Predicting What My Toddler Will Eat Is Harder Than Starting My Own Business
But I’m learning
Butternut squash was my daughter’s first food.
Grace was 4 months old when my family gathered in my mom’s kitchen to watch the little butterball on my lap try her first “solid.” Would she like it? Had I picked the right starter food? All the baby cookbooks gave butternut squash high marks on the first-food canvas, so I felt confident. Plus, I had grand plans for being a puree mom, so I hoped she was as excited by the prospect of solids as I was.
As the soft-tipped baby spoon came her way, she followed it with her big, brown eyes, and then opened her mouth wide. To everyone’s surprise, she lapped up that spoonful (and the many that followed) like she’d been eating professionally for years. As the co-founder of the culinary site New Worlder, it was a very proud moment for mama.
Fast forward to nearly two years later. The days of purees that my daughter inhaled with greedy, sloppy abandon are long over. I’m now the proud mother of a finicky and opinionated toddler. Since her puree days, I swore that I would not raise a chicken-finger-and-buttered-pasta eater, but realized that could be beyond my control if I didn’t set the guidelines for healthy, varied eating at this young age. I’d spent years traveling the globe…
