonder if I would have chosen a nutrition and dietetics course if I had to redo my university degree at this stage in life. Hmm, maybe I wouldn’t devote a whole degree to it, but life in the USA has certainly heightened my interest in health and forced our little family to scrutinize food sources and benefits. What I realize today is that so many health issues boil down to diet. It’s crazy to think that I used to attempt half-marathons on a pack of Pringles and a salad and seriously wonder why my body wouldn’t just cooperate.

On a side note, the author writes that her twins never got sick on this diet. Ironically, we had our first sick day today after seven months of great health. The fever and chills are most likely totally unrelated but still quite ironic. How pitiful to see little Ayo whimper and sleep the day away. I am also thankful for a “down day” as I am still feeling the remnants of yesterday’s headache. For some reason, ever since I had Ayo, I get migraines with visual auras after the smallest amount of physical exertion. It’s a real downer and rather frustrating after a liberating solo run like yesterday’s. I rocked out to my music and ran free as a bird until my vision blurred over. I am hoping the midwives can get to the bottom of the migraines during my well-woman check-up. Perhaps they will find something to add or take away from my own diet?

(Reason #476 for choosing the birth center: they do well-women visits there too!)