Written by: Le Puree Dietitian, Jess Kurosaki
Let’s chat spice (not spicy).
Have you eaten curry while you were breastfeeding? What about bolognese? How about fried rice? Or a taco?
If the answer is yes, that means you passed those spice blends over to your baby, while they were breastfeeding. Breastmilk takes on some of the flavours we eat in our diet, and your bub is therefore exposed to the flavours you’re eating.
"But wait...Isn’t this dangerous for them?!" Yeah, we've heard that before!
Quite the opposite. Babies love interesting flavours and foods- which is why the greater the variety, the better when introducing solids.
Introducing bold flavours is one of our key pillars at Le Puree, because it means that we’re including babies on the culinary journey that is food and eating.
We don’t love eating bland foods with no flavour for every meal (boiled cauliflower, steamed chicken anyone?), so that’s not who we’re trying to create in these mini foodies that we’re building.
Including babies in the spice (not spicy) adventure means cooking with cinnamon, cardamom, coriander and cumin (does every spice start with a C??)
Adding a dash of ginger and garlic to their rice or noodles is a great place to start. Or add a dash of cinnamon onto their porridge or chia pudding. Gentle flavours which are generally well tolerated.
Once they fall in love with that, you can be a bit more adventurous. Cooking for the family means you’ll probably be including these spices for yourself- so why not dip a toe in with baby’s palate and expose them to one or two flavours at a time, just to ease them into it… and before you know it, they’ll be able to join family meals! This will just make your life easier, by not needing to cook separate meals for everyone at the table, and ensuring that your little eaters will enjoy the meals that you serve up. That’s truly the best way to ensure their nutrition is the best it can be- is by eating with the grownups.
Remember- spices don’t have to mean spicy! As long as you’re steering clear of anything with heat (cayenne, chipotle, chilli powder- again more ‘c’ words!)... they’ll love the exposure!
Once they’re comfortable with these first few flavours, you can expand their palate and take them round the world, while you go to Asia, South America and Europe on a culinary journey with your food- make room for one more on the plane!
