Most of the paediatricians suggest adding herbs and spices to your baby’s food from eight months onwards. But, why would you want to add spices to the food to be given to your little one?
By spices, we don’t mean the regular, everyday spices such chillies, cardamom and mustard. There is a category of healthy spices such as asafoetida (hing), fennel (saunf), fenugreek (methi), turmeric (haldi). These spices are used as traditional Indian remedies to ease digestion in infants. Some of the spices are known to have antiseptic and antioxidant properties.
There are many ways in which you can blend various types of spices in your baby’s food-
1. Decorate your baby’s food with mint (pudina) and coriander (dhania)
2. Add cinnamon to the mashed bananas
3. Add basil and garlic to a pureed form of carrots. You can mince garlic or add its powdered form.
4. Mix garlic powder with the tiny pieces of green beans or add the same to green beans in a puree.
If you are wary of adding spices to your baby’s food in the eighth month, you can apply the ‘4 Day Wait Rule’. This rule is nothing but a logical method to observe the baby’s reaction to new foods or allergies due to the same. So, for example, on a Monday of a new week, if you add cinnamon in your child's food, see how he adapts to the new flavour. This will bring you to the next part which is the ‘elimination stage’ or ‘elimination diet’ wherein you will stop giving your baby a particular spice that showed an adverse effect. The negative fallout could be digestive complications like diarrhoea or constipation. The ‘4 Day Wait Rule’, therefore will ensure that your baby receives spices good for his health.
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