Weaning - adding flavour to veg?

[applestrudels]

(Sorry if this is a silly question, I just find all the weaning advice so confusing!)

I gave my baby (6 months) her first taste of food yesterday - plain puréed broccoli, as a lot of friends had said that’s what they had done. She hated it.

Now the theory that I had heard is that you should introduce them to bitter/savoury tastes first, such as green veg, AND that you should introduce each veg on its own, so they get used to vegetables and don’t become fussy eaters. Which obviously is my goal.

BUT, I was thinking.. I had a taste of the puréed broccoli myself and even I thought it was grim, and then I thought, well of course it is, as an adult, when would you EVER eat plain green veg without at the very least a bit of butter, or some salt and pepper, or gravy, or olive oil, or a bit of onion or garlic or herbs, or balsamic vinegar? Never is the answer in my case, and I consider myself to have a very wide and varied diet. So now I’m thinking, why am I trying to make my baby eat something I wouldn’t eat myself?

Now obviously I know I can’t give her salt or gravy, but can anyone tell me: is there any reason why I shouldn’t add a bit of unsalted butter or olive oil, or garlic or herbs and spices to the green veg I give her (both from a nutritional point of view and the point of view of getting her used to different flavours)?

The way I see it is, if the ultimate goal is to get her to eat family meals then surely flavouring foods the way we eat them ourselves will achieve that (within what is safe for babies obviously ). But am I looking at it the wrong way?

Why bother puréeing it? Just give her steamed broccoli. She can hold it and might like it better.

Not sure if this helps but you can get stock cubes suitable for babys that are 6months+

We gave steamed or boiled broccoli with butter. She loved it!

Hi my son is 7 months old and when I started weaning I didn't have a clue! So I've given him butter in veg and garlic even. He's had roasted veg with onions and oil. He's absolutely fine with it. At this age it's all about exploring taste and texture rather than gaining calories from solids as their calories are still coming from milk feeds. I'm still doing about 7 milk feeds in 24 hours. A friend recommended I listen to joe wicks wean in 15 podcasts and they've been reassuring. The other thing I'd say is they always make a funny face when trying something new - it's hilarious. But when they get used to it that does stop. Good luck sounds like you're doing a great job

I haven't weaned a baby for nearly 2 decades so I know I am way out of date, but I wo7ld have thought broccoli was a fairly hard-core start to weaning. Green veg can be quite bitter. I'm pretty sure I started with carrot, which is a sweeter flavour, and cauliflower, which is blunder.

blander

Start with root veg as they are naturally a bit sweeter. Then you could introduce broccoli mixed with a little bit of apple or pear, or with a bit of milk (can use formula or BM if you like) to make a milder flavour.

Start with carrot or sweet potato or just do some steamed broccoli so your baby can experience the texture too. Remember it can take them several tries before they take to a new flavour so don't give up on something too quickly.
Remember too that our palates are ruined by expecting salt/sugar and other crap in everything. You really don't need to add "flavour" to veg.

I'm a firm believer in the whole 'must give savoury before sweet' is a load of bollocks

I never read anything, just fed whatever and puréed it

I very rarely have anything on my vegetables to be honest so I’m a bit confused and wondering if I’m the only one who eats them plain?
My experience of weaning both my DC has been that it takes several tries of a food (there’s some research that it takes more than ten times) before they could be described as enjoying it and I think in the long run it’s better and healthier if they’re used to eating veg plain. With my second DC I didn’t bother worrying about the savoury before sweet thing and just give him anything my older DD is eating or can find in the fridge at any one time

I would just give broccoli and cauliflower as a floret to hold and try.

Bitter veg puréed I would mix. Ie spinach and potato. If you look at jars they don’t just have spinach or broccoli. They mix slightly plainer or sweet together. Sweet potato and lentil, parsnip, cauliflower and cheese.

I have just started with my 5+ month old. For this week I will try him on cauliflower, avocado, parsnip. So not super sweet, but not as bitter either. Once he’s 6+ months il add butter/ cheese/ dairy/ fish etc to his meals.
I mainly plan to let baby eat himself in chunks (blw), but will spoon feed yogurt, porridge, soups etc as needed.

I started with mashed up banana and my son (now 2) is in no way fussy / likes his veg. Starting with fruit isn't necessarily the disaster the books make it out to be! I just went with my gut and fed him healthy stuff I thought he'd like.

Stick with it.

We’ve done the Joe Wicks-style two weeks of bitter veg. Baby has had courgette, spinach, aubergine etc. We also started with broccoli.

Do some as a finger food and some as a purée so they get used to tastes and textures.

Starting with sweet veg like carrot is outdated advice as they get used to enjoying sweet things. I’d say same for flavourings - let them enjoy the natural flavours first.

It can be weird seeing your baby go bonkers for mushed up plain courgette, but they will.

It’s about learning rather than how much they eat.

Like pls have said, just give her a few boiled florets to hold. At 6 months she’ll be fine with finger foods. I also roasted veg like sweet potato and carrots in the oven with olive oil at that age. Didn’t use spices for a while though. The natural flavours will be exciting enough for her - her palate is nothing like yours so don’t worry about that.

I understand you'd never tolerate puréed brocolli but you've also not spent 6 months drinking just milk. You could give her a spoon of Nutella and she would squirm and screw her face up. Also you want long term for her to like all flavours - not just garlic / fat / spice

Don't worry about any faces they pull, that doesn't mean much/anything.
We did the two weeks of bitter veg thing to start with and our DD who is a bit older now loves veg.
We didn't worry about seasoning for a good while and still don't with plain veg, just with meals.
As pp said, starting with "sweeter" veg is outdated advice.

I used to add a mild cheese sauce to the purees i made for the kids.

The single veg thing is not only for that reasoning but because it allows you to introduce baby slowly and recognise what exactly bothered her if she has a reaction. So if you added butter to the broccoli straight away and she got an upset stomach, you wouldn’t know if it was the butter (dairy potentially) or the broccoli.

Babies won’t always like what you give them. Just try a different single veg. I also started with single more bitter vegetables and now he eats anything I give him!

Good luck