Healthy Morsels- Baby and Toddler Foods

The excitement, the careful planning, amidst the underlying fear when you introduce the first morsel to your toothless baby, is an unforgettable developmental milestone of the still fresh parents. The joy and the enthusiasm with which this ceremony began slowly starts to fade when your fast growing tiny tot gets pricky about eating and you have less control over his/her eating habits. It is quite a common scenario that the kiddo reluctantly takes in the food, takes 10 minutes to swallow down that morsel, starts spitting just because he/she is not in a mood to eat or throws away the food, being hooked up with a new toy lying around, messes up the floor with those grains or half eaten vegetables and your dinner table suddenly becomes a battle ground, a rather sweet tender one!

An ancient tamil poet Thiruvalluvar has beautifully captured this scenario in two lines

அமிழ்தினும் ஆற்ற இனிதேதம் மக்கள்

சிறுகை அளாவிய கூழ்.

meaning, the food that has been messed up and scattered by the tiny hands of a child is sweeter than nectar.

It is a sweet challenge and a huge responsibility for every mother to feed the baby healthy, for it is the first three years of life that are very important in the development of a child. Nourishing the baby with the essential nutrients, slowly planning the introduction of every type of food, checking against possible allergies are all very critical.

Amidst this, making the toddler eat is a very big challenge. What not she does to make the food more interesting? From selecting the child's favorite food, cutting it in more interesting shapes and forms to presenting it on his plate colorful and attractive!! Apart from these, there needs to be stories told, songs sung and birds or animals shown!! It indeed takes a lot of patience, time and creativity to handle a child. Especially, if there is more than one child at home, then it adds up to her thought process of providing all the essential nutrients to satisfy everyones palates. The joy when your "mission" is accomplished is indescribable!

With this theme in mind, we, Healthy Morsels, are embarking on our next series "Baby and Toddler Foods". So, let's share our experiences, tips, advices and knowledge especially with all those new mothers who are new to this challenge and let's get benefitted from each others life experiences! Maybe your own child would some day love to hear about the fuss and foodie pranks he/she created and how, not the baby but rather you, managed to win this battle with the food! We love to hear all about your experiences.

The rules for sending your entries have been consolidated here:

• Food items (breakfast ideas, mid-meals snacks, soups, purees, etc.) that can be given to babies and toddlers until the age of 3 years can be sent.
• Vegetarian and non-vegetarian entries are allowed.
• Bloggers are requested to link your entries through the linky tool given below.
• Non-bloggers are requested to link your entries to our FB Healthy Morsels group page or send per e-mail to: healthymorsels at gmail dot com
• Your recipes must be linked back to either one of our announcement pages.
• We highly appreciate the use of our logo, so as to spread the word.
• Archived posts should be updated with the link back to the event announcement.
• Strictly avoid linking recipes which include pork, alcohol and gelatin.
• Last date for sending in entries: June 20th, 2012.

Rush in your entries, share with us your experiences with your little prince or princess and make this series as exciting as the previous one.

Healthy Morsels Team

Taste of Pearl City
SchmetterlingWords
Lecker and Yummy Recipes