When you start feeding solid foods to your baby it will be a case of trial and error in order to get your baby familiar with lots of different tastes and textures.
Firstly, you can try a few spoons of pureed vegetables (e.g. carrots, swede, sweet potato, courgette and butternut squash) or fruits (e.g. apple, pear, mango, papaya or mashed bananas.)
Carrots and butternut squash are a really great way of introducing babies to vegetables as they don't have as strong a taste as other vegetables.
Banana and papaya are great fruits to start off with as they don’t need to be cooked and providing they are ripe enough can be easily puréed or mashed. In the beginning to get your baby used to new flavours and textures you can add a little of their usual milk.
Baby cereals such as baby rice can also be used as they are mixed with your baby's usual milk which is a taste your baby will recognise. In the early stage of weaning it’s a good idea to feed your baby a little milk first so they are not overly hungry and will be more willing to try new foods.
Introduce one food at a time so you can monitor for any potential reactions or allergies. Once your baby is used to fruit, vegetables and cereals; you can then progress on to meals containing lean meat or poultry, fish (no bones) and well-cooked eggs, making sure you blend them to the required consistency.
Introducing a wide range of foods, tastes and textures is important to avoid future fussy eaters.
