How can you introduce fresh food into your baby's diet? Raisingkids.co.uk's paediatric dietitian, David Swain, gives us a few pointers.

Raisingkids member's query
My daughter is 15 months old and I can't get her to eat anything other than jars of baby food. It's like she knows if it hasn't come out of a jar. I have tried making her meals and blending them down, but she just refuses to try and ends up with yet another jar of baby food. Is this normal and what can I do?

David's advice
This is not an uncommon problem at all, but it's important to understand the reasons why her tastes are not developing as you'd expect.

Firstly, it's likely that she has become used to the texture of the jar foods and is thus refusing to eat other foods that don't have the same consistency. Secondly, she has probably become so familiar with jar foods that other foods just seem alien to her (food rituals and faddiness is not uncommon amongst toddlers).

You do not say whether your daughter enjoys finger foods, but introducing
these is a good way of introducing new foodstuffs and textures into her
diet. Even babies who dislike lumpy foods usually take to them.
Finger foods also give your baby an element of choice as to what she eats.

Finger foods should be big enough for your daughter to pick up easily and free of peel, pips, stones, pith, strings, bones and tough membranes.
'Bite and Dissolve' foods such as Skips or Wotsits are good things to start with as they are usually tolerated well and are reasonably easy to swallow without choking (remember to stay near your baby during feeding to give encouragement and to prevent choking).

Other good finger food choices include toast fingers, dry breakfast cereals such as Rice Krispies, cubes of hard cheese, small cubes or sticks of cooked vegetables such as carrots or potatoes, breadsticks, banana, and peeled apple slices. The best meats to offer are soft ones such as chicken, turkey and other white meats. Chunks of red meat can often be too tough.

With regards to blending down your own meals and food, you are quite right to be doing this and my advice is to continue to persevere. By making your own baby food you can slowly increase the consistency of foods, something that is not possible with jars. Once your baby is managing food with lumps, you can progress onto mashed and minced food rather than pureed.

It may be that you will have to stop giving your baby jars before she will eat your food. One method could be to stop giving her jars, perhaps at lunchtime initially, but still allow her a jar in the evening. This way she will soon realise that if she doesn't eat your food at lunch, she will go hungry until the evening.

If you feel that your child's diet is very restricted then it may be wise to continue giving her formula milk (instead of full fat cow's milk) until she starts taking a greater variety of food. She should be having no more than a pint of milk per day. Any more than a pint will make her too full to eat her meals.

Finally, if this problem continues, it would be sensible to speak with your GP and ask to be referred to a paediatric dietician who can assess diets and give individually tailored advice.

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