What a joyful milestone it is for both infants and their parents when little ones taste their first solid food. Certain vegetables are excellent candidates as some of babies’ first foods. Infants are usually ready to start eating vegetables when they are about 6 months old, but check with your pediatrician or nutritionist for more detailed information and guidance. If you have a bit of time, it’s easy to prepare infants’ vegetables at home. Alternatively, you may buy jars of baby food at your grocery store. If you give your baby whole food pieces, rather than pureed baby food, cut them up into pieces that are small enough to minimize choking risk.
Squashes, including yellow summer squash, zucchini, butternut squash, acorn squash, pumpkin and other winter squash varieties, are some of the simplest and most suitable vegetables for infants. You can bake or steam them, then peel and mash by hand or puree in your blender. Add some pure water, if desired, to make the consistency more liquid. Look for jars of squash baby food in the grocery store if you prefer not to cook it yourself.
Sweet Potatoes or Yams
The beautiful deep orange color and soft texture of sweet potatoes and yams are sure to appeal to infants. Simply bake whole sweet potatoes or steam sliced sweet potatoes, and then peel them thoroughly. Mash them with a fork or blend them with some pure water in your food processor or blender. Sweet potatoes are popular as a baby food, so you should have no trouble finding jars of baby food at the store if you don't want to make your own.
Carrots provide flavor and bright orange color that infants tend to find appealing. It’s easy to prepare them yourself at home by first steaming or boiling them and then turning them into a liquid-like consistency in your blender or food processor. If you don’t have time to prepare carrots, jars of baby food carrots are readily available at grocery stores.
Peas provide a vibrant green color and delicious sweet taste that infants may find appealing. Mash steamed or boiled warm peas along with some water or breast milk, and feed them to your infant with a baby-sized spoon. At 6 months old, your baby can eat peas prepared in this way. Keep frozen peas on hand for convenience. Whole peas are unsafe for children to eat until they are 3 years old because of the choking risk involved, so hold off on serving them until then.
For young babies just starting to eat solid foods, serve mashed or pureed frozen or fresh green beans. Mash or puree cooked green beans until the texture is smooth, by hand or in your food processor, and mix in a little water or breast milk to create a more liquid consistency. You can combine and serve mashed or pureed green beans with other first vegetables such as mashed or pureed carrots for flavor complexity.
- BabyFood101: Carrots
- BabyFood101: Sweet Potato/Yams
- BabyFood101: Green Beans
- BabyFood101: Winter Squash
- BabyFood101: Peas
- Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Homemade Baby Food Preparation
- Kids Eat Right: Baby Food – Make It Yourself? MayoClinic.com: Solid Foods – How to Get Your Baby Started
- Whole Foods for Babies and Toddlers; Margaret Kenda; 2001
- carrot image by Andrzej Włodarczyk from Fotolia.com