Prepare Your Child's Food with Love

Conscious-cooking for your children.

by Anni Daulter

Babies have brand new systems that have not yet been touched by modern day fast foods, fatty acids or refined sugars. Their first foods should not only be fresh and tasty, they should be filled with complete love, awareness and intention.

For the past ten years, I have been traveling to one of my favorites spots in California once a year for what I have come to term my yearly "deep drink". Tassajara is a beautiful Zen retreat in a magical place where the simplicity of life is understood in its entirety. As a Zen student at Tassajara many moons ago, I was taught the amazing practice of "Conscious Cooking".

I had been assigned to the kitchen for cooking duty and was given several large buckets filled with lettuce. I was told to tear off every single wilted piece, separate it from the fresh and healthy pieces, and to please do this in silence with complete consciousness and love. At first, I looked at this task as extremely tedious and tiring. Every single piece! This felt overwhelming, to say the least, and I had to do it with complete awareness to boot. I quickly resigned myself to my task, going through many wild emotions about what I was doing there, and began separating the lettuce.

After I got out of my own way, with much mind chatter, I realized something beautiful. I was completely present. Maybe for the first time in my life, I was there, and, all of a sudden, my tedious task became my pride and joy. My senses were heightened and I was now in love with creating the best possible salads for the dinner guests that evening. I poured my love into tearing the lettuce and filled each bowl with greens that I knew I had chosen with the utmost of care, with my purest intention to only offer the very best loving sustenance for that evening's meal. It changed my life.

I have taken my lettuce experience and expanded this awareness of "Conscious Cooking" into my own life. Babies triple their birth weight in the first year of life, and this amazing physical growth requires the very best nurturing possible. When babies begin to eat solid foods, their bodies and spirits begin to change and they become more earth bound.

When we at Bohemian Baby prepare baby food we begin each cooking experience with pure intent to feed and nurture a baby's growing body, mind and spirit. We ring a gong, do some deep breathing and begin to pour love into each and every baby food jar. Whenever you cook, stay focused on whom you are preparing foods for and repeat this mantra to yourself over and over again: "each bite should taste like love."

When you prepare foods for your new baby, whom you love with all of your heart, remember that when you cook in complete awareness, you are giving your baby the gift of your full attention and presence, and this will do so much more than satisfy her hunger. It will feed her soul!