Baby Food: Yes, you can buy jarred baby food here, but there is not an entire aisle dedicated to it. Mom, please send me a picture of the baby aisle at Safeway. :) The jars are not as cute here and I want all the fun, cute flavors. I just want what I'm used to. I like picking out all the tiny half sized jars too. :) They are cute.
Yep, having the picture of the Gerber baby on the front of the jar will make me feel better. Yep, making the jar look pretty will make me feel better. I know that just because it's Danish doesn't mean it is bad, but I can't read any of the jars and the jars are not "elegant" looking, "healthy" looking...ummmm... "organic" looking. ??? The jars look cheap, like a generic brand...
It's not that I don't trust the baby food here... I mean, I feed Danish food to my other kids... I don't know why, but I don't trust whatever is in those jars for Andrea. I've put a lot of effort into feeding this kid for the past six months just to stick any ole' thing in her mouth. Her tummy is just little.
OHHHHH... I can see the comments now... I don't know how to explain it.
Have fun with this one all you Mr./Mrs. Anonymous-es. But in your comment please include the date of the last time you had a baby in a foreign country. I just want to do something that makes me happy as a mommy. ...and filling my cart with overpriced, half-sized jars of "Banana and Apricot Delight" will make me happy.
P.S. I have imported all Andrea's baby formula that she has been eating with her cereal. AND I buy the most expensive one because I think it is the best.
I'm a good little consumer. Companies love me.
10 comments:
Seems fair enough to me, when its a baby you're talking about, you want what you know worked for the other kid/s.
Gerber is owned by Nestlé.
Gerber-Nestlé almost has a monopoly on baby food in the US with a market share of 70-80%.
You can also buy Nestlé baby food all over Denmark.
I don't like the pictures on the Nestle jars. They are not as cute.
I just visited the grocery store today, a big one... it was sad. Baby food situation is worse than I thought. I will have to find joy in making my own baby food... Maybe Michaela and Sierra can decorate some little jars for me and I'll put my mommy-made food in there!
Yeah, well. Most danish people like to feed their babies fresh food without additives. So they cook and mash fresh fruit and veggies and make homemade rice cereal and oatmeal for their babies. Jarred babyfood and powdered cereal is mostly used for convenience when travelling or visiting other peoples homes. Because it's expensive and not as healthy as fresh food.
If you want organic babyfood, try the "hipp" brand. Or look for the word "økologisk" or the red Ø-mark on the nestle or beauvais jars.
I do understand that it makes people feel safe to feed their babies something wellknown and "home-like". But on the other hand it makes me sad, when you write about my country as if it was some 3. world country without any normal, 21th century (or even 20th century) conveniences. It's not. Far from it. I have lived in both Denmark and the US. It's different. Not worse. Not better. Just different. There are things that I miss here, that was avaliable to me in the US. Like whole foods. I loved shopping there. There are also things that I have here that I missed in the US. Like underfloor heating. Or a car that goes 30km/l. Or affordable and good daycare. Or one year of paid maternity leave with each child.
Different. Not worse.
I totally understand. When I moved to Arkansas from CA I hac culture shock (more so then when I moved to Australia). Familiarity is comforting and "safe" feeling. Esp. when it comes to your baby. You just want what you are used to. Totally normal. Hey, Gerber doesn't spend all the money on lable design if it didn't work, right?
ok, glad to know there IS baby food in DK! Just in case I need it...
but here is a random comment.....Dont you get tired of the anonymous comments giving us random information but yet never bothering to write a name?? Sometimes I think there is a person out there waiting for my blog to have a mistake that he/she can correct.... sigh..
WOW - Tara it's like you are psychic or something, I would never have dreamed that this post would incur wrath or induce indignant comment!
To Frue Anon: 'it makes me sad when you write about MY country', come ON - 'YOUR' country?
It's our country too. We live here, we pay the taxes, and we have every right to point out the gaps in the market. And more.
It's not that long ago that everyone in Denmark thought that snow suits for adults (or the flimsier summer versions) were the height of fashion. None of that would have changed if not for the international influence.
When we, as newcomers, bitch about not being able to get this or that for our children, it is not that we say DK is worse, it's just that we say there is a very limited way of doing things here.
There are so few people in DK, the culture is so agreed on everything, that it's quite frustrating to come from places where there are more people doing more varied things and have to just accept what's on the shelves or in conversation without a bit of a struggle.
Denmark rocks in loads of ways there is no doubt about that.
But Tara is right, unless you've tried to be a mum in a new country you won't know.
The worst for us (my family) was the crap maternity care in DK, I'd never attempt a pregnancy here again, that was a huge shock, and after going through that I suppose every other complaint (about lack of choice here) will be loaded with resentful undertones.
In some ways I think if we can get riled over a jar of babyfood, or something else that isn't as good as home, then it probably points towards our general disatisfaction, not just with the way things are here compared to somewhere else, but also, just because of the way things are done here.
I know for a fact that it is easier to bitch about something seemingly small here than it is to bring up the big issues. So I think that is why we newcomers to DK do that. We probably don't feel the right to broach the big complaints, so we go for something small.
It lets off steam, there's no harm in that.
Dear anon, I am sorry that you are sad that anyone could think anything less than marvelous about 'your' country, but while we share it, we are allowed to speak.
*flounces off with nose poked haughtily in air*
Ooh, I can recommend Hipp if you can get them, I used them occasionally for my kids as it's a brand in the UK as well.
@ Anon
*speechless*
*recovers*
I know there are people like this in the US, so I'm not going to blame all Danes for not understanding that not loving every single aspect of a foreign culture means you hate it.
There is nothing wrong with bemoaning a lack of something you miss from the homeland (wherever that may be). My Danish friends wail about the lack of rugbrød when we're out of Denmark for an extended period of time. It doesn't mean they hate Italy or England or Jordan. Or think that they're third world countries. Okay... Jordan....
Anyway, seeing how much America bashing goes on here in Denmark, I'm always surprised at how many Danes can dish it, but can't take it.
And wishing there was Gerber baby food in the little cute jars does not really qualify, in my mind, as Denmark bashing.
anon, perhaps you should let us read your blog and judge your well earned opinions on life - let it all hang out! The rest of us do! Or perhaps that's another difference between the danes and americans-- we tend to let it all hang out...no janteloven to shake a stick at.
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