Hello!

My LO is 8 months old and some days I feel like she’s fed up of the food I’m giving to her. I’d like to make it more interesting and I’ve heard I can introduce spices into her food? I’d like to check which spices other mums have experience with. Thank you.


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  • I would be careful with salt as salt is already present in many food items and the majority of people eats far too much salt. My kids are 12, 11, 7 and 3 and I still cook mostly without salt.


  • Have you tried putting just a little bit of salt in it? It would eliminate some of the blandness and enhance the flavour of the food. It is a lot less likely to cause stomach upset and vomitting.


  • I started directly with everything what wasn’t too hot. Soon it became that my bub prefers savory above sweet foods. and actually does like it quite spicy :)


  • Pretty sure her being fed up with the food you’re feeding her is mostly in your head :) As long as you’re giving her a varied diet with lots of different foods, she won’t get fed up and you won’t need to add spices


  • I use all sorts of spices with my 10 month old. The other night i made vegetable and lentil curry and he loved it. I made it with mild curry powder, cumin, coriander and a few other spices. As long as they aren’t hot i don’t have a problem using then. He has whatever we do and very rarely doesn’t eat it. Maybe let your bub try what yout eat and see how it goes?


  • My bub is 9 months. I’ve cooked his food with garlic, done roasted apple and cinnamon, roasted sweet potato with parsley/basil, started adding cumin to cooking. A midwife said to introduce spice by adding Non hot spices initially. But bub also says tastes of our food sometimes that will have complex flavours (not chilli yet though!). Introducing spices/flavours now is a good idea, have fun experimenting :)


  • I would err on the side of caution and use a little to gauge how your child likes the spiced food. If there’s no discernible issue, then use as directed in your recipes. I try to use a variety of foods with herbs and spices because I would get bored if I had plain food all the time so it stands to reason my child will too!


  • I started using the milder spices first, like cinnamon, vanilla, turmeric, sweet paprika.


  • We have also added spices fairly early on with all our 6 kids without any issues, mainly because I too felt that their food was getting boring. I guess it was just really me that was getting bored with cooking it. I must admit that with our last LO who is 7 months, I am still using spices but have done lots more research into different recipes. So, this time I am cooking with a huge amount of variety compared to the last 5 kids which also means I don’t need to rely on spices.


  • If your baby has had colic introduce spices – one at a times and keep it mild in the early stages. Your baby may have stomach discomfort and you may have to wait awhile before you re-introduce it. If you are still breastfeeding you may find that some foods may cause problems too. One baby I know had a problem for several hours after the Mum ate eggplant. Believe me, she didn’t eat that again while breastfeeding.
    It was too cold and wet to put the baby in her stroller and take him for a walk so we literally took turns in walking the floor. Every time we stopped he woke up and screamed. We rubbed his tummy instead of his back at one stage. That seemed to help. The next feed she gave him formula, expressed what would have been his next feed and disposed of it. He would only feed from one breast each feed so that made it easier. She has supplementary fed him a couple of times so he took the bottle OK. I would also vary the combination of vegetables to give baby and that might help encourage feeding.


  • I was told to go easy with garlic, and to cook it properly (not raw), as it gives them wind. I’ll try introducing little bit. Thank you.


  • My little one is 13 months and from 8months, he has eaten whatever we have eaten…including spicy foods. I went with the theory that babies in India are given spices and flavours that their parents eat, so why wouldn’t ours. I did start with milder flavours and work him up, and he is no way eating vindaloos, but I now only cook one meal for the family whether that be sausages and veggies or a curry. When introducing keep things mild and have a back up to fall on if needed, but I found if you don’t make a big deal, then they won’t make a big deal.


  • Hi the only things my kids would have had at that age is maybe a bit of fresh garlic (cooked)I had added ,sorry not much help, I started mine on solids at 6 months so at 8 months it was all pretty bland still


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