Vegetable-First Weaning: A Parents' Guide
The veg-led, or vegetable first, weaning approach involves feeding your child a variety of single vegetables for the first two weeks of weaning, and is hailed by child development experts as the best way to introduce your child to a healthy and varied diet right off the bat. Read on for our guide on how and when to start your vegetable weaning, and when to start introducing other foods…
The Concept
Babies’ diets are often decided by simplicity and palette preferences rather than what would be the best developmentally. Historically, the first foods introduced into babies’ diets would be things such as baby porridge, apple sauce, or rice pudding. Babies have a preference for sweet foods and will immediately take to sweeter ingredients, however this may make it harder for them to accept or enjoy different types of flavours later on. Research suggests that introducing babies to a wide variety of flavours and textures at an early age encourages healthy eating throughout their life - so it’s definitely worth a try!
Where to Start
Before getting to the sweeter foods mentioned above, try simply pureeing single vegetables and seeing how your baby reacts to them. Vegetables such as carrots and avocados are softer and sweeter, whereas leafier or more fibrous vegetables such as kale or broccoli are more bitter and savoury. Start off with something fairly neutral, like potatoes, before advancing to stronger flavours such as spinach or aubergine. Try a single variety of vegetable per day so that you can monitor your child’s likes and dislikes, and adapt from there!
Top Tips
- Don’t be discouraged if they don’t seem to like anything you’re giving them. Try mixing in a bit of breastmilk or formula to smooth and slightly sweeten vegetables, and if that fails return to a vegetable you know that they like!
- Use fun plates and cutlery to encourage your child to experience mealtimes as fun! Our sectioned plates are designed with animal patterns to engage your baby - and they can also help you to portion appropriately or separate foods!
- Allow your child to play with their food! Letting your child get their hands and face dirty allows them to engage all of their senses when eating, so they not only have an idea of the flavour but also the smell and texture. All of this is part of their learning experience!
Last but not least - have fun with it! Introduce your child to vegetables you like yourself, eat together, and show them how much you’re enjoying it! Babies often reflect their parents’ reactions, so this is a good moment for bonding as well as discovery! Once your child has gone through their first fortnight of vegetables you can start to introduce different, sweeter, flavours and textures, such as fruits or pureed proteins!