ALL IN GOOD TASTE!

Tired of serving vegetable mush or random crudités to your unimpressed baby? Don’t worry, there is another way—welcome to flavour-led weaning

Weaning is a subject that tends to polarise people. There are the baby-led evangelists who won’t spoon anything into their little one’s mouth—it’s all cubes and batons. Then there are those who prepare endless ice-cube trays of mushed veg. And while lots of parents are somewhere in the middle, trying a mixture of purée and finger foods, many wonder if these two approaches really are the only way to introduce a baby to solids.

When ex-Waitrose food buyer Lydia Garrett started offering food to her now three year old son, Atticus, at six months, she followed her health visitor’s advice. “I gave him baby rice, then mashed potato mixed with breastmilk, then blended veg, but he wouldn’t eat any of it,” she says. “I couldn’t blame him—it looked so unappetising.”

Lydia, who now runs cooking classes for new mums, alongside the website flavourforbaby.com, researched how parents in other countries wean their babies. It turns out that in France baby rice is practically unheard of. Instead it’s all about encouraging infants to love food. During the first month of weaning, the French introduce their infants to lots of different veg—and they rotate these regularly.

“I wanted a fun, flavour-packed way to introduce food,” she says. “Weaning here is run by midwives, doctors and health visitors rather than people who are passionate about food. It’s seen as a developmental duty, like potty training. I think we put children off veg due to the unimaginative way we serve it.”

A NEW HEALTHY BABY SECRET