Tip #6

I'm going to switch gears today and give a tip for parents of very little ones. Most of my tips are for kids that are a little older, but I don't think that the babies should be ignored. In fact, their eating habits and the food you choose to introduce to them can shape the kinds of foods they will eat for the rest of their lives.

Skinny kids fat world tip #6 is:

Start your baby with healthy, nutritious food from the very beginning.


My youngest daughter is just over 6 months old. Now, I know that some people hold to the belief that children should not have solids until 6 months, or 9 months, or until they have teeth, or until their mother tells them. Yes, I am aware that for every mother, there is a different method of introducing solids. Now, I am not here to tell you that my way is the best or that your way is the worst. I am just going to tell you what we are doing with my daughter and tell you why. Maybe you will read it and it will make sense, maybe it won't. At any rate, I think we can all agree that healthy eating habits start early.

First, we started by introducing a grain. Rice cereal is rich in in iron and most baby cereals have extra iron added in. this is important, especially for breast-fed babies because they may not be getting all of the iron they need from milk alone. We gave our daughter about a week with just one meal in the evening of rice cereal to start getting used to the process of eating and to allow her digestive system to get acquainted with how to process solids. Then, we started to introduce vegetables.

We made sure that we introduced 3 or 4 vegis before we switched to fruits. We wanted her to get used to the flavor and find them enjoyable before giving her something sweet as an alternative. We allowed a few days in between the introduction of each new food to watch for any reactions.

The thing to keep in mind is that some foods might not seem very tasty at first. Your child might hate peas at first (mine did), however you can't just say "Well, baby doesn't like peas" and just stop giving your child peas. Try warming up the peas, try room temperature, and try cold. Some foods might taste different to your child at different temperatures and you may find that they won't eat warm squash but cold squash is great. Also, try mixing in a little breast milk or formula to the vegetable. This can help mellow out the flavor a bit and sometimes by mixing it with something familiar they will find it more desirable. Slowly reduce the amount of milk (or formula) that you mix in until you don't need to mix anything in at all. As you continue to add things together, you will find that some vegis will be received much better than others.

The first time you present a new fruit or vegi, give it your baby straight. For example, instead of giving them mixed vegis with carrots to start them on carrots, actually give them carrots without milk or formula mixed in. Let them taste the food "as is" before trying to disguise it or doctor it up. If it isn't received well, then go ahead and try to change it up a bit.

The last part of this tip is actually the biggest part. Do not, DO NOT add sugar or salt to the fruits and vegis. As your child gets older, you want them to know what apples taste like, not what apples with sugar taste like. If every time they eat apples you add sugar, then they will grow to understand that apples should be sweeter than they are. Regular apples will then taste like something is missing. We don't want that. We do not need to teach our children that all foods need sugar and salt. We need them to learn that vegis and fruits taste good as is, not with extra stuff that they don't need.

A baby (toddler) has a small stomach. When you begin to decide what you are putting into that belly, consider that you don't want them to have sugar going in instead of healthy food. Do not give them "baby apple pie" instead of baby apples. Look at the contents on the jar of food. It should list things that you recognize and nothing that sounds like an added sugar. Baby apples should contain apples (and maybe some water). That's it.

I will not get onto the big organic kick right now, but suffice it to say that it's a good thing. If you can buy some things organic and not others, then do. Just do what you can and try to do what's best for your kids. It will pay off in the long run.

Now, after saying all this, I'm also going to tell you to realize that some foods just don't always appeal to your child. My daughter, for example, decided that apples must have been put here by the devil himself. She hated them. Now, I tried to mix it with her oatmeal and I attempted to mix it with breast milk. I tried it cold and warm. She spit it right back at me. She eats green beans like they are going out of style but apples were just not her thing. So, I took a tiny bit of cinnamon and mixed it into her apples. Well, it was amazing. I swear I heard her say "yum" but that's probably my imagination.

Introducing herbs and spices should be treated the same way as introducing new vegis and fruits. You should not introduce more than one at a time and you should keep an eye out for a rare reaction. I actually found some peas and green beans packaged with mint. It smelled like gum, but a child that isn't very happy about eating dark green vegis might find it quite appealing. Cinnamon or nutmeg might be a nice addition to apples or pears. In many other cultures, children are introduced to spices and herbs at the same time as they are introduced to solids. Many American children aren't introduced to these flavors until they are much older. Instead, we start mixing sugar into their oatmeal instead of cinnamon. Let's change that.

So, lets start being conscientious of what we feed our children, especially the littlest ones. A jar of baby apples costs the exact same as a jar of baby apple pie, so please make the better choice. If you really want to give your baby an "apple pie" kind of dessert, mix a little baby oatmeal with apples and cinnamon. There is no added sugar but will give them a very nice alternative to plain apples.

Skinny kids fat world tip #6

Start early to build healthy eating habits and leave the salt and sugar in the pantry, there are many better alternatives to dumping sugar into their oatmeal.