Can Babies and Toddlers Eat Spicy Food?

Well can babies or toddlers eat spicy food?

You wouldn't think so if you looked at your average "baby food" aisle these are the choices:

Porridge
Pasta Bolognaise
Various Hot Pots and Stews
Simple vegetable and fruit purees
Fruit and custard mixes
Cottage or Shepherds Pie
Some kind of pasta

Now there's nothing wrong with all of that, it's all good filling food but why not make something more interesting?  Why feed our kids such bland food?

It wasn't until talking with some friends in a singing group that I even considered feeding my child something more interesting.  I started off with some dahl and was really surprised when my son went for it.

In later months I moved onto chicken curry, thai fishcakes, keema curry and even a thai green curry.  So it does make me wonder why the 'traditional' foods are so bland.

I think more people are starting to challenge the kind of foods we feed our kids and this is where baby led weaning has had a really positive influence.  The idea with baby led weaning is that you feed the foods you eat to your child (where safe to do so).  I didn't do baby led weaning but I did take some ideas from it, quickly moving to self feeding and more "interesting" foods.

I remember once taking my son out to an Italian restaurant for lunch with my in laws.  He must have been 10 months old.  I had dutifully packed cream cheese sandwiches and cucumber for his food.  He threw it all on the floor.  When the pizza came he was happily chomping away on that.  To be honest, who can blame him?  Cream cheese sandwiches ming!  What was I thinking?

So, in this vein, I fed him some kedgeree for lunch, he was so keen on it, my normally mess phobic son was scooping the last grains out with his hands!

I urge you, for one lunchtime this week, make something with a little more "oomf" and let me know how it goes.  Your little one might surprise you!