By Jan Gamm
The first stages of food culture are the most important in a child's development. The foods you introduce to your child's palate in these early months are probably the foods they will turn to as comfort food later in their childhood or even as adults.
The very best possible start you can give your child is to ditch the jarred baby food and buy yourself an efficient food processor or blender. Take a good look at the food you are preparing for your own consumption during the day and cherry pick the items that baby can safely have. Obviously the duck sautéed in brandy is going to be a non starter; you have to use your common sense.
Once you have a nice pile of tasty food, blitz it in the blender. Try it. Even in its pureed state I can assure you it has more flavour than anything you will find in a packet or jar. Have you ever actually tasted jarred or packeted baby food? I did once, and believe me once was enough. It tasted like liquid concrete, and probably would have similar digestive properties. I decided then and there that my baby was not going eat that rubbish. Besides, it cost a fortune and why?
I am a firm believer in fresh food for everyone. When did we start to think that babies could only thrive on a diet comprised solely of preserved foods? When we began to pack them with processed vitamins and freeze dried additives with huge profits to baby food manufacturers, I suspect.
The fresh food path is the finest start you can give your child. Fresh foods carry all the vitamins and supplements your child will need.
Some people prefer their babies not to have eggs. If you are one of those people by all means withhold them from baby's diet. I am not one of those people and my child enjoyed a soft boiled (free range) egg once or twice a week throughout her babyhood accompanied by a small pile of buttered 'soldiers' to dip in the egg. She is now twenty years old, six feet two and the most appallingly healthy specimen you could meet.
Squashed banana is a great place to start when introducing fruit into a baby's diet. Mash it into a smooth paste but do not blend it as you will end up with something resembling a fruit smoothie which defeats the purpose. Try serving it on fingers of toast on the high chair tray.
On the subject of high chair meals, do please give baby a plastic plate and eating utensils right from the outset. At first they will be completely confused as to what on earth they are supposed to do with them but eventually they learn how to use a fork and spoon quite expertly. You do not want your child to eat like a chimpanzee do you? Although many parents do if the evidence I see in fast food restaurants is any indication of preference.
Busy parents who have to work are of course faced with the problem of kitchen time. Well, you are going to have to find time to go to the market to buy the jarred foods in any case, so why not spend the time preparing it instead? The truth is, if you are going to cook for yourself, there is no reason why you cannot find time to cook for baby, especially if you are only going to blend your own menu. Remember to extract baby's food before adding salt, however. I always think people are a bit fanatic about not adding salt to anything, but in the case of small children it really is not a good thing for them to have. Limit red meats a little too.
Try to foster a program that your baby will recognise and trust. Where new foods are concerned, adopt the attitude that nobody has to eat foods they do not like, however everybody must try new flavours. If, having tried it, you still do not like it, by all means do not eat it. But you must try it.
Most children will develop the phrase 'don't like it, won't eat it' early on. It is, after all, a great way to wind up the parents after they have spent two hours cooking it. My advice is not to allow this kind of imperious dismissing of food items. Persevere with making your child try foods that are new. You will quickly learn when baby really does not like something and when he or she is simply trying to get your attention.
The open trough so many parents fall into comes in the form of desserts, sweets or candy, and packet snacks. It is oh, so easy to fling a two year old a packet of sweets or a bag of potato chips to shut them up when you are trying to shop or trying to work on the computer and you really must get the work finished before you go to the office tomorrow. We have all been there and we have all spent months trying to fix the damage afterward.
Do not go there. A child learns with lightning speed that if they make enough chaos in your life the result is a nice little treat and as an extra you get full enough not to have to eat your broccoli! Well hey, that's a plus!
It is a slippery slope. Well actually it is more like a grease laden roller coaster to hell. By all means let your child have sweet things if that is your choice, but discipline the consumption of these items and never give them when a child is being naughty. No, no, no.
Well there you are - the formula for seamless transition onto healthy foods and a serene, drama free world in the nursery. I think not, but it is a start!
Jan Gamm writes reflections on life with an emphasis on world travel. She has lived in many countries and traveled extensively in the Far East, the Middle East, America, South America and throughout the South Pacific. She writes for fun and for money whenever she can manage it.
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