Your weaning baby’s first food should be fruit and vegetable purées that are easy to prepare and encompass a range of different tastes. The first months of weaning are a critical period for getting your baby to accept new tastes. Try a variety of different foods, it may take longer for your weaning baby to accept bitter tastes such as broccoli but don’t give up, as little as ½ a teaspoon a day will eventually induce a preference for that food.
Seasonal Produce
The best way to ensure your child gets lots of variety in the first year is to use fruit and vegetables that are in season. See our infographic guide below on fruits and vegetables that are in season and how to prepare them for your weaning baby. This also insures optimal nutrition for your baby.
Different Tastes
It is important to include foods that have different tastes such as bitter, sour and sweet. Your baby is born with a sweet tooth because their milk is sweet. Don’t give up trying to introduce the bitter tastes, instead just add some fruit at first to sweeten and then offer again on its own or as a finger food.
Meat and Fish
Once your baby is accepting foods from a spoon you can then introduce meat and fish as long as there are no lumps. By adding meat or fish into the dish it gives the purée a different texture to the runny puree. It is therefore important to do this at six months where your child is more accepting of new textures and tastes. Leaving this until seven months will make it harder for baby to accept.
Herbs and Spices
Your baby can have herbs and spices added to their food from six months of age. Go easy on the chilli as it can upset their tummy but everything else should be fine. If mum has eaten lots of spicy food while pregnant or breastfeeding your baby will already have a taste for spicy food. Check out our simple Chicken Curry suitable from six months and for the rest of the family!
Allergies
Unless you have a family history of allergies you do not need to be concerned with avoiding foods that may lead to allergies. Foods such as dairy, gluten, eggs and fish can be introduced from six months as long as both parents don’t have an allergy to this food. Avoiding foods that might cause allergies limits your child’s diet and they then become picky eaters at 1 year plus.
PDF Printable version of Seasonal Fruit and Veg.
