Broccoli
Cut your broccoli up to make ‘trees’, but not too small. It’s best, I have found, to leave as much of the stalk as possible to be used as a handle, but if you think that it makes the ‘tree’ part too big then slice up through the stalk to half or even quarter it lengthways.
Steam your broccoli over some boiling water for 6-7 minutes then leave to cool (or run under cold water if you are in a hurry, but remember that if you feel it’s too hard still that this will stop the cooking process).
Give it to your child and if they are good and clever they will hold it by the ‘handle’ and eat the ‘tree’. My child resolutely refuses to do anything but dig her fingers into the branches of the tree part and chew on the stalk, which causes the top part to disintegrate in the most alarming fashion and to fly across the room. It goes EVERYWHERE. You know those chubby little folds of fat that you love to tickle? In there. And that beautiful, expensive high chair* you bought? In every seam of the the fabric seat, every hinge, every corner. Broccoli, my friends, is very much a pre-bathtime vegetable. But delicious and healthy and oh-so enjoyable for the babies.
*Please see Top Tips on buying a highchair.
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I read about a £15 (with the table bit) Antilop high chair from Ikea, all plastic so, as someone else said ‘it can be stood in the shower and hosed down’ if needs be. I’m not sure it will collapse, so space/storage might be an issue.
the legs do pop off with ease, so it’s very handy to take to other people’s houses/camping etc, but it would be a total pita to do this every time you wanted to use it in your own house i think. it was me who used to stick it in the shower and hose, btw, and i know others who used it in the garden and hosed or threw buckets of water at it. dd2 has never eaten broccoli, it’s not to her taste at all, and i must say there is a part of me that is grateful. it’s still dd1’s (now aged 5) favourite veg, though.
Sorry, talk about preaching to the choir, obviously have reached brain capacity for today, didn’t realise it was here I’d read that!
heheheh at brain capacity. i think i reached that years ago, it’s quite liberating in its own way… ;-D
The other day I was in the garden with DS when I heard a excited cry of ‘broccoli!’ and I reached him just in time to fish a massive chunk of moss out of his mouth :-S
hahahaha, poor kid. did it seem to taste nice? it’s probably mega-nutritious you know, and in five years’ time we’ll all be paying a fortune to have it in a milk-shake.
I don’t think he liked it much – he’s been eyeing moss rather suspiciously since! Lol at the moss-shake – yum yum!
Curious…my lil man is just 6 months old but seems very interested in what we are eating. What do you suggest as a nice group of 1st starter foods? Is is best to begin with veggies than fruits or does it matter. Thanks so much.
it’s an interesting question and the answer is that so long as he is six months or so, it really doesn’t matter… however i think it’s such a big change to go from milk to food that i personally liked to take it fairly slow for the first couple of weeks. (i think the shock was for me, by the way, not for the baby). so things like steamed carrot, sticks of cucumber, steamed broccoli, peaches, apricots, banana, rice cakes, bread crusts, sort of soft things that could be kept fairly distinct in case of allergy, that’s what i did. very quickly, though, it becomes apparent that they can handle anything and you just let them at it, and equally i know babies whose first food was spag bol. so it’s up to you, really. ;D
I fed my little girl, that is almost 6 months broccoli today. She LOVED it. She munched on it during our dinner! I know she is not 6 months yet, but she is totally in to eating. She got two little teeth too, and its just too cute to see her munchin on her dinner together with the rest of the family!
I hope you took photos!
We just started BLW with butternut squash, then the other night tried broccoli. The squash seemed to be more of a tasty playtoy, and he didn’t eat much. The broccoli was decimated! One thing made me nervous though; he chewed the “tree” part till it was mush, then tried to swallow the entire thing! Is that ok? I know this is supposed to be following the lead of the baby and letting him handle it, but I’m still nervous :) Such an improvement over our one foray into purees. He loved the mush, but our rhythm was off (I was always giving too much or too little). And his joy at cramming food into his own mouth is just too precious!
Hopefully I’ll get over my nerves soon!
We started at 7 months with banana because it just seemed like an ‘easy’ flavor, sweet and easy. She didn’t like it much the first time, the second was better. Our first foods were bananas, squash, carrots, raspberries, avocado, apples, pears and straberries. She LOVED avocado (we did skin on so she could grab it). Now she’s 8 months and has added broccoli, asparagus, salmon, pasta, potato, ratatouille, red bell peppers, curried chickpeas and more! I was most nervous with asparagus and broccoli because they can be stringy but no gagging at all. First impressions she loved avocado, red peppers, squash and strawberries by far her favorites! Hope this helps someone with which foods could be good to start :)
We tried broccoli for day 3 of BLW today. My husband was a nervous wreck. I was pretty nervous, too, but not nearly as bad as he was. Our six-month-old, on the other hand, is like an old pro. We did avocado on day 1, day 2 bananas and now the broccoli. The whole process is so fun, but the gagging really is hard on mom and dad. Also, with the broccoli, I found myself taking it away from her when the stems were all that was left and they looked like a big fat choking hazard. Baby steps … for the parents!