The beginning...my childhood

As with anything that's worth sharing, I'll start at the beginning so that I won't confuse you with too much jumping back and forth between events - even though I'm dying to jump to what's going on right now - knowing the history will make the present more clear.

The beginnings...I could try and go back for as many generations as I possibly could but I'll start with my mother's mother. My "nanna" had her first baby in a period of time where breastfeeding was little understood or encouraged. Although she did breastfeed my mother longer then she would her other children, she definitely didn't do it for the first year, probably not even for the first 6 months. If you're thinking I'm writing on the wrong blog, I'm not - The Very Breast Thing is just one small slice of this big pie I'm presenting you with, but it's a critical portion of the story. Although my mother was forced to eat liver and onions, Lima beans, fish and other foods as a child (which she will clearly voice that she "hates") she did not continue to eat a wide variety of meats, fruits and vegetables into her adult years, and definitely didn't force her children to either.

My own mother breastfed me for the first two months before she had to return to work, and then I was a formula fed baby. A few things to keep in mind, my mother clearly received more vaccines and antibiotics then her mother did, and I most definitely received more than my mother did. I was a pretty healthy, happy kid. I lived off all the "kid friendly foods" like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pizza, grilled cheese, hot dog, chicken fingers, and a plain turkey and bread sandwhich daily, as well as the typical chips, cookies, and sweets for years and years. The only vegetables I liked were potato (in the form of a french fry), ketchup (that counts as a tomato right?) canned carrots, and corn on the cob. That was it. And as much as I look at my diet and think of how unhealthy it was, most people probably think this is a normal and even a somewhat "healthy" diet for a child.