And that's the way it is with toddlers. One day, they're eating everything on their plate and you give yourself a little pat on the back. Other days, they simply refuse meals. It's a challenge coming up with three healthful and appealing meals each day.
For me, it's not just about getting her to eat. I want her to eat well. Like many parents, my husband, Josh, and I try to cut back on processed foods and emphasize organic or local produce.
I started thinking more about Mila's diet when she began eating solid foods around 6 months of age. We were living in Shanghai, and imported baby food wasn't cheap. It made more sense to prepare my own purees. I set out to cook, equipped with Annabel Karmel's The Healthy Baby Meal Planner (Simon & Shuster).
Karmel, a best-selling author who is considered a leading expert on baby and toddler nutrition, stresses the importance of bringing up children on fresh foods from the start to ease the transition into family meals.
A friend's gift of a Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker (a French-made blender, steamer, warmer, and defroster, all in one unit) also proved enormously helpful, though once I decided to make larger quantities to freeze, I used my own kitchen appliances.
To me, the purees really did taste much better than processed foods from a jar, and I think Mila felt the same way. She spit out jarred baby food by the time she was seven months. I had given them a try, thinking that it could introduce her to more flavors.
But Mila was eating my sweet potato with spinach and peas, tomatoes and carrots with basil, among other homemade purees. Following Karmel's advice, I was introducing a wide variety of tastes and textures in an effort to develop Mila's taste buds and foster good eating habits.
