Theresa Kiene
Chief Executive Mommy

One of the coolest things about working in our baby food tasting room is that I get to feed and play with Babies everyday.

As my oldest turned 10 over the weekend (yes, I was a little weepy) working with other parents’ babies is a constant reminder of the joy and fulfillment I get as a mom every time I serve my family a healthy meal. Although every baby that I meet is different, the way they express the joys of eating is always the same. It’s now going on 10 years that I’ve been cooking and feeding fresh, organic baby food – and since I’m in the baby food business – that’s literally thousands of babies. I’ve noticed that when I meet moms most of them have already had the “First Foods” feeding conversation with their pediatricians – but they still have so many unanswered questions. There are so many topics to cover at the doctor’s office and there’s only so much time doctors have to give…

The question that moms always ask me the most often is: which first foods do they begin with, fruits or vegetables?

Some moms worry that if they begin with fruits, their baby won’t love veggies, since fruits are sweet and would spoil their taste buds. And really, what mother doesn’t want their kid to love vegetables?

My personal opinion is that after your baby has been introduced to iron-fortified cereals and you’re ready to introduce other solid foods, it really doesn’t matter what you begin with, either fruits or veggies. If you’ve breast fed your baby then they’ve already experienced the sweetest taste on the planet and no fruit can compete with that! Formula fed babies also experience sweet tastes even if not quite the same as breast milk.

So don’t worry when your child pushes away the broccoli because their first fruit was a banana. A variety of healthy, developmentally appropriate taste experiences are the way to go. If you want more info on appropriate first foods go to the “Nutrition” section of www.homemadebaby.com. Or better yet – bring your baby by our baby food tasting room – I’d love to meet them!

Tags: baby food, fruits, Moms, nutrition, vegetables

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Baby Care, Baby Nutrition, Moms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.