In the beginning, cereal failures and sweet potato success...

The WHO/UNICEF recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of infancy.

http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_breastfeeding.html

I interpreted this recommendation very literally, and waited until May 8th, Charlie's six-month birthday, to give him his first taste of solid food. In preparation for this exciting event, I set up the high chair and purchased a silicone baby spoon from Diaper Eez in Bloor West Village.

I started by feeding him filtered water on a spoon, my rationale being that if he was familiar with the environment and tools of eating solids, when I switched from water to food the transition would be smooth. As with most of the assumptions I've made in Charlie's infancy, I was quickly proven wrong. The transition to solids has been anything but smooth.

Most Canadian experts, along with Toronto Public Health and the Ontario Early Years Centres, recommend starting with rice cereal, testing for allergenicity for 3-5 days, then on to oatmeal and barley.

I purchased My Organic Baby brown rice cereal from Loblaws (as did most of my mommy friends) and proceeded to mix it with filtered water to a thin breast milk-like consistency. The rice cereal is pre-cooked, then dried and fortified with iron and vitamins. I'll post more on fortification later. Like almost everything else in Babyland, depending on which expert you listen to, iron fortification could be either helpful or harmful.

The first few times I put the rice cereal in his mouth, he was very excited, opening up wide, arms outstretched reaching for more. After his second and third feeding, he wasn't into it. He'd turn his head and spit it out by blowing raspberries. He did not want to swallow the stuff, and quite frankly, I couldn't blame him. Because the cereal was whole grain, the fats had started to oxidize. I could smell the characteristic 'cardboard' odour of rancidity I'd grown to despise after so many years in the processed food industry.

I made a mad dash to purchase another brand of organic baby cereal: Healthy Timez' organic barley. Then I tried My Organic Baby oatmeal. He spat it all out, then cried.

I approached Charlie's disinterest in solids like all the other unique challenges he has thrown my way the past 6 months: I researched the Internet and combed the library for alternative solutions. I came across a website http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ that advised starting on sweet potato or avocado.

I went to the Dufferin Grove Farmers' Market last Thursday http://dufferinpark.ca/market/wiki/wiki.php to stock up on local organic produce. That night I peeled, steamed and pureed sweet potato then froze it into ice cubes.

The next morning, I defrosted two cubes for 2 minutes in the microwave and crossed my fingers. All I did was place a little dab of food on Charlie's lips and he started to cry. I was perplexed. Was it too hot or too cold? Was it too thick or too thin? The more I varied the temperature and thickness, the more he cried.

I gave him his sippy cup and ate the puree myself. The flavour was amazing, but the texture was too gluey for my taste. Then a light bulb went off! Why would I even consider feeding Charlie something that I wouldn't like to eat myself? In culinary school and when developing products, I would never dream of putting a starchy veg in a blender/food processor. The best mashed root veg come from potato ricers or food mills. So, I piled Charlie in the stroller and set off for Fiesta Farms to gather more organic produce, and then on to Nella Cucina http://www.nellacucina.ca/.

At Nella, I selected an OXO Good Grips Food Mill http://salesrepstore.oxo.com/OA_HTML/xxoxo_ibeCCtpOXOPrdDtl.jsp?a=b&item=51782(also called a mouli in France) for about $60, thanks to excellent help from the sales staff. Back at home, I repeated the same preparation process for the sweet potato, this time using Toronto tap water.

At our six-month checkup, the doctor advised us to use tap water for the fluoride. I was raised on Toronto tap water, and actually prefer it to bottled, but after concerns about metal leaching from our old pipes, I thought filtered might be better for him. I'm still up in the air about which is better, tap or filtered? Maybe I'll post more on that later.

I processed the sweet potato using the smallest grind plate on the Food Mill and thinned it down to a cross between tomato juice and apple sauce in consistency.

The most amazing thing happened when Charlie tried the slightly pulpy, yet juicy sweet potato. He grabbed the spoon and proceeded to suck the sweet potato while making mmmmmmm noises. He ate 2 full ice cubes!

I felt rather pleased with myself for solving my first baby food science conundrum with only two test batches . I look forward to the culinary challenges coming my way in making baby food that Charlie will enjoy.

Next up....Avocado.