3 Try, try again
The carrots were a bust—so try
again in a couple of days. Repeat as necessary. Studies say about three
out of four moms throw in the towel after their baby refuses a new food
five or fewer times. The problem is, research shows it can take up to 15
tries before a child will accept a new food. "If you can get your child
to try something six to 10 times, you have a very high likelihood of
forming a preference for that food," says Dr. Greene. As an example, he
cites one study in which researchers asked moms to give their babies the
vegetable purée they hated the most every other day. "A little after
two weeks [and eight exposures to the veggie], most of them loved the
food," says Dr. Greene. As your baby gets older, be prepared for periods
of pickiness, and when your toddler declares his once-loved carrots
"yucky," just switch up how you serve them: roast them one day, grate
them into muffins another, steam them and offer them with a side of
hummus.
4 Spice things up
"There's no research that says we
have to give babies a bland diet," says Jeannette Bessinger, co-founder
of realfoodmoms.com and author of Great Expectations: Best Food for
Your Baby & Toddler. "Once they're enjoying a food plain, introduce
it with mild herbs and spices." Blend cilantro into avocado, nutmeg into
sweet potatoes, cinnamon into apples, suggests Tracy. The possibilities
are endless when you make your own purées. A few baby food companies,
including Jack's Harvest and Petite Palate, offer blends infused with
spices and herbs such as ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, sage and mint.
Toddlers might even enjoy a little heat. After her daughter's first
birthday, Lisa Pawlik, a mom in Underhill, Vermont, started feeding her
mostly whatever she and her husband were eating—including a Thai red
curry dish. "I remember her at 18 months carefully draping her face with
the noodles, waiting for us to laugh at her and then quickly eating
them all," says Pawlik.
No comments:
Post a Comment