Beyond cereal

November 29, 2007 4:03 AM

Your ideas for toddler and/or baby foods from different cultures?

I make my own baby food, but my 13 month old baby is getting too old and too bored, despite my attempts to kick up sweet potatoes. I cook a lot of international foods, but I find it hard to find "baby food" recipes per se. What interesting things do kids eat - even if they are adaptations of adult foods - around the world?

posted by DenOfSizer to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

My girlfriend and her siblings were weaned on avocado mashed up with cream and sugar. It's pretty damn delicious. She's half singaporean, although I'm not sure if it has any cultural authenticity.
posted by roofus at 4:44 AM on November 29, 2007

Try juk (korean rice porridge), especially hobak juk, although it comes in lots of flavours. As a bonus, it makes a great hangover cure as well!
posted by nprigoda at 4:59 AM on November 29, 2007

Why not just give your child the same things you eat?
posted by onhazier at 5:59 AM on November 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

It sounds like juk is the Korean cousin to congee. That wikipedia page lists other similar foods from other countries too.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:20 AM on November 29, 2007

Annabel Karmel - great ideas from a CB chef.

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Parenthood Interview w/AK

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posted by DrtyBlvd at 7:41 AM on November 29, 2007

i have no kids, but here are some things i know kids like:
mild hummus
small cubes of paneer (mild indian cheese)
raita (indian yogurt with cucumber shreds in it)
posted by twistofrhyme at 8:04 AM on November 29, 2007

I have an 8-month-old son who has the particular combination of being nursing obsessed and having a mama unwilling (either because of laziness or stubborness) to make two meals--one for grown-ups and one for baby. This combination meant that we were relatively "late" to solids introduction and his first food was a whole, unmushed, skin-on pear and handfuls of congealed chicken broth from a roasted chicken I was deboning.

This is just to say that he eats whatever we do, with no modification or restrictions, with a few common sense nods to peanuts and the like. Since our part of the world is the granola part of the west coast, he enjoys a lot of sprouted grain-avocado-asian vegetable-salmon type foods, both seasoned and plain.

I have found, in my limited experience, that babies want to do what their families are doing--this includes the dinner table. If you're enjoying what you're eating, then he will enjoy it too. Eating, when you're lucky, is both a nutritional and a social pratice--and I think he'll learn best and be less bored, if he has the pleasure of following your cues and eating your food.

I did have a thought that I might not be doing it "right" and then found this article about baby feeding myths and what babies eat around the world (which more directly answers your question). And so, like anyone who finds something on the internets that validates whatever it is they're already doing, I never gave it another thought!
posted by rumposinc at 8:22 AM on November 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Most cultures around the world don't have "toddler food". Once babies get their teeth, they start eating adult food. The whole idea that toddlers should somehow be eating different foods is a marketing ploy, much like breakfast cereal.

By 13 months, they can eat pretty much what you eat, just cut up into smaller bites, or cooked a little more so that it's a little softer. If you eat food that is too spicy, then reserve a small portion for the kid before you add the spices. Or just rinse out the spices from the food.

13 months is a great age to introduce adult food, because once they get a little older, their willingness to try new tastes shut down, and getting them to eat new flavors will be a battle. If they are introduced to it early (yum brussels sprouts!), most likely, they will continue to enjoy it. My daughter recently drew a picture of her favorite food--a round red circle with a green stem. Most people assume it's a picture of an apple or a cherry, but really, it's a beet.

So give the kid what you're eating, and if it's too hard, then just cook it a little while longer, and make sure to cut it up into smaller portions.
posted by jujube at 8:27 AM on November 29, 2007

My daughter (now two) was very fond of Aloo Gobi (we used the recipe from "Bend it like Beckham" on the DVD commentary---really!), which we processed in the food processor when she didn't have much in the way of teeth. She'd eat a lot of that when she was about 1.

But yeah, in general she gets whatever we are eating (once she got old enough so that we weren't worried about allergies).

(The recipe, for what it's worth, roughly:
1 tbsp whole cumin seeds
2? med/large onions, chopped
a bunch of cilantro, stems and leaves chopped separately
some ginger, chopped fine or grated
a tsp of turmeric?
a cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces
a couple of potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
a can of tomatoes with green chiles
a heaping tsp? of garam masala
salt


(I'm doing this from memory, so I'm not totally sure of the spices.)
Heat the cumin in a bit of oil until it gets brown and fragrant (not too long because you don't want it to burn). Add the onions. Cook for 5 - 10 mins over mediumish heat until it gets translucent and maybe a bit brown around the edges. Add the next two spices and the cilantro stems and cook for a minute or so. Add the can of tomatoes. Cook for a minute or two. Add the cauliflower and potatoes. Mix everything up. Add half a can or so of water when it looks like there's not enough liquid. Cook for a while (10 mins? 20 mins?) until the cauliflower and potatoes are cooked. Add the garam masala and salt. Let sit for a few minues. Stir in the cilantro leaves and serve. If serving to a tooth-challenged toddler, whirl in a food processor and let cool some, and then serve.)
posted by leahwrenn at 11:20 AM on November 29, 2007

Imogen likes rice and beans -- a lot. Cooked in olive oil with a little onion and garlic. She's got a few more teeth now, at 18 months, than yours, but she's been enjoying it for a while.

Also, I like to chop up the tender inside parts of broccoli stems and saute them with onion, finely chopped carrot, and sometimes garlic as well. After the veggies are softish, toss in a couple of teaspoons of cumin, add rice, stir up and then cover with water or broth (2:1 ratio of liquid-to-rice). Cover, bring to a boil and then turn to low and simmer until rice is done.

The adults, the four-year-old, and the toddler like both of these.
posted by BT at 12:06 PM on November 29, 2007

I imagine you've introduced most foods by now, with caveats for skim milk, nuts and shellfish and family allergens. So you should be able to feed your toddler anything you eat. My child is almost three, but, at 13 months, was into pizza, curries, tacos, burritos, souvlakia, hummus, stews, spaghetti, pasta, etc. I've made a conscious effort to use more whole grains and natural products -- so whole wheat flour & pasta, brown rice, etc. But my child will eat pretty much anything we do. The nurses & nutritionists here in Vancouver encourage family meals. Babies like to eat what we eat and anything else is too much work.
posted by acoutu at 1:56 PM on November 29, 2007

I got the Happy Healthy Baby Cookbook out of the library recently, and it's not great, but it does have recipes for stuff like 'baby dahl,' 'nursery kedgeree,' etc. (Also lamb hotpot and apple fool; it's British.) But like others have said, at that age, I'd be going with 'adult' food.
posted by kmennie at 2:38 PM on November 29, 2007

Have you considered fish? I am Asian and my baby (who is Caucasian), my stepdaughter, loved to eat white rice and fish when she was 1 and a half. I fed her white rice with tilapia, but just the white meat with no sauce. If you fry the tilapia, you can eat it too, just cut up the white inside part of the fish small (make sure there are no bones!!) and I am sure the baby will like it. I think it is a "safe" food because the flavor is subtle, not strong. And I have noticed most babies like rice, it has no flavor, at least not a strong one, and it is mushy and easy to chew.
posted by dnthomps at 4:01 AM on December 8, 2007