Magazine

Portland dad holding a baby back rib next to a messy 11-month-old at a summer BBQ

Troubleshooting BBQ: Baby Back Ribs vs Spare Ribs for Babies

There we were in our backyard, forty-five minutes into a rare sunny Portland afternoon, when I casually handed my 11-month-old son, Leo, a massive, sauce-drenched spare rib. In my sleep-deprived brain, this seemed like a brilliant Baby-Led Weaning victory. I...

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Sliced soft cooked pear pieces on a divided silicone suction plate for baby

That First Slippery Baby Pear And The Constipation Chronicles

My thumb was covered in aquaphor and desperation. It was day four of the great solid-food bowel strike, and my son was looking at me like I had betrayed him. Starting solids at six months is heavily romanticized on the...

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11-month-old baby eating baby back ribs in a Portland backyard

Spare Ribs vs Baby Back Ribs: A Dad’s Guide to Debugging Toddler BBQ

I was standing at the meat counter of our neighborhood New Seasons in Portland, panic-googling whether "baby back" meant the ribs actually came from a baby pig. My wife Sarah was three aisles over dealing with a minor avocado-related meltdown...

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A baby gnawing on a large spare rib bone while sitting on a patterned bamboo blanket

The Great BBQ Debate: Ribs and Baby-Led Weaning

Summer in Chicago means the lake breeze is sticky and someone is always firing up a smoker in a park. We were at a family cookout near Montrose Beach last July when my husband's uncle handed my eight-month-old a massive,...

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Mashed ripe pear on a silicone plate next to a baby spoon

Demolishing the First Food Myth: Why You Need A Pear Baby

I was standing in the baby food aisle staring at a nine-dollar pouch of organic Peruvian maca root and wild blueberry puree when I realized we had collectively lost our minds. My six-month-old was sitting in the shopping cart, happily...

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A mom holding a baby while looking confused at a jar of fruit spread and a bag of gummy candies

Sorting Out the Mess: Are Jelly Babies Safe for Your Toddler?

So there I was at our big family barbecue last Sunday, balancing my six-month-old on my hip while trying to wrangle my toddler away from the sprinkler, when the contradictory advice started rolling in. My mom, bless her heart, told...

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Marcus holding a heavily scratched plastic plate next to safe non toxic baby plates.

Debugging Mealtime: The Hunt for Non Toxic Baby Plates

I was standing in our kitchen at 6:15 AM on a Tuesday, holding a steaming "eco-friendly" bamboo baby plate that suddenly smelled exactly like the motherboard I accidentally fried during a college hackathon. My 11-month-old son, Leo, was banging his...

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A baby wearing a dark terry cloth bib while eating pureed sweet potato

LΓ€tzchen Frottee: A letter to my past self about solid foods

Dear Priya from six months ago. You're currently sitting on the kitchen floor wiping sweet potato puree off the baseboards with a dried-out baby wipe while your son cries because he rubbed it into his left eyebrow. You think this...

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Priya holding a stainless steel toddler plate with leftover mac and cheese on a messy kitchen counter

The soapy nightmare that led us to stainless steel toddler plates

Tuesday night, 6:43 PM. Kabir had just aggressively rejected a batch of organic mac and cheese that I spent twenty minutes hiding pureed cauliflower inside. I was standing over the kitchen sink, eating the lukewarm leftovers directly off his favorite...

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