How to Raise a Foodie Baby

An expectant father (and friend) just asked us for advice on how to raise a foodie baby. This was in response to seeing Miss M. (2 3/4 years old) chow down at my birthday brunch.

First of all, it may not always be possible to raise a foodie baby. I've seen families that have two food loving kids and one very picky child. The debate of nature versus nurture aside, people do have different palates from an early age and sometimes it takes a while to develop adventurous appetites. I love Ethiopian food now, but I can remember being a young teenager and pouting through a Ethiopian meal after whining, "can't I just have a hamburger?"

But what did we do that might encourage this child of ours to love eating almost everything? Well, being foodies ourselves and loving to cook and share food together helps I'm sure. She enjoys watching us cook, and from the time she was an infant we would talk to her while preparing meals, explaining each step. Now she often helps, even if it is just pushing the salad spinner, adding ingredients, or stirring a pot.

All her baby food was homemade, and we followed the Dr.'s advice to introduce veggies first...peas, sweet potatoes, carrots. We just used a stick immersion blender and whirled up steamed veggies, then filled ice cube trays and froze them for use later. It was easy to pull a few out and defrost for her meals. We eat many of our meals with her, so she sees us try new things, share with each other, and talk about the food. She loves trying new foods, with her favorites foods being tofu, cheese (any kind, even goat's milk), raspberries, blueberries, frozen peas (gave her some to help with teething but she still asks for "froze peas," and hey, that's an easy request to honor) and yogurt. She recently went crazy for Red Bore Kale. It WAS delicious, my husband is seriously good with greens.

We also bundled her up at an early age to take to the farmer's market and out to nice restaurants. She is a very well behaved dinner companion. I don't think she's ever cried in a restaurant, it is just too much fun for her and she is fascinated with the comings and goings of the restaurant staff. I can remember her saying, "Where did the man go with my plate?" This weekend we went out for sushi. She said, "I love this place." She is especially fond of miso soup.

The other recommendation I would make is that you don't have to stick to bland food. Let them experiment and see what they like. My mother's rule was always, "You don't have to eat it if you don't like it, but you DO have to try it." M. has had plenty of homemade pasta and cheese, but I think she's only had Kraft once. Never had a pop tart, though her Uncle says he will rectify that soon. She does have sweets occasionally (and dark chocolate is her fave), but I find she is just as happy with a dried apricot. I don't want to keep her from enjoying kiddie favorites, but I feel if I can give her the best foods possiblee to help her grow and flourish, why shouldn't I? I only wish I'd eat as well as she does. :) I also want our meals to be happy events. Not rushed, and if she really doesn't like to eat something, I just take it away. We aren't short order cooks, but we might give her a few choices from other easy things on hand, like a piece of fruit or some raw veggie.

I just found this book on Amazon and will be ordering it. Yes, she does wear a bib, and happily eats what catches there.

Miss M. doesn't like fast food. We don't have it often, but when on a long road trip, we stopped at a McDonald's and she ate one bite of burger, two fries, and then drank all the apple juice. Not into it at all. Perhaps she prefers organic only? Not sure, but I sure do love my little foodie girl.

Food is often an event for us, we savor it and discuss it, we try new foods. Today we found a great Caribbean restaurant and I gave a bit of everything to Miss M. to try. She went crazy for the yams. I was pretty crazy about the jerk chicken.