Since she's still a little young for meats and even most sugary fruits(in my opinion, at least) we're just sticking to green beans, peas, squash and sweet potatoes for right now with the occasional apple juice/rice cereal treat for breakfast. I've considered putting a bit of nutmeg in her squash/sweet potatoes, since they said there's really no age limit on spices and no known food allergies, but am still hesitant...
Any thoughts on this topic? Did you experiment with your kids' foods to get them to be less picky or did you stick strictly to baby food in a can?
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| Hipp Organic has some awesome sounding baby food flavors... |
Our personal experience (and maybe it's just the different personalities...)...
ReplyDeleteWith Carlee I waited until about 8 months to even introduce solids. I initially offered a few homemade purees and rarely even gave her jar food. And, since I waited to introduce solids it wasn't long before she was just eating mashed up or cut up small pieces of whatever we were eating. She will eat just about everything and is much more open to trying new things than Carter is (although he's SLOWLY getting better). Overall, Carlee is just a better eater than he is. With hCarter I started him on rice cereal at 5 mths and then did the whole jar food thing. Who knows if that affected is ability to eat better and be willing to try new things though! :)
Caleb had (and still does) have some food issues so I nursed him exclusively until 10 mths! I also did not have to do any jarred food w/him but just started giving him whatever we were eating and I'd say he's a pretty good eater as well.
My opinion is that jarred baby food is Sooooo bland and really a lot of the nutrients have been taken out and other stuff added in. It's cheaper and healthier for them for you to make your own (which is pretty simple) (you can even freeze the purees in ice cube trays--perfect portions)....do I have a post about this? hmmm...I don't think so. maybe I should do one! And, it's not long b/f they can have steamed veggies so you really don't have to make your own baby food long. I just think it gives them a better 1st experience to real food rather than the jarred stuff and yes, look into spices (sparingly at first). But cinnamon, for example helps regulate blood sugar naturally so that's a great option. This book is really great for spices and making baby food and such. http://astore.amazon.com/purposehome09-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=7
I thought this book was pretty helpful.
But, regardless of whatever you do, the fact that you are thinking about all this and experimenting is great. Good job!!!! :)
At first our kids have been fine with veggies...until we started introducing fruits. Then, all their taste for veggies went out the window. My biggest tip is, keep doing what you're doing, hold off on fruit for as long as you can and only give it to her in small portions when you do. :D That way hopefully she'll acquire a long-term taste for those wonderful veggies!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, we were delayed feeders....so Avonlea had rice cereal for the first time at 6 months or so, and didn't get "food" until around 8 months. I also wasn't the type to give her stuff off of my plate. She is now 14.5months old and just in the last month or so eats mac and cheese, nuggets, etc. Before that we did food from the jar mixed with cereal, applesauce, etc. So we aren't really the experimenting type, although I have friends of mine that did do the avocadoes, mangos, etc all homemade and did little variations (like the cinnamon).
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