Baby food expert Annabel Karmeltalks to Sylvia Thompson about the best first foods to introduce to your young infant
Weaning your baby (particularly your first baby) on to solid foods is difficult for many parents because of all the confusing and sometimes contradictory advice from websites, public-health nurses, family and friends.
Parents fret over when they should start and whether they should first introduce bland dried foods, such as baby rice, or begin with fresh puréed fruit and vegetables. However, baby and children's food expert Annabel Karmel is adamant that babies should be weaned onto fresh food and not baby foods from cans and jars, regardless of how good they look.
"You should give them as many fresh foods as you can because between six months and a year, you have a window of opportunity in which they are very good eaters," she says.
According to Karmel, the problem with processed foods is that they have been heated and sterilised which means that a lot of their nutritional value has been blasted out. "They don't taste like real food so eating them makes the transition to real food - when the baby joins family meals - more difficult," she explains.
The London-based author of 15 books on baby and children's food is also adamant that babies over six months shouldn't be given too much milk and that the bottles should be thrown out at one year. Breastfed babies tend to drink more easily from cups once the weaning process begins.
But, isn't it really tricky for parents to cook up food just for the baby? Unsurprisingly, Karmel thinks not. "You can make food in batches once a week and freeze it. You can also cook a casserole without salt and take some out for the baby," she says. Her books contain lots of meal suggestions which, she says, some readers have even cooked for dinner parties.
She believes babies often like strong tastes and suggests seasonings such as parsley and garlic can be used in their dishes. She also argues that due to its bland taste, baby rice is only valuable as a thickener for fruit purées and not as a weaning food.
Karmel says that many mothers nowadays are overly concerned about what age they should begin weaning their babies on to solid foods and this concern sometimes delays the process unnecessarily.
"Every baby is different but generally speaking, it's best to start weaning at six months. Some babies need to start at five months," she says.
She is against the trend for so-called baby-led weaning which encourages mothers to drop the purée stage and introduce food to babies as finger-food.
"I think it's very dangerous. The whole weaning process helps build up baby's mouth muscles and lumpy food in itself helps develop a baby's chewing muscles, which are the same muscles used for speech development," she explains.
Karmel also believes that there is too much attention placed on potential allergies. "Only about 6 per cent of young children and 3.7 per cent of adults have a food allergy. So, unless there is a family history of allergies to specific foods, there is no point in delaying the introduction of, say, fish or eggs because they have so many valuable nutrients."
According to Karmel, too many people give babies low-calorie foods in the mistaken belief that it will prevent them getting fat.
"Babies need fat and should never be fed on a high fibre, low-fat diet that suits adults. Babies need nutrient-dense foods, such as cheese and eggs.
"Scrambled eggs is a really good meal for babies and Greek yogurt, whole milk and butter should be added to different meals to make them tastier," she says.
Now a mother of three teenagers, Karmel began writing baby and child cookbooks 17 years ago when parents in the playgroup she ran started asking her for recipes.
"It took me two and a half years to write my first book, which started my career," she explains. "I talked to all the experts and learned what was right. At the time, there was a lot of conflicting advice about what to feed to babies.
"Basically, I believe it's important to give them the best possible choice of food that tastes nice." She recommends you taste the fruits and vegetables to check they are good before giving them to your baby.
Karmel is also an advocate of family meals and believes that babies should be brought to the table to eat with the family.
"If you do this, they will be eating the same as everyone else by the time they are two years old. And, they'll learn the social aspect of eating together," she says.
Karmel believes parents need more education about the importance of good food for babies and children. "The State should be looking at providing cookery classes for mothers of children under four," she says.
Now, with a revised version of her first book back on the shelves (The New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner), she is keen to emphasise the significance of weaning on lifelong health.
"If you consider that one in three of us will die of a diet-related disease, good food for babies and children is more important than ever," she says. "It's the one time that you are in complete control of your child's food, and there's a great feel-good factor about giving them home-cooked fresh food."