Baby, You Ain't Seen or Tasted Nothin' Yet!

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

I knew the day that my second born son would try his first real food would come very quickly. The time seems to go by so fast with subsequent children, plus it looks like he is racing through his milestones just trying to catch up to his older brother. Since he was less than three months old, he has been watching anyone who is eating with an intent stare and grabbing at my plate whenever he sat on my lap as I ate.

So at our last doctor checkup, we were given the go ahead to start the little guy on food, beginning with rice cereal. And what do you know, he loved it! The general advice is to start with rice cereal (it poses the least risk of allergies) and then move on to vegetables first, with fruits to follow, giving each new food three days to determine if there are any allergies.

A few foods to avoid in the beginning include honey, any potential allergens such as nuts, shellfish, or citrus fruits, and any items that pose a choking risk. Fruits are started after vegetables since if they have fruit first they may start to prefer the taste of sweet and not accept the veggies. Combinations come later, when you can see that your baby tolerates one or both foods. The banana-cado recipe below is a great early food for a baby, both bananas and avocados are easily digestible and full of nutrients. It’s a great portable homemade baby food that is my almost one-year-old nephew’s favorite!

We started right around five months but some people start as early as four months (although the advice that mixing rice cereal into the bottle helps babies to sleep longer is now frowned upon), and many others wait until after six months. It’s best to go by your baby’s cues. The little guy has only had rice cereal and a couple of vegetables so far, but he greets each new food with delight and lots of happy sounds. I forgot what a joy it is to see a baby trying a new food for the first time.

There’s nothing magic about baby food in a jar. With my firstborn, I spent lots of time pureeing roasted or steamed veggies and fruits and freezing portions in ice cube trays. There are all kinds of fancy gadgets for making and storing baby foods but I have yet to try them. One kitchen item I do plan to use when making baby food is a grinder attachment that fits right onto my mixer. In fact, once your baby has tried enough foods, you can puree whatever the rest of the family is eating to spoon feed him or her. This is the best way to get a baby used to a wide variety of flavors.

There is also a new school of thought called baby led weaning, where instead of feeding your baby pureed foods, you can give the little one small pieces of cut up food, and let them play with and learn about it. The food needs to be soft or cut up small enough so it does not pose a choking risk. I’d like to explore this concept a bit and will share more about it in a future column.

My little guy may have beaten me to the punch on that one. One night recently we were eating dinner and he grabbed a green bean right off my plate. I let him play around with it and he stuck it right in his mouth! Since green beans are one of the first foods you can give a baby, I didn’t worry too much. Of course he has no teeth to chew it and eat it yet, but it seems like he really enjoyed the feel of it in his mouth. An added bonus is that my two-and-a-half year old son saw and then started eating his own green beans with more enthusiasm than I have seen since his first Thanksgiving!

I look forward to sharing more baby food ideas with you and please share any that you my have as well!

Serves/Makes: 1

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 banana