[misse10]

hi all
My baby is 6 months this week and has been on solids for 1 1/2 months. he's pretty good eating (1/4 - 1/2 cup per meal) but i'm not sure how interesting i can get now with ingredients. I mainly make plain/roasted vegies or poached meat, freeze in cubes & mix combos for his meals.

this week i've given him some of the Raffety's meals while we're out & they contain things like onion, herbs, tomato paste etc. He loved them! So i'd like to make my home-cooking more interesting too. Can I just give him whatever I'd usually cook with or are there some guidelines on what I should/should not include? I had thought babies like bland food (it's what my books say!) but maybe not?

any suggestions on what to cook & how to cook it? Can I pan fry then puree meat? is onion really ok? when can you start offering finger food (assuming you're not doing baby-led weaning) and have it safe?

thank you!!

[*Lib*]

Baby food should be bland.

[MrsLexiK]

Baby food should be bland.

this may sound stupid - but why?

OP here is a website that answers your questions (I think) and tells you what spices your could try adding in

http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/...spicy-food.html

this article also goes over the myth of bland food http://www.babycenter.com/0_baby-food-revo...aby_10320504.bc

This post has been edited by MrsLexiK: 08/11/2012, 08:18 AM

[Tesseract]

Baby food does not have to be bland! DD was eating chilli and garlic prawns at 7 months, and LOVING it.

We have always fed DD what we eat, and we like flavour! The only things I would avoid would be saturated fats, salt and really hot chilli. So just watch the salt content if you're using pre packaged foods.

At six months you're baby can most likely sit up well in his high chair and has good had control. You could introduce finger foods and let him play with them, he'll have a great time! It's great for his palate, dealing with new textures and hand-eye coordination.

Next time you're having, say, pasta, just cut the veggies up into big chunks that he can grasp, give him some veggies, some pasta (rigatoni) and some sauce. Then sit back and enjoy the show if him getting to know about real food!

[Cranky Kitten]

Baby food should be bland.

What a crock! The mythical "They" do say to introduce savoury flavours before sweet ones as babies naturally have a tendency to prefer sweet flavours, but I've never heard anything to suggest it had to be bland or tasteless.

When it came to starting solids with DS I simply started with unaltered steamed vegetables roughly mashed with a fork, then moved onto mashed up bits of whatever we were eating. I also would give him small pieces of soft chicken, lightly cooked vege sticks or crusts of toast to play and experiment with - wasn't long before he started having the odd nibble of them and then moved to eating them.

There's nothing wrong with giving a baby a range of different tastes and textures with food, it's all a new experience and helped prevent later fussiness with DD in my opinion.

[Beancat]

Baby food should be bland.

Absolute bollocks!! You want your baby to eat what you are eating by the time they are about 10 months old.

Try adding fresh herbs, particularly parsely and basil. Both of mine have loved garlic, cream cheese, celary and tomato added to their meals

I make a lot of "casserole" type things with a meat base, lots of vegies, a carb (either rice or pasta) and the relevant flavour. Eg i might do chicken with tomato and basil or beef and sweet potato and garlic, tuna mornay, chicken and basil balls, fish and tarragon fingers, etc.

Re finger food, I started around 7 months with each. try rusks, banana and toast as first foods

[Jenflea]

I thought 'they' said to do bland food because babies have more taste buds and can't handle stronger flavours. But I know the more flavours you give, the more likely they will be to eat a wider range of foods when older. i doubt Indians and Asians avoid curries and the like.

I'd avoid salt and too much saturated fats and hot chilli as a PP suggested, but everything else is ok I think.

[Lainskii]

Yep they can eat what you eat but as PP pointed out, avoid salting the food (if you normally do) as they don't need it and start easy on the chili (or they get a sore bottom and upset stomach)

I use to just mash/blend whatever we were eating and give it to dd, so if we were having steak and potatoes and veges, she got this but mashed or you could do baby led weaning and just give them small bits of the food.

I disagree that the food needs to be bland, you will be able to tell by their face if they don't like it

[premmie_29weeks]

I do chicken and veg soup or a meat minestrone and purée it up for our little one. He loves it! Lots of different vegetables, and poached chicken, meat or fish. Add corn or even grated cheese for flavour etc. bland after the very initial stage is totally unnessary! You'll appreciate it when they are older and have a more developed palate

The only thing to avoid is honey until 1, but once you've tried some of the most allergy prone foods and all is fine I would go for your life! If they eat a slightly modified version of yor meals makes life heaps easier for you. Otherwise avoid salting or hot chillies....

This post has been edited by premmie_29weeks: 08/11/2012, 12:44 PM

[~Supernova~]

DS is eating pretty close to what we eat at the moment (he just turned 8 mths). For lunch he just had a curry with a decent whack of curry paste, paprika, and turmeric (among other things) and loved it. I use lots of herbs, so I guess he is just used to it. He loves garlic, basil, onion, chili (mild), parsley...he spits out anything that tastes too boring

If I know I will be mashing some up for him, I just make little changes like salt reduced stock, less chili etc. But baby food definitely does not need to be boring! I fed my DD boring food, and now it is a challenge to get her to eat anything interesting....I was determined to not do that with DS, and he loves very odd tastes (thinks his peppermint medicine is a great treat lol).