When can you introduce spices?
We've been feeding our son solid foods for a few months now, mostly baby food (Gerber and Earth's Best) though we recently starting giving him some fruits, some veggies, chicken, pasta and rice. When can we start giving him foods that have spices on them? I'm wondering when items like sauce, curry and asian flavors are okay. [I'm guessing it's best to avoid salt and probably pepper too, right?]
Also, are there any good recipes that people have that work for both the parents and the baby at this stage? I'd like to make one menu if I can.
Thanks!
1 Answers
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With baby 1 we were very careful, kept him on pureed and established baby foods. With baby 2 we were/are almost the opposite. We're keeping her away from nuts and honey and round balls or chunks that are choking hazards (cut grapes in 2 for example), but other than that we've been offering her food from our plates at the very earliest that we thought she could deal with it (5 mos onward, well before her teeth began to come in). This includes sauces, curries, asian flavors, whatever.
Sometimes she tells us the food is too spicy - she's a lot more sensitive than we are, and so we only offer her the milder foods on our plate. But often, her only concern is how hot things are, and so we wait until they're cool before we set it in front of her.
I don't believe that there are any concerns about the baby's ability to digest adult-flavored foods - at least I've never come across any info like that - just a question as to its palatibility. And if that's the case, then my response is to try to expose both kids to as much as possible (that I like and is healthy) as often as possible, as early and as long as possible.
So far, I don't have any real evidence that our approach with baby 1 was better than our approach with baby 2, or vice versa, but our approach with baby 2 is generally easier and lazier and doesn't seem to be doing any harm :)
Today's lunch - split pea soup with orzo and pieces of cheddar cheese! :-)
- Alana, Feb 8, 2010
Ok, got a few suggestions from reading other posts on related questions. Still wondering when spices are okay. Thanks!
- Alana, Jan 25, 2010