Having a child is forcing me to not only eat healthier but to consider eating foods I never would have thought to before.

To back up a bit, let me tell you a little about Kate’s transition to solids. I didn’t follow true “baby-led solids” (which avoids all purees), but I also didn’t follow the traditional progression of purees either. I find the purees easy for those fruits and veggies that are annoying to cook or simply not available – having a baby starting solids in the middle of winter kind of limits you to the crap selection in the grocery store. I love using fresh ingredients but the stuff bought in winter in the grocery store goes bad within days in my fridge. So, yes, we did purees, but I tried to always have finger foods available at every meal and opted for fresh if possible.

With food, as with everything else, I really followed Kate’s lead. I offered things, let her taste if she wanted to (which she always did), and put it away if she was done. At first a meal was only tastes of finger foods and maybe 1/3 of a jar of pureed food. At around 8 months old she started getting excited about food and wanting more. She’s tried a large variety of foods and liked most of them. (The exceptions being the jars of carrots, peas and green beans. She HATED peas!) For the first few months she insisted on grabbing the spoon to feed herself. It was messy, and very slow. But she really got a kick out of it and I’m all for enjoying the experience of food. Curiously she stopped doing that at around 9.5 months, as apparently she was too slow for her own liking.

In addition to following her lead I also always strive to lead by example. I tried to always offer her some version of what I was eating. If I had cereal for breakfast, she got cheerios. If I had a grilled cheese, she got cheese and bread. She started off with just the simple versions of things and now she’s eating pretty much what we eat, just cut or torn into small pieces. I waited a while to introduce meats, but it turns out she LOVES meat. (Not the jarred stuff… I seriously couldn’t handle feeding her that, it made me gag. So I waited long enough until I felt she was ready for shredded chicken). She goes crazy for chicken, loves pork tenderloin, ground beef (in tacos)… pretty much anything we give her she dives into, ignoring everything else on her tray.

I wanted her to eat a lot of fruits and veggies, so I started eating more – which helped encourage her, and helped me use up the fruit! I snack on fruits while I’m cutting hers up, and then we both eat together. Luckily I love fruits. Veggies we’re having issues, since I hate most cooked veggies and she’s not ready for raw veggies yet. We’re eating a lot of squash and sweet potato, favorites to both of us. Dairy was never a problem, cheese quickly became a favorite and she seems to like her yogurt and cottage cheese too. Eggs she seems good with and lets me cook a bunch of different things for breakfast. (The AAP is no longer recommending delaying the introduction of possible allergenic foods such as eggs and peanut butter, at least for children of parents who do not have food allergies)

Talking to other people about foods their babies love I’m realizing there are a lot of foods out there that I have never tried. Pretty much any type of bean (black, garbonzo, navy, etc), lentils? Never tried them. Couscous? Quinoa? Nope. And there’s a large array of veggies and even some fruits. Today I tried kiwi for the first time. (Not sure why, but I’ve never had kiwi before. I guess I don’t trust green fruits.)

I don’t really cook much. I have meals that I make, but they’re pretty limited given my tastes (read: very bland and unadventurous). I really dislike trying new recipes because 9 times out of 10 and I won’t like it, which leaves me feeling like I wasted my time and also have no dinner to eat. But here I am, looking up recipes to try to incorporate these new and interesting (weird) foods, because I want Kate to experience them. Maybe, since I’m finding toddler-approved recipes, I’ll have more luck finding something I will eat.