My son at 9 months eating Daddy’s Chicken Curry for the first time — a boneless, skinless piece of curried chicken (rinsed off the curry sauce) and cut into small pieces — he loved it!

Once our little one turned 9 months old and had successfully conquered rice cereal, oat cereal, and “stage 1 and 2” fruits and vegetables, I started to think about when and how to introduce him to Indian food. Like most new parents, Sean and I frequent sites like Baby Center to learn more about babies and solid foods and there are plenty of great online recipes for homemade baby dishes from one-pot baby casseroles to ‘bebe bolognese,’ just to name a few. Indian flavors, spices, and textures for a baby might seem too exotic to you, but I wondered “Well, what do parents do in India?” so reached out to some of my mommy cousins in India and the United States for their advice on how to introduce babies to Indian food.

Liam at 8 months eating whole milk yogurt and fruit with his Great-Grandma June; by 7-8 months most babies can be given whole milk yogurt and cottage cheese

First, here’s the lowdown on how parents in North America typically introduce non-Indian solid foods to their babies. Sean and I tend to follow our super cool pediatrician Dr. Rosenberg on just about everything. According to Dr. R (and Weill Cornell Pediatrics), at 6 months parents can begin introducing a single grain (rice and oats) and then present a new single vegetable or fruit (peas, green beans, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, peaches, bananas, mangoes) every 3 days to see how baby likes it and to ensure that they do not show any signs of an allergic reaction. This is considered ‘Stage 1’ by most standards, and by 7-8 months comes ‘Stage 2’ when whole milk yogurt, cottage cheese, poultry, potatoes, and “combination foods” like fruit-vegetable blends are permitted. By 8-9 months baby can have Cheerios, bread, egg yolk, pasta, cheese, and the like. Honey, chocolate, and egg whites are discouraged until age 1 and apparently there should be no nuts until age 2. Is this set in stone? No, and some parents do their own thing, but these are the recommended guidelines in North America. My Belgian friend Yasmina (mother of 3 and a nutritionist) balked at the idea of holding off on chocolate (well, the Belgians do have excellent chocolate), and my cousin Dipa (mother of 1 and a medical doctor), favors introducing nuts early, and introduced nuts to her daughter Leela before age 1 (more on this below).

How do mothers in India introduce first solids to their babies? I reached out to my cousins in India and the U.S. to find out (Photo Source: Easy Baby Life)

So that’s the basic approach to introducing solid food in North America. To learn more about how Indians introduce solids to babies, I started an email thread with my cousins, who were mostly all born and raised in India. (I figured I might as well head straight to the source — Indian mommies!) Here’s what I discovered about our family’s approach to introducing food to babies:

Photo Source: Masala Mommas

Rashmi, mother of 1 

In our extended family in South India, babies are given a special porridge of sprouted raagi (millet), red rice, nuts (almond and peanuts), moong dal, and toor dal at about 6 months old. They dry roast these together and then blend it into a powder. Then they add a little salt, sugar, ghee (clarified butter), and boil the mixture with water. To this, you can add formula or breast milk. My mom suggests first introducing this porridge to the baby in the afternoon, and then after a few days, serving it for dinner — the idea is that babies are more active in the afternoon compared to at night, and will digest it more easily.

Raagi (finger millet) is a whole grain that is commonly eaten in India, and one of the key ingredients in a porridge my family prepares for babies starting on solid foods (Photo Source: Wikipedia.org)

Raksha, mother of 2

I introduced solids when Pranav was 4 months old, starting with single grain cereal, then vegetable and fruit purees. We went to India when he was 5 months old, where I introduced him to a wide variety of Indian foods. I started giving him mashed rice with ghee (clarified butter), and eventually added mashed vegetables. When he was 6-8 months old I introduced idli with milk, very small pieces of dosa and chapati. I pretty much offered him non-spicy versions of the food we ate.  

In South India, small, soft pieces of dosa (Indian rice crepe) are given to babies (without the potato filling and coconut chutney of course!)

Dipa, mother of 1

I had a very similar experience to Raksha: we introduced solids around 4-5 months and started with rice cereal, then vegetable and fruit purees. Leela hated bananas!  This is very unusual, so each child is so different — for her, I think it was a texture issue, because she did just fine with bananas in a smoothie! At age 6-8 months we gave her very small pieces of idli, dosa, and roti with ghee (clarified butter), but always non-spicy. She liked dal (lentils), yogurt and rice very much at around 8 months. We started with  pieces of fresh fruits like grapes, banana, mango  a bit later, but she did not get her first tooth until after she turned 1, so it was whatever she could handle; I started whole milk around 11 months and egg then too.  I tried ground nuts around 9 months — she eats small pieces of pistachios, cashews and pecans now, and generally, I started giving her whatever we ate around 9 months. 

Whole Wheat Chappati

Sanmati, mother of 2

Both my son and daughter followed similar diets, although my daughter is the more fussy eater of the two kids. At 11 months I fed them steamed sona masuri rice (mashed with a ladle) + boiled veggies/fruits + clear rasam with a little spice + ghee (clarified butter). At 18 months came a traditional South Indian breakfast — my son could chew small pieces of dosa, chapati or idli dipped in milk or a mild gravy + ghee.  I started my daughter on whole eggs at 11 months, three times a week; she has been tolerant to egg whites from 9 months onwards. I followed this general model:

• Breakfast: wholegrain porridge + ghee + pinch of pepper & salt + milk
• Lunch: rice or rava (sooji/cream of wheat) + veggies/fruits + rasam + ghee
• Dinner: rice or rava (sooji/cream of wheat) + veggies/fruits + rasam + ghee

You can slowly introduce baby to Indian flavors one at time, like ground cumin

Divya, mother of 2

Because my daughter was quite sensitive to food in general and the relatively fussier eater of the two, I introduced Indian flavors very slowly. My son on the other hand, was introduced to Indian food much earlier — at 4 months I started him on rice, oat and multigrain cereal with milk, along with puréed vegetables. A month or two after that I introduced raagi (millet) porridge with milk. For the steamed vegetables, I cooked them with a single Indian spice (cumin, coriander, clove, nutmeg, etc.). I completely cut out chili for all us, so I didn’t have to make two versions of every dish.  I’m finally getting around to adding a chilli or two after 3 years but for most part our dishes have Indian spices — minus the chilli. 

Like Divya, many Indian parents cut out red chilli pepper for the first couple of years

Here are the main things I learned:

• Most mothers begin offering solid food at 6 months and start with single grain cereals, followed by vegetable and fruit purees

• No matter where they are in the world, some babies are simply pickier eaters than other babies — even within the same family! If they are picky, mixing food with plain yogurt helped

• Introduction of Indian flavors and textures was done slowly by letting baby lick or taste a tiny mashed pieces of chapati, idli, or dosa as soon as baby seemed interested in solid food

• Introduction of spices came at 6 months, either by introducing a single ground spice in a vegetable dish (i.e. a pinch of ground cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, clove, cardamom, etc) or by adding a drop of rasam or sambar to mashed rice and gradually increasing the amount over time

• At 9 months, most babies will eat mild versions (with the exception of chilli peppers) of whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating

• Indians are less concerned about introducing nuts at an early age. As one allergist explains “The American Board of Pediatrics has gone back and forth on this. They used to recommend  waiting until after age one due to possible allergies, but with allergies still increasing, studies in other countries show that introducing nuts earlier might actually prevent allergies. The biggest risk is the choking hazard, so as an allergist, I say introduce nuts earlier in a powdered form (i.e. ground almonds).”

And so, what did I do to introduce Liam to Indian food…?

My approach combined lessons from others in North American and India, whereby I offer Liam a variety of cuisines from Italian to Thai. Sean and I are omnivores who mainly eat poultry and fish, and opt for vegetarian dishes as often as possible. On Divya’s advice, I began slowly introducing spices and herbs one at a time (i.e. ground turmeric, ground coriander, and dried mint) in homemade recipes like my Turmeric-spiced Vegetable & Chicken Meatballs for Babies and Keema for Babies: Mint and Coriander-spiced chicken, zucchini, peas, and potatoes. He also enjoyed my mom’s recipe of Soft Lentil & Rice Balls, which he gobbled up with no trouble, and which is one of the most popular posts on Big Apple Curry! See below for more, and just post a comment if you have any questions, thoughts, or advice of your own!