The Gelderland Smeerkaas Disaster
“Bread and cheese. That’s what your baby needs right now,” advised the nurse at the consultatiebureau a few weeks ago.
I nodded my head. “OK,” I said, although I was thinking it sounded like Dutch-centric advice. Bread and cheese is what this nurse has for lunch every day, more than likely, along with many of her fellow countrymen. That or pea soup. But it couldn’t be that bad: After all, the Dutch are the tallest people in Europe, and they are certainly very healthy. I should have said, “A Big Mac has bread and cheese on it, so that’s OK, right?” But I think she would have missed the joke.
Earlier this week, I decided to take her advice. I sent Dan to the store to buy smeerkaas, a spreadable cheese kind of like the kind I loved as a kid, the kind that came in a can and I could squirt it directly into my mouth. (This doesn’t come in a can, though.) I diligently spread some cheese on small bits of bread and placed the bread bits on Rebecca’s highchair tray.
Little did I know.
Smeerkaas, come to think of it, is sticky. As soon as I placed 5 pieces of bread on Rebecca’s tray, Rebecca had 5 pieces of bread stuck to her hand. Seeing the piece of bread stuck to the middle of her palm, Rebecca would try to eat it, by sticking her palm onto her mouth. Of course, the four pieces stuck to her fingers would end up in on her nose, cheeks, and eye. By the end of the meal, we had smeerkaas smeared everywhere. I muttered to myself, “There must be a secret all Dutch mothers know that I don’t when it comes to feeding 8 month olds smeerkaas.”
Now I make cute little sandwiches with smeerkaas smeared in the middle, which is lessening the smearing of smeerkaas elsewhere. Smart Mommy.
I nodded my head. “OK,” I said, although I was thinking it sounded like Dutch-centric advice. Bread and cheese is what this nurse has for lunch every day, more than likely, along with many of her fellow countrymen. That or pea soup. But it couldn’t be that bad: After all, the Dutch are the tallest people in Europe, and they are certainly very healthy. I should have said, “A Big Mac has bread and cheese on it, so that’s OK, right?” But I think she would have missed the joke.
Earlier this week, I decided to take her advice. I sent Dan to the store to buy smeerkaas, a spreadable cheese kind of like the kind I loved as a kid, the kind that came in a can and I could squirt it directly into my mouth. (This doesn’t come in a can, though.) I diligently spread some cheese on small bits of bread and placed the bread bits on Rebecca’s highchair tray.
Little did I know.
Smeerkaas, come to think of it, is sticky. As soon as I placed 5 pieces of bread on Rebecca’s tray, Rebecca had 5 pieces of bread stuck to her hand. Seeing the piece of bread stuck to the middle of her palm, Rebecca would try to eat it, by sticking her palm onto her mouth. Of course, the four pieces stuck to her fingers would end up in on her nose, cheeks, and eye. By the end of the meal, we had smeerkaas smeared everywhere. I muttered to myself, “There must be a secret all Dutch mothers know that I don’t when it comes to feeding 8 month olds smeerkaas.”
Now I make cute little sandwiches with smeerkaas smeared in the middle, which is lessening the smearing of smeerkaas elsewhere. Smart Mommy.
posted by Beth at 3:37 PM
2 Comments:
Oy. That sounds like good food, but bad baby food. Genevieve has learned to raise her arms up in the air when we ask "All done?" if she is, in fact, all done, but then she invariably smooshes her gummy hands down in her hair. Peaches, beans, peas, applesauce, you name it.
is it any wonder that the food just SOUNDS like a mess? Smear-kass? I don't know what some people or food companies are thinking when it comes to baby food..gerber baby teether biscuits are a disaster waiting to happen..3 guesses...they weren't created by a mom.
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