Organic Foods

My DH and I decided that we would go organic and make DD's baby food using organic fruits and veggies. We also only give her organic snacks, she is 8 months. Today we bought organic chicken to make for her. At the store we started thinking, how long do you do all organic? DH and I def. do not have an organic diet but we do eat fresh food and limit the amount of process and packaged foods. Now it's relatively easy to do all organic for her but what about as she gets bigger and is eating all table food? I know there is not one answer and everyone does things different, just curious about others experiences.

Re: Organic Foods

DS is 14 months and his diet is about 75% organic. I always, 100% of the time, buy organic chicken, beef, and fish. Eggs, milk, fruits, veggies, most cheeses. The only yogurt he gets is Stonyfield Farms or Chobani Champions. He doesn't eat many "snack" type foods yet but he does love the Annie's Organic Bunny Grahams and the Earth's Best sesame st. cereal bars. With that being said, he eats regular cheerios, regular arnold whole wheat or multi grain bread, on occasion he will a polly-o string cheese, barilla plus pasta, etc. So I am not super strict with everything. I do my best, but I also know that as he gets older, it will be harder to stay as "organic" as I do.

Re: Organic Foods

It's totally up to you. We buy almost only organic foods for all three of us. Basically if I can't find it organic and need it, I'll buy conventional. Outside of the house I let things slide, but at home or when we bring food it's organic. It's important to us not to feed our DD food that's been treated with pesticides or hormones, but we've been eating that way for years.

Organic Foods

DD is 14m and we do organic for the most part. i am most anal about organic milk although its a bit contradictory cause i dont do organic cheese (too expensive). otherwise i do organic on everything i can buy and make, and most snacks. but DH and I dont do organic regularly and honestly i cant afford everything to be organic, esp. the amount that DH and DD eats! so at 14m id say 65% or so of what she eats is organic. but if we are out at a restaurant or if she eats with MIL or my mom, I don't stress over it. although i prefer her snacks to stay as organic as possible. earths best seem to have the most cost efficient organics, and we also love happy baby and plum organics (although pricier, theres always sales at BRU).

Message edited 7/16/2012 10:52:37 PM.

Re: Organic Foods

My kids eat before we do and I make special meals for them. If I plan on having leftovers for them it is organic. Obviously if we are out I relax my rules a bit

Re: Organic Foods

Thank you ladies. That's pretty much what we figured, we will do a combo. From my reading Ive learned its most important to do organic produce and dairy. We will most likely continue that for DD and probably us bc it will be easier to buy one for all of us. The snacks are also reasonable and something we will def. do. However, the meat is a bit pricey. We bought a whole chicken last night (not too big) and it was $12. That is fine for her and will make a good amount of food but as she gets older I think it will be more difficult to do organic meat for all and cooking separate meals for DD and working FT (im a teacher) will be challenging.

Re: Organic Foods

I use to do organic for DS and regular for us. It started taking it's toll on me making two meals and the more I learned the more I started buying everything organic. One meal for the entire family as organically as possible. I will do this indefinitely.

Re: Organic Foods

This post is also very helpful for me as DS just turned one and I still buy him all organic produce. We started him on cow's milk and I have been buying Horizon Organic Whole Milk without the added DHA. At home, I am trying to keep him as organic as possible but if DH and I are eating something that is not organic, I let DS try it as long as it is wholesome (whole wheat bread for example), does not contain too much sodium or sugar, and is not processed (which we don't keep in the house anyway).

The reason why I started to let things slide a bit once he turned one year last week is because I want him to start eating more table foods to get him off of purees (that I make myself). He goes to daycare 3-4 days a week and I want him to eat what the other children are having for their breakfasts and lunches. DS does not have any food allergies so going organic is just a personal choice. I haven't asked his daycare if they supply an organic menu but as far as I know, they do not. They use Hershey's shelf stable milk and I will continue to send in our milk from home and some other foods... but I will also let DS eat their foods which seem to be pretty decent (whole grains, protein, etc). I think though I am going to have them not give him the Dannon vanilla yogurt since I buy the Stonyfield organic whole milk yogurt and mix my own fruits into it.

I am just going to continue to try my best at home sticking to organic and when not home, make as smart of a choice as possible when choosing his foods.

Re: Organic Foods

I started out using all organic, but of course with price and time things got away from me a bit. DS is 2. But we still buy organic milk, certain high pesticide level fruits and veggies, and meat when I can. At the very least I get the no hormone added or grass fed meats. As he gets older its also hard for me to control things externally, like at my in-laws or at parties - I'm not syaing its impossible and I know I can do a better job of it, just that it is amore challenging. Do what you can when you can!

Organic Foods

My daughter is 12 months and she only eats organic food. We also try to eat mostly organic.

Re: Organic Foods

Crashing as someone who tries to buy about as close to 100 % organic as possible. This is my advice: Be strictest with the foods listed on the dirty dozen list both in the house and out of the house. When I eat out, I try to avoid eating foods that are high in pesticide residue or might contain antibiotics. ( I'm a vegetarian so this would consist of factory farmed eggs and dairy. ) You can always try this approach with you DD and teach her about different foods as she grows older. That way, when she is school aged, she will be better prepared to make healthy diet decisions. My parents did this for me while growing up and it was very helpful. Good luck !

Message edited 7/17/2012 10:45:57 PM.

Re: Organic Foods

I try to keep it mostly organic for them at home, so when we are out I don't feel so bad. Dirty dozen, dairy and meats.

It is actually changed how me and DH eat, so I see this as a life time change for us.

Re: Organic Foods

We eat a lot of organic and have no plans on stopping because we prefer it. That said, not everything you buy has to be organic. I stick to buying organic dairy, meats/wild caught fish, and the "dirty dozen" produce.

Message edited 7/18/2012 8:29:17 AM.

Re: Organic Foods

Thanks ladies! I roasted an organic chicken yesterday for DD. Well, I have to say it was the best chicken I have ever eaten that was not fried or processed. I just put it in a roasting pan with water on the bottom. It was amazing. I was shocked at how much different the taste was. Either its the fact that it was organic or I am just an amzing chef! ha

Also, I thought I would share an app I found. Now that I have been obsessing about food I was like there has to be an app for that! Of course there is. I found 2. The first is "smart foods organic diet buddy" This one provides guidelines for buying produce. The second is "fooducate." This one is pretty awesome to me. You can scan a barcode or search for packaged items. It rates each item from A to D for nutrition value. Then it tells you about all the yummy additives in your food! Some products I thought were healthy choices are def. not. They are highly processed and loaded with addtives and chemicals. I told DH we will be making some big changes in our diet.