Healthy children make healthy adults

Get your baby off to the healthiest start in life with tips to encourage your baby to enjoy healthy foods from food writer and mum Fran Warde.

The number one desire of any parent is for their child to be healthy and happy. The easiest way to maintain health is through diet, the two are closely related. 

Your baby is a result of what you ate during pregnancy and what he has eaten and digested since birth. So it is really important to eat well during pregnancy. There is no proof, but I do believe that a baby takes on your liking for various foods because indirectly they were taken in as a baby in your womb. 

So think healthy, eat greens and lots of fresh fruit when you are pregnant and continue while breastfeeding and then give them to your baby when you're weaning him. 

In particular I've found that babies love mashed banana, apricots, peaches, strawberries, mango - but really just try any fruit, I did and they are still much loved.

Vegetables may prove a little harder but do not give up! You can try to disguise the vegetables - as, for example, in my recipe for green cheesy rice, where every thing is chopped up so small that they can’t pick the vegetables out, and a cheese sauce on top of vegetables works wonders! 

I've found carrots to be popular with babies and little rounds of corn on the cob - they love holding things with their hands and being in charge. When the interest in the food wanes I just remind my children that Bob the Builder eats lots of vegetables to keep him fit and strong! The 'one-more-spoonful' method also seems to work (until they can count!).

It is important to try and keep meal times happy and to try not to get cross. If your child refuses to eat any more, just let him get down and then I promise you when he's hungry he will eat something. Some little ones can go for an awful long time with no food - or so it seems to us - but do not fill them up with milk, biscuits, bread or sweets, keep these for a treat after a healthy and balanced meal.