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Momma, I’ll Have Some of Whatever You’re Having
BrittG | | 
1
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
What are your thoughts?
By KEITH DIXON
Published: September 30, 2008
Nytimes.com
A FEW months ago, my wife, Jessica, lured me into a hardware store a few blocks from our apartment, saying she wanted to show me a food mill she was thinking about buying.
’m an obsessive collector of kitchen gadgets, but when I laid eyes on the thing I was skeptical. Composed of three white plastic pieces — a base, a basket and a hand-crank — the food mill was too small, almost a toy, and would never stand up to the rigors of, say, a bushel basket of tomatoes. I protested. Jessica waited patiently until I got it: the mill wasn’t for me. It was for the baby.
Jessica had begun making meals for Gracie, our 7-month-old daughter, following the recommended pattern for carefully introducing individual puréed foods.
That all changed when she called me at work one day to tell me that she’d taken the food mill to the next level: since Gracie had tried all the basic ingredients from what we’d eaten the night before — my pasta Bolognese with mint — she had milled some up and watched with delight as Gracie happily finished every bite.
Jessica was only too happy to have at her fingertips a complete and healthy meal for Gracie. I was only too happy to hear that my baby had such good taste.
To be safe, I consulted two pediatric nutrition specialists. Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, a member of the committee on nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics, liked the meal sharing idea. He said feeding a child a range of foods encourages the child to be more adventurous at the table as she moves into her second year.
“This is how you teach your baby to develop likes similar to yours,” he said. “Otherwise, how would an Indian child eat curry or a Mexican child consume salsa?”
But he had some concerns, including allergic reactions. (It’s best to talk to your pediatrician about what solid foods you want to feed your baby.)
