Spice is the variety of life

What to feed a baby is always a matter of confusion to parents.  Parents are always worried if they provide the right food with the right amount of nutrients which is healthy and tasty to the baby as well.  Initially it seems easy: the baby can get its entire dietary requirements from its mother.  But after the first couple of months, milk somehow doesn't suffice any more!

Luckily, we found a doctor who is quite different in his approach.  From her 4th month onwards, he recommended that we get her started on solid food.  And by solid food, he didn't mean the purred food that supermarkets sell as baby food (Jenny hated it!), but the ordinary food her parents deemed worthy to eat, although by reducing the salt and spices for her.

She is 8 months old now.  For the past 4 months, we have been feeding her everything: from rice to pasta to bread.  From carrots to cabbage to beans.  From milk to juice to porridge.  She eats everything.  Thank God.  And we pay proper attention not to make anything too salty, too spicy or even too sweet (the day she has a bit of sweetness in the form of chocolate or ice-cream, she remains hyperactive for hours on end!).  

However, last week she surprised us.  We had a family dinner with my sister's family at a restaurant.  When one has 3 kids below the age at the same table, order and quiet are too things that stay away from said table.  Not that it was chaos; but it was loud and all kept talking and chatting and feeding babies...and wiping chins...and feeding water...and trying to eat and so on...all of us were super busy!  

In the midst of the excitement,  Jenny took a piece of starter from the plate.  Though the food was not in particularly spicy as such, it was still degrees hotter from what we have given her so far!  But lo!  She didn't even mind the spiciness.  Maybe it was the party ambience or maybe her taste buds are actually stronger that we thought, she 'ate' the starter.  We were shocked and surprised, because she usually cries at the first sign of spice.  Anyway, we learned two valuable lessons on that day. 1) Babies do not behave their usual way when other babies are around, and 2) We have no idea what is spicy and what isn't when it comes to baby's cuisine! :)