question for Mamas who cook for their babies??

Question

At what age did you start spicing up their meals? Not salting but spicing and cooking with onions?? I noticed the store bought stuff adds spices from age 8 months and up....?

Answer 1

Immediately. I've always let my son eat family foods (as well as some meals I prepared just for him). Breastfed babies are used to spices in mom's milk and studies show breastfed babies drink MORE milk if mom has eaten garlic.

There is no need to withhold herbs and spices. Salt for obvious reasons should be restricted but not avoided altogether.

*lol* And onions are just another vegetable around here.

http://parenting.ivillage.com/newborn/nbreastfeed/0,,3x86,00.html
Though your expressed milk may have a pungent aroma, researchers have found that babies actually prefer garlic flavored mothers' milk! In one study, nursing moms were given either a placebo or a garlic capsule on the day of testing. It was found that the infants nursed longer, sucked more, and took in a larger quantity, when their mom's milk had the aroma and flavor of garlic (Mennella & Beauchamp, 1991). It has been hypothesized that the fetus has already been exposed to a variety of flavors and tastes while in utero (and the sense of taste is functional), so this taste may be quite familiar.

In the United States we sometimes forget about nursing moms in other cultures. Indian moms who are nursing continue to enjoy their curries. Moms from Mexico will still eat their spicy dishes that are full of flavor. But we feel that while nursing we must adhere to a bland diet, and this is just not the case for most nursing moms.


http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipcurry.htm
Parents elsewhere in the world often start babies on heartier, more flavorful fare, from meats in African countries to fish and radishes in Japan and artichokes in France.

The difference is cultural, not scientific, says Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' nutrition committee who says the American approach suffers from a Western bias that fails to reflect the nation's ethnic diversity.

[...]

Take rice cereal, for example. Under conventional American wisdom, it's the best first food. But Butte says iron-rich meat, often one of the last foods American parents introduce, would be a better choice.

Dr. David Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston, a specialist in pediatric nutrition, says some studies suggest rice and other highly processed grain cereals actually could be among the worst foods for infants.

"These foods are in a certain sense no different from adding sugar to formula" and could contribute to later health problems, including obesity, he says.

And bring on the spices. Science is catching up with the folklore that babies in the womb and those who are breast-fed taste, and develop a taste for, whatever mom eats. So experts say that if mom enjoys loads of oregano, baby might, too.

Answer 2

Stay away from the store bought foods!!! Keep doing what your doing, if you cook the onions in milk it will take the sharpness away. but obviously, if you cook them in a meal with other foods it will just blend, the baby will get the taste for them. I used to make mashed potatoes for my little guy, with a bit of garlic in them, he loved them, he was 7 months,

Answer 3

I always use seasonings with the food I make. My 2 year daughter loves it. She will eat salsa when we go out to eat like it is going out of style, even when it is really hot. I would say about a year and a half is when she started eating everything daddy and I were eating.

Answer 4

At 9-10 months they ate table food just like the rest of us. They loved it! Even curries.

Answer 5

As soon as she could eat. I grew up in the southwest, and my 2 year old LOVES green chili, and salsa, there isn't much that is "too spicy".

Answer 6

i think you should start at the age of one year old that is my best anser

Answer 7

at one year old he ate what we ate