My day care provider informed me today that my one year old is a fan of “little hotdogs.” I asked her if she meant the Gerber Graduates, which has little hot dogs in a jar, but she told me no, and said she would go in the house to show me what she was talking about so I could try it at home.
She brought back Vienna Sausages.
I put Vienna Sausages in the same category as Spam, and for good cause: Wikipedia says they are closely related to “potted meat food product” which I bet is also related to Spam (I checked: it is! and the picture almost makes me want to vomit.) And as a vegetarian/sometimes vegan I feel a certain kind of way about my baby eating food product instead of actual food.
I’ve always known that she feeds them meat and that’s been okay because I don’t trust my ability to be able to feed them well as vegetarians, and they don’t eat meat at home, so I figure less meat is better than lots of meat, etc., etc. But when I saw that case of cans and cans of sausage…it seemed like a line was crossed. A line that I feel like I don’t have the right to address because I never established that there was a line and how much harm could a couple of Vienna Sausages do over the course of a year, right?
Right?
Doctor Mama Esquire 
Man, when I was in college we used to give those things to people as gag gifts. I ate one on a dare once. It was kinda gross, but I doubt it is harmful in small quantities.
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On a dare?? Are they that gross?? I was hoping someone would be like I’m being an elitist jerk putting down cheap food and that it really wasn’t that bad…
And what would a small quantity be? For a college student, that’s like maybe 2? But for a baby, that’s like 1/10 of a wiener?
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You are being a Elitist Jerk putting down cheap food and that it really isn’t that bad. Do you know how many people grew up on that and spam. Not that its a choice of mine going to the store and buying a can now, but I remember having it in the house as a kid. Fry’em up and add a little mustard…. ummmm the memories. LOL
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It’s probably a matter of what your tastes have been acclimated to. We used to eat fried bologna sandwiches with ketchup on white bread, with potato chips smashed in between the slices. And raw hot dogs. We also dared each other on a regular basis to down entire jars of pickle juice. Bleh.
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I loved these as a kid. And, like anomie, fried bologna sandwiches — white bread of course! but ours were fried up with VELVEETA!!!! A little “cheese product” to go with your “meat product.” Ah my white trash roots exposed. It won’t kill em, but I would check the nitrate load.
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Actually the NITRITE load is way more worthy of notice than the nitrate load and whether it contains Sodium Erythorbate, which supposedly diminishes the carcinogen properties apparently inherent in that scary stuff. Oh, and by the way, after my research, I would NEVER give one to a baby. NEVER!!
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