So this is "baby food"?

I was startled to see a short article in this morning's paper about the lack of nutrition in some food which is intended to be for babies. The article complained about the high sugar content, the lack of protein and vegetables and more. It mentioned something called a "yoghurt pouch". What on earth is a yoghurt pouch?

No such things existed when I was a kitten. I was breast fed out of necessity (formula was unobtainable) and, according to what I have been told, I went on to mashed potato and mashed pumpkin. When I started teething I was given homemade "rusks". As soon as I could chew I was given the same sort of food as my parents. 

My observations and my memory suggest this was the same for all four of us. Our mother did not have the time or the inclination to make special meals for us. We really did eat what was put in front of us. I remember one occasion when I was not feeling at all well. Mum put a plate of what we called "white stew" in front of me that evening. I could not eat it. I did not want anything to eat. Of course I was not "sick". We were never allowed to be "sick". 

I sat there staring at it...and staring at it. It grew cold and the fat congealed. Eventually I was sent to bed - as a punishment for not eating. In the morning the stew was put in front of me for breakfast. I still did not eat it and was sent off to school without breakfast. This was Mum's way of handling the situation. My paternal grandmother must have been told what had happened (probably by the Senior Cat) and she turned up at school with food for me. She checked my temperature and it must have been elevated as I was, quite happily, kept quietly in the classroom during the recess and lunch break. I could read in there. What was not to like? The stew did not appear again. 

I wonder what my mother would have done now. What would she have fed us on? Would she have chosen some of those "convenience" foods on the baby shelves in the supermarket? Would she have used formula for our bottles? Was there any way she would have sent me to school without breakfast because I refused to eat that stew? 

I see young children sucking on these delightfully named yoghurt pouches. They are brightly coloured and look attractive but the contents look anything but attractive. Middle Cat's boys were given yoghurt from a very young age but it was plain yoghurt with no flavouring at all. They had Greek style "rusks" made by their Cypriot yia-yia (grandmother). Middle Cat was back at work but she still found time to feed them and her MIL made sure Middle Cat knew how to cook Cypriot style. (She made sure I knew something about it too - for which I am duly grateful.)

Someone on my regular bike route is in her late 80's now. Her granddaughter had a medical emergency recently and reluctantly left her two young children with great-grandma for a few hours. It was not something she wanted to do. They arrived with "food" and toys. They ended up in the kitchen making their own lunch after a morning spent "working" in the garden. Neither child wanted to go home. It was "fun" and every last crumb of their home-made "pizza" (slices of bread with grated cheese and tomato slices and olives toasted in the oven) was eaten. 

"I had time," their exhausted great-grandmother told me, "Do me a favour Cat and take that rubbish out while I put the kettle on."

I dropped two sugar-laden packs of something into her compost bin. The little boys did not want it. The "pizza" was "awesome".