How to cook broccoli for your child (10 ways + bonus cheatsheet)

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One of my pet peeves is hearing the same thing over and over again. Until I snap and use the yelling-mommy-voice and say “I KNOW, OK?”. We all have that voice, I think. And in my case, telling me the same words more than 2-3 times in a row really gets me on my toes. With 2 kids in tow, imagine how often I use that voice these days.  But it’s not the kids that do that to me. If you just google “how to cook broccoli for baby” for example, you’ll get some fairly similar results along the lines … Read more

Spiced winter biscuits (with a secret ingredient)

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Spiced winter biscuits a baby friendly alternative to gingerbread

This biscuit recipe rose from a love-hate relationship with gingerbread.   I would love to say it wasn’t so, that I had it passed on from my grandmother’s recipe book or that I came across it by asking a restaurant (!!!) to share it with me, but it is not the case.       It is a mashup of various Google results of the term “baby friendly gingerbread”.   I love the taste of gingerbread, but I hate the fact that, even though labelled as such, most of the recipes that have the “baby-friendly” adjective attached to them have, … Read more

How I got my kids to try any food – part 7

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Go back to the Introduction if you want to make sure you read every post in this series in the right order. This post contains affiliate links, meaning I can earn a small commission if you decide to purchase after clicking on one of my links.  Cooking You’re probably thinking “I’ve come here to learn how to get my kid to try any food and here I am reading about cooking”. The truth is, without you cooking, there wouldn’t be much food to eat anyway, so might as well learn to cook it, right? Cooking happens to be my passion … Read more

How I got my kids to try any food – part 6

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To get the full picture of what I am talking about, check out the Introduction, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5 here first.   Good food   If we look at the last elements of a child learning how to eat, in essence they are related to one thing only: food.   Most particularly, how it tastes, how it smells and how it feels like.   These three make up the core of the food story children tell themselves at every meal and the hardest to get right.   Because they are entirely subjective. What I like … Read more

How I got my kids to try any food – part 5

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Go back to the Introduction, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 to read everything from the beginning.   Language   I’ve mentioned how sight plays an important role at mealtimes.   What a child hears also can affect his eating.   I’m rather of the opinion that silence is golden when eating, because I like to enjoy my food in peace when I am alone.   However, since having two kids, that hasn’t happened once, so I gave up my expectations in that regard.   So, how do we make the mealtime environment sound better and encourage eating?   … Read more

How I got my kids to try any food – part 4

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Read the Introduction here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here, to make sure you follow along in the right sequence.   Modelling   In the previous part, I mentioned children learn how to eat a particular food by touching, smelling, looking, grabbing and putting them in and out of their mouths. They also use their sense of hearing to evaluate what goes on in their environment at mealtimes.   These might sound like they can only refer to the mechanical aspect of things. A baby just starting on solids might show this behaviour more clearly than a 3 year … Read more