Until very recently, the first foods for a weaning child looked very different than what we consider standard today. In fact, advertising and marketing have created an entirely new genre of food titled “Baby and Kid Food.”
However, for most of human history, children merely ate what their parents ate, starting with simple, nutrient dense foods and progressing as they grew.
Many parents purchase jarred baby food, start with rice cereal, or start with other modern recommendations. The truth is, the best baby foods are dense, whole, real foods, that primarily come from animals.
Animal foods are incredibly important for your developing child. We are constantly amazed at the fast growth in a little baby but we less often think about the nutrition required to provide for that growth. Animal foods are, as a rule, more dense in their nutritional value because the stomachs of herbivores is unique. It breaks food down repeatedly. Additionally, herbivores have a rich and flourishing microbiome that does most of their digestion for them.
Despite common belief, the truth is that animal foods are also easier to digest, making them the ideal food for babies to start with.
These first foods can be started, in most cases, any time after four months and when babies are showing certain developmental cues. The main ones are they no longer have a tongue thrust when something is placed in their mouth, they can support their own head, and they show interest in food.
Lightly salting your baby’s food is important— they need minerals too! Use natural sea salt on your baby’s food. (I do not recommend using sodium chloride (refined table salt) for anyone, especially your baby). Refined and iodized table salt is detrimental to anyone’s health, especially a small child. Learn more about choosing the right salt here.
Remember, it can take 12-14 introductions of a new food for that food to be accepted by your child. If they don’t like a food the first few times you offer it, don’t stress! At first, food introduction is not about nutrition, it’s about the experience. In the first year or so of your child’s life, you have an amazing opportunity to create a beautiful and informational relationship with food. Your goal right now is not to make sure your child likes everything. Your goal is to expose them to all the foods that are in nature so that for the rest of their life they will be able to choose foods according to their nutritional needs. Take away all your stress, put aside any neat freak in you and allow your baby to taste, touch and be bathed in the foods that will serve their bodies the rest of their lives.
Now let’s talk about the first foods I recommend for babies. These are based on the research of Dr. Weston A. Price, and are outlined in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care, available on Amazon (affiliate link).
Liver:
Liver is rich in lots of important vitamins and minerals that aid in growth.
For this “recipe” we are using beef liver that has been deeply frozen for two weeks at least. Beef liver is cleaner and has less potential of pathogens than chicken liver. Deep freezing the liver for two weeks is important because it kills any dangerous pathogens and creates a safe food that’s able to be eaten raw by your baby. If you only have access to chicken liver, I recommend making a liver pâté for your baby.
Directions for Feeding Liver to Your Baby:
Thaw the liver in the fridge, and don’t soak the liver in any acid.
Cut liver into approximately 1 inch cubes. One cube will be one serving for a day.
Freeze the liver cubes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Individually freezing the liver will allow you to later store them in a bag as separately frozen pieces. And frozen liver is easier to grate than warm liver!
When it’s mealtime, grate the liver on a cheese grater. Serve your baby about a tablespoon of grated liver per day. Many babies enjoy the taste of liver, and some even prefer eating it cut into small pieces.
Raw (Runny) Egg Yolk
We start babies off with egg yolks because egg whites are very hard to digest. As your child grows, you can progress to giving them a whole egg. Lightly scrambling a whole egg in lots of animal fat is an amazing food! Runny yolks contain more cholesterol than firm yolks, as the cooking process destroys cholesterol. And cholesterol is good!
A note about egg whites: it’s important to not regularly eat egg whites without the yolks. The yolks contain nutrients that help digest the egg white. If you consume many egg whites alone, your body has to work very hard and you may end up with nutritional deficiencies.
Directions for Feeding Egg Yolk to Your Baby:
Add about an inch of water to a small pan on the stove.
Turn stove to high heat and let water get to a rolling boil.
Crack one egg into the water once it is boiling rapidly.
After a little time, ease the white up off the bottom of the pan.
Cook the egg only until the white is set. Remove the egg from the pan. A slotted spoon works best.
Use a spoon to take the liquid yolk out and feed directly to your baby. The first time you feed your baby an egg yolk, give them only a small amount. But after you are sure there is no reaction, increase the amount until they are eating the entire yolk. After that you may proceed to feeding them the entire egg.
Avocado
Avocados are a unique food because they are approximately ⅓ protein, ⅓ fat and ⅓ carbohydrate. This is a great first plant food for your baby.
Simply slice an avocado into small slices to feed to your baby. As with the introduction of any new food, start with a small amount the first day and gradually increase over time.
Add a shake of salt to the top of the avocados… delicious!
Introducing Cooked Vegetables and Meat
While purees may be easier, some research is showing that babies who learn how to manipulate food pieces in their mouth instead of being forced to progress more quickly with pureed foods will have less trouble with gag reflex and other oral difficulties for their entire lives.
Any mix of vegetables and meat will work! Feel free to start and stay simple. In most cases, your baby can eat whatever the family is eating so there’s no need to make an additional meal. Simply grate some frozen liver on top of whatever you are serving to your baby, and enjoy real foods as a family!
Foods to Avoid (at least in the beginning)
This list looks very different from the traditional weaning diet you may be used to hearing about. You may be wondering if I forgot a few foods. Fruits and grains are the modernly recommended first foods, so let’s briefly discuss them here.
Fruit:
Fruit is not inherently bad, but the sweetness can throw off your baby’s taste buds and cause them to avoid the dense foods they need to be eating. Historically fruit was only available for a short season in the summer, so we know it can’t be essential to a growing baby. Also, it is likely that your child will like fruit whenever you introduce it to them! So wait on the fruit, maybe until the summer after your baby’s first year. I don’t recommend a ban of this food, just try to avoid it as much as possible, and don’t feel like you HAVE to give it to them as part of a “balanced diet.”
Grains:
Grains also are not inherently bad, but until your child has their two year molars, they will be unable to digest grains properly (even properly prepared grains). That being true, you can see that there will be little to no nutritional benefit to eating grains for your child, and all the potential for the difficulties and complications surrounding grains (leaky gut, allergies, etc). So grains are best avoided until those two year molars are in, and they have a well established, health gut flora that will assist in digesting grains. Then the correct, properly prepared grains are a wonderful addition to their diet!
I hope these recommendations are helpful to you. Questions? Ask them in the comments below.
Happy feeding!
