Ready for solid foods?

Every mother enjoys watching her baby grow and graduate from each phase as she enters a new phase of learning. One such phase is transitioning from breast feeding to solid foods. Along with the excitement that I was exposing my baby to a whole new exciting world of tastes, I was also anxious about how I was going to approach this new beginning. With lots of tips and suggestions from my mother and grandmother here is what I did for the period of 6 months  to one year of her age. This might be helpful for new moms who are trying to get a  perspective this wonderful phase in life.

I started with a meal of rice and moong dal (golden gram). I used to lightly roast the washed rice and moong dal in butter (home made ghee) and then pressure cook in water.
I used to steam one or two vegetables separately and feed her a spoon of rice meal followed by a spoon of vegetable. 

Initially I used vegetables like potato, sweet potato, pumpkin,green beans,carrot etc. I was picking at least one colored vegetable so that it was fun for the baby too.

Slowly I introduced organic pasta cooked in organic chicken broth with a dash of tomato purée. That was her by far the most loved food.

Eventually I started feeding her soft chicken breast and cooked fish seasoned with salt and pepper. Occasionally I used some home made garam masala ( just a pinch to get her introduced to the flavors). The moment fish became a part of her meals, till date that been her most favorite food.

Right after the pasta, I introduced her to chapati. I used to cook toor daal (pigeon peas) and add some tomato and ginger with some salt. Then I let chapati soak in the dal and feed her mashed up chapati with some home made ghee.

Among the fruits, I started with mango, banana, lychee and avocado. Introduced them one by one and then moved on to next. Initially I used to cook apple, pear, peach, apricot etc and soften them before feeding them to my daughter.

Slowly I worked my way through all kinds of berries - strawberries, blueberries, blackberries etc and by the time she was a year old, she became well versed with a variety of tastes and textures if food.

And that was the food adventure of my dear daughter.......