What Indian Foods Your Toddler Can Have?

Toddler

oi-Anwesha

By Anwesha Barari

Friday, November 25, 2011, 16:14

When you finally start giving your toddler solid food, packed baby foods or cereals are not your only options. In the Indian context it becomes very important to come up with Indian foods that your baby can eat. This is primarily because most of the baby food you will get ready made or search over the internet is for the westerners Your toddlers diet should be such that it addresses the Indian built of your baby and also the tropical weather conditions.

Here are some toddler foods that can be easily made in the Indian kitchens by mothers who want to introduce their babies to their own food early in life.

The Best Indian Toddler Foods:

1. Curd Rice: This is what grandmothers have traditionally fed to the babies at home when they just started eating. Soft boiled rice is mashed with sugar and curd. The best part about this Indian food it that it is totally non spicy and thus suitable for toddler. Due to the consistency of curd and soft rice, it is easy to push into the baby's mouth. The baby gets milk proteins, carbohydrates and lots of energy from the sugar.

2. Ghee Roti: Ghee or clarified butter has loads of health benefits. In India, ghee is considered an essential food for the growth of the toddler as it gives strength to the bones. Ghee can either be bought or it is even better if it it is prepared at home from milk cream. As Indian bread or roties may be tough for the baby to chew, the are soaked in ghee to soften them.

3. Malai Chicken/Vegetable Curry: Indian diet has a basic structure; curry with rice or dal with roti is what we prefer to have. So if you want your toddler's diet to be framed the Indian way then cook a non spicy curry with milk cream, curd and pepper for him or her. You can add either chicken or vegetables to this curry and it will be very nutritious.

4. Khichdi: This is a typical rice dish to feed babies. Indian foods mostly comprise of different kinds of pulaos (mixed rice dishes). This one is slightly different as it is a concoction of dal (cereals), rice and vegetables. Extremely nutritious and very easy to feed the baby because it is tasty. Khichdi is not necessarily non spicy but can be made so.

5. Dalia: This is a special kind of food made of of broken wheat to feed kids and old people in India. As the wheat is broken it needs hardly any chewing. Moreover it is a rich source of roughage if your baby is having any constipation problems. Easy to digest and cook; you need to pressure cook dalia with vegetables and garnish with ghee.

Parenting tips for Indian parents would be to get your toddler started on food that is Indian in origin so that they transcend to adult food smoothly.