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Celebrating Thanksgiving with New Eaters
What Foods Should Be on Baby's Holiday Plate?
By Amy Henry
It's your baby's first Thanksgiving on solid foods. You want her to enjoy the feast, but you also want her to be safe and get the nutrients her body requires. Here are the tips you need for a happy, healthy holiday.
Angie Frazier, a Troy, N.H., mother of two, found it easy to prepare traditional Thanksgiving foods her infant daughters could digest and enjoy. "I simply mashed peas and cooked baby carrots with a fork to give them a healthy vegetable," she says. "For the turkey, which tends to be stringy when torn apart, I cut up small, manageable bites."
By 6 to 8 months, babies can manage strained, mashed or pureed vegetables and fruits, says Wendy Kosloski, a licensed nurse with Amherst Pediatrics in Amherst, Mass. At 8 to 10 months, pureed meats can be added. As Baby gets more teeth – usually not before a year – these can be minced.
The trick is to cook everything to a very soft consistency, says Denise Font of Miami, Fla., whose two daughters celebrated their first Thanksgiving meals with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas and turkey.
If you're preparing the holiday meal at home, you can scoop out small portions of veggies and meat for straining, pureeing or mashing before you add salt, sugar or spices. If you're on the road, you'll need to eyeball each prepared dish for its suitability. But, with the flick of a fork, you can scrape the marshmallow topping from Aunt Sue's sweet potatoes, add a tablespoon or two of water and make a fine mash Baby will enjoy.
The following Thanksgiving favorites are a snap to make baby-friendly:
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