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Modern Perspectives, Motherhood, Young Married Mom

September 30, 2011

The Blueberry Quota

It is a well-known fact around these parts that Jacob loves blueberries. When we got him tested for allergies, we learned that berries were among the seemingly few foods that did not mess with his system. And thank goodness! While we otherwise wouldn’t have introduced them for another couple of months, since that fateful day, he has had them for breakfast almost every single day. For his birthday I made him blueberry cupcakes with blueberry frosting, topped with—you guessed it—blueberries.

 

Recently I’ve started to wonder if we’re in too much of a rut with what we eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and even dinner. The restrictions on what Jacob and I can eat make meal planning challenging, and once I’ve found something that works, it’s too easy to just stick with it.

 

As healthy as blueberries are, they’re not the be-all, end-all of nutrition, and especially now that Jacob’s almost weaned, I’m ever more aware of how balanced his meals are. Or are not. Plus, variety is the spice of life, right?

 

So this week I tried to mix it up. I cut up some melon and peaches and offered those to Jacob at breakfast. I added some blueberries in, too, as long as we had them. But by Tuesday, we’d run out. The ones at the store Wednesday were already kind of fuzzy, so I held off. The raspberries looked good—to me at least—but Thursday morning, Jacob wasn’t so interested. It wasn’t until that afternoon that I found some good ones at the store.

 

After a rough day of some sniffles, no naps, and yet another mysterious (but not so serious) allergic reaction, Jacob wasn’t really thrilled about dinner. I tried to give him some pasta with chicken and vegetables, but for the second night in a row, that wasn’t really a go either. Call it mommy intuition or call it the grace of God, but my reaction was to go to the fridge and grab the blueberries. And man, oh man, did that kid gobble them up. He ate about half the package, as well as a few sweet potato fries, and that was dinner.

 

It seems his blueberry quota hadn’t been fulfilled, and nothing else would suffice.

 

Needless to say, I’ve learned my lesson: always have blueberries on hand. Variety may be the spice of life, but it’s nothing without the cherry—or berry—on top.

 

 

  1. Alexandra W. says:

    Oh my gosh, Peter is also a blueberry FIEND. We had to cut him off when the contents of his diapers was turning out blue and purple!

    • Oh, dear. We might be in that same boat. I type this as I sit watching him finish his lunch, which included blueberries both in their natural form and in cupcake form. And of course, he had them for breakfast, too. I think we need to buy stock in berries.

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