AS PART OF TheJournal.ie’s weekly Family Magazine, we’ve created a space for parents to share their views. A place where mums and dads can share their experiences, lessons learned, and even mistakes along the way.

Whether you’re taking the baby-led route or just slowly working solids into your baby’s mealtime routine, it can be hard to find foods that are nutritional, easy to prep *and* appealing to your mini food critic. This week, we asked:

What’s the first solid food your baby really took a liking to?

Here’s what our panel had to say…

TheJournal.ie Top L-R: Olly Keegan, Alan Dooley, Denise, Ken Hyland. Middle L-R: Ríona Flood, Ross Boxshall, Marta Lisiecka, Denise Cumiskey. Bottom L-R: Kait Quinn, Susannah O’Brien, Derek McInerney, Suzie Kelly TheJournal.ie

Our eldest, Brynn, hoovered up anything that even resembled food: All three started on pureed veg, sweet potato, fruit, all fruits (bar Adam who spat out anything that had been in the general vicinity of a banana). Given their taste buds change all the time at that age I tried it over and over with no success, but to this day he is completely averse to bananas. 

- Trina Dooley

Bananas… and chocolate fingers: Ellie Mae was sitting in her bouncer watching me eat a banana, so on the spur of the moment I mashed up a tiny bit in a bowl and gave her some. The faces she pulled over the strange taste and texture was priceless. Once her older brother and sister seen that she was eating what they called “normal” food, so they thought that it was great fun to try her with all different types – this is where she discovered a love for chocolate finger biscuits. 

- Denise Cumiskey

Denise Cumiskey Ellie Mae post-chocolate. Denise Cumiskey

Beetroot and pear and avocado on toast (honestly): With Tymek, we started with baby porridge at six months. It was nerve wracking, every cough and gag, I was ready to get him out of the chair and perform the Heimlich manoeuvre if needed! The “weirdest” things he liked was a beetroot and pear puree and avocado on toast – he still really loves it!

- Marta Lisiecka

He loved, and still loves, broccoli: We did baby-led weaning from seven months and gave our son a choice of what he wanted to eat. His favourites were broccoli and pasta, both of which are still firm favourites with him, almost five years later! He really didn’t like bananas when he was a baby, and when I thought about it, I wasn’t really surprised. They are a very strong flavour and a weird texture! Mind you, he loves them now.

- Olly Keegan

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More Parents Panel: Where’s the most awkward place your child has thrown a tantrum?>