Feeding Babies (& Kids) 101

An interview with early childhood nutrition expert, Talia Moore

Hi Friends,

Happy Sunday! Today we’re bringing you an interview with the supremely lovely Talia Moore, an expert in early childhood nutrition and someone whose knowledge and approach guided both of us in the early days of introducing our kids to solids (Fanny attended a revelatory online workshop with Talia and enthusiastically passed along the learnings to Greta).

Talia is a certified nutritionist and trained birth and postpartum doula. Born in Melbourne, Australia, she studied nutrition and herbal medicine and developed a passion for wellness and all things related to pregnancy, birth and motherhood. After moving to the United States with her husband in 2008, she trained as a birth doula and childbirth educator and supported hundreds of families prenatally, during labor, and postnatally as a support group facilitator. She eventually expanded her offerings to include nourishing mothers and babies with information about food and nutrition. Talia’s extensive work with pediatric nutritionists, pediatricians, and lactation consultants inspired her to create a workshop focused on the introduction of solids and how to create a positive relationship with food from a baby’s first bite. 

Between 2016 and 2023, Talia also founded and operated Tummy Thyme in Los Angeles, a baby and toddler food company dedicated to creating products for children that were nutritious, delicious and developmentally appropriate. A leader in cleaner, minimally processed food products in the children’s food category, Tummy Thyme was committed to helping kids develop a taste for what's good for them. Talia recently relocated to in New York where she teaches childbirth education and newborn care, and supports new mothers with nutritious and delicious postpartum meals. She is, last but not least, the mother to 8-year-old Mayani & nearly 2-year-old Navi!

Below, Talia answers all of our burning questions about what can feel like one of the most overwhelming and daunting periods in a new parent’s life. Learn more about Talia’s work on her Instagram and website!

Good luck out there,

Fanny + Greta

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Green Spoon: Hi Talia! Let’s hop right in: What would you say are the “RULES” around feeding babies that you think should be taken seriously and which do you think would be best to disregard?

Talia Moore: Feeding your little one should be easy and intuitive. In other words: less rules, far more fun! The internet will have you think that feeding your baby is a risky scientific experiment. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Babies can pretty much eat anything and in any order. In fact, 6–12 months of age is considered the ‘flavor window’, where babies will pretty much put whatever is placed in front of them in their mouths. Using this flavor window wisely and offering a variety of foods, cuisines and flavor profiles, you will greatly serve your child as they head into the likely unavoidable picky eating phase. Picky eating is a developmentally-appropriate survival skill, where new or unfamiliar foods are looked at suspiciously and less likely to be tried. (You don’t want your newly-mobile baby picking random berries off a bush or mushrooms from the forest floor and eating them).  

In many parts of the world there is little to no differentiation between “baby food” and “everyone else’s food”. What is offered to the family, is offered to the baby, with only one consideration: that the size and texture of the food not be a choking hazard. For example, I wouldn’t recommend offering “finger food” to a baby who cannot confidently sit unassisted with both head and neck control.  

I would also avoid honey at this age due to the risk of botulism, a food borne illness that can make babies very sick. 

And a good guide is to keep sodium to a minimum (a pinch of sea salt is ok as it is high in valuable minerals).  

Lastly, avoid highly-processed foods and foods with added sugar or sugar derivatives.  

Other than that, the food world is your baby’s proverbial oyster!

A simple pasta with fresh tomatoes is always a multi-generational crowd pleaser.

G.S.: To Baby-Led Wean (BLW) or not? Where do you stand and why?

T.M.: Over many years, there has been a lot of hype around baby-led weaning vs. spoon-feeding. Let me cut through the noise for you: there is no better way than to let meals be baby-led: your baby decides if they eat and how much, and often your child will inform the approach. For example, some babies refuse purées and others are initially disinterested in finger foods. This milestone is all about offering your baby the opportunity to explore different tastes and textures. As long as you can remain flexible and follow your child’s lead, you’re on the right track. Working toward a combination of purées and finger foods has many benefits. 

Baby-led weaning fosters independence and helps babies develop hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity. However, babies can miss out on vital nutrients that a spoon-fed baby might receive.  Spoon-fed babies may be exposed to a wider variety of ingredients, but may develop texture aversion if kept on purées for too long.

Here are a few good tips to keep in mind for baby-led spoon-feeding:

• Both you and your baby hold a spoon (known as helicopter feeding)

• Encourage your baby to engage with the food! Start by spooning a small amount of the purée on the tray before feeding so they can see, touch and experience the food.

• Allow your baby to see the food and choose (or not choose) to open his/her mouth. 

• When offering a spoon of purée: let your baby pull the food off the spoon on their own, rather than emptying the contents into their mouth. Aim the spoon toward the sides of the mouth not straight back so the baby can practice moving the food around their mouth and practice chewing.

• Avoid constantly wiping or scraping food off your baby’s face or around their mouth. Let your child get messy!! Eating is a sensory experience after all.

Here are a few good tips to keep in mind for baby-led weaning:

• Your baby must be developmentally ready to handle whole foods: i.e. sitting upright, in control of food entering & exiting mouth.

• It’s important to only offer appropriate foods to reduce the risk of choking.  Begin with stick or finger shaped foods with a texture that is soft enough to squish between your tongue and roof of the mouth. Some examples: steamed or roasted vegetable/fruit sticks, egg yolk strips, banana (quartered lengthwise), strips of avocado, shredded meats

• Find ways to level-up the nutritional value of the finger foods you offer (i.e. rather than just a steamed carrot stick, dip the tip of the carrot stick in hummus).

Navi gobbles up a homemade yogurt pop.

G.S.: How did you approach introducing food to your children?

T.M.: When my daughter was around 6 months old, we were living in Los Angeles and our pediatrician told us we could begin feeding her solids. Being the diligent rule follower that I am, I did what I was told: I introduced one ingredient at a time, for 3 consecutive days before introducing the next. One day, when my daughter was on her third day of puréed avocado, my sister in Australia FaceTimed me. My nephew, two weeks younger than my daughter, was gnawing on a delicious-looking, succulent lamb shank. I was very confused! Nowhere on my list of instructions from our pediatrician did I find slow-cooked, meat-on-bone lamb shank listed as an option! This was really the moment that my approach to feeding my daughter pivoted. Understanding that this milestone is approached drastically differently depending on where you live on this planet, gave me the confidence to follow my intuition and the cues of my child rather than a generic table on a website.

With my son, it was far less daunting from the outset.  He has been eating the same meals as the rest of the family since he began solids. 

Braised chicken with lemon and rosemary is a perfect way to feed the whole family—and a great way to introduce herbs and citrus to young eaters.

G.S.: How did you come into this line of work? 

T.M.: I grew up in Melbourne in a Jewish family where food was central to our family life. Friday night Shabbat dinners were an extravaganza: 4-course meals with soup, starters, main courses and desserts. Jewish holidays and celebrations of all kinds were centered around epic meals, with menus being talked about, devised and tweaked weeks in advance. Food has been a central theme in my life and with my love of travel (my dad is a travel writer), I have been lucky to develop a taste for a wide variety of foods from around the world.

For the past decade I have been a birth worker and educator, teaching childbirth education workshops, attending births as a doula, and facilitating mommy and me groups. When my daughter was born in 2015, I joined one of the mommy and me groups where I was teaching. I was convinced by the moms in that group to double batch the meals I was cooking for my daughter, so that I could also feed their babies. I was going to the farmers market each week and creating dishes based on the beautiful, seasonal produce I could get my hands on. With the encouragement of my family and these moms, my home-based project grew into a small, artisanal food business that lasted about 6 years and closed during the Covid pandemic. 

During the mommy and me groups that I was facilitating, so much of the conversation revolved around the introduction of solids and picky eating. The two passions I have for babies and food converged. I began working with a pediatric nutritionist to create a workshop to help support the moms that I was already working with. I have now been teaching this workshop for a number of years and am in the process of turning my workshop into a book with recipes.

Spring in pasta form: beloved by adults, babies and everyone in between.

G.S.: Where do you stand on salt? And on seasoning, generally?

T.M.: There is a real misconception that baby food should be bland.

Interestingly, an infant’s first exposure to flavor occurs well before the introduction to solid foods. In fact, a baby’s first exposure to flavor begins in utero, inside the amniotic sac. What a mother eats during pregnancy actually flavors the amniotic fluid exposing the baby to spices and foods that await in the outside world. And then postpartum, breastmilk is an ever-changing, treasure-trove of flavor reflecting the diet of the mother. It seems almost counter-intuitive to restrict the ingredients that theoretically have already been introduced to the baby before, and immediately following, birth. 

Any chef or home cook will tell you that herbs and spices are crucial to elevating otherwise bland ingredients. In the same way, using different types of fat and cooking methods can totally transform a dish into something that dreams are made of. For example, which would you be more excited about? A bowl of boiled Brussels sprouts or a bowl of sautéed Brussels sprouts cooked in duck fat with garlic, thyme and a squeeze of lemon? The latter, please!! 

Vary preparation and presentation and most kids will go on to like most foods.

Is there anyone who doesn’t enjoy a homemade hand pie?

G.S.: In your opinion, what can you do to help a kid become a receptive, adventurous eater?

T.M.: It is helpful for parents to understand our role at mealtimes and how that differs from our child’s role.  Specifically, it is the parent or carer’s job to decide when mealtimes are and to serve/expose the child to a variety of healthy, delicious foods. It is not actually our job to “feed” our children, but rather to “offer” food. It is then the child’s job to decide “if” they eat and “how much”.  The reason this approach is so important is that if we continue to offer a variety of foods without pressure to eat, your child will likely go on to eat most things.

Research shows that food and beverage preferences are set in the first few years of life. So, give your child a taste for things that are good for them. Offer a variety of foods to encourage an adventurous eater (but with no pressure to actually eat the food). And remember, research shows that it can take 15+ times (or even years!) for a child to accept some foods. Keep offering rejected items; one day your child will surprise you and gobble them up.

Combining a variety of textures and flavors is a great way to introduce new experiences to young eaters.

G.S.: How would you characterize the difference between, say, “American” attitudes about feeding kids versus, say, Australian or Japanese?

T.M.: In the U.S., some of the most popular first foods are instant baby rice cereal and prepackaged, shelf-stable jars and pouches of purée. Part of the reason for this is the lack of infrastructure that allows parents the “luxury” of still being at home when their baby is embarking on their first foods. Rather, they are back at work and forced to choose the most convenient option. But the quick fixes aren’t ideal. Shelf-stable products often take two years from production to the time they reach the supermarket shelf, so they have to contain additives or use high heat in the production phase so they don’t spoil.

In other parts of the world, babies eat what the rest of their family or community is eating. Their meals are diverse and flavorful, rich in cultural influence and regional ingredients. Here are some examples:

• Japan: A favorite among the Japanese is a dish called okayu. This is rice porridge infused with dried fish and vegetables or mashed pumpkin. Fish is rich in protein and omega-3 fatty acids that babies need, and vegetables and pumpkin add lots of nutrients as well.

• Dominican Republic: Babies in the Dominican Republic eat crema de habichuelas, a purée of black beans and kidney beans. Beans are a good source of plant protein because of the amino acids. They are also very low GI, so they release slow, steady amounts of carbohydrates into the body. Beans also have prebiotics, a type of fiber that feeds the good bacteria in the bowel. Babies who have good levels of these bacteria have a lower incidence of gut infections and upper-respiratory infections.

• India: Babies in India regularly eat khichdi, a dish of rice, lentils and fragrant Indian spices. This really knocks the idea of bland being best for babies on its head. Indian mothers eat hot curries and spices throughout their pregnancies, so babies are used to these tastes from the womb. There are many benefits of having spices in a baby’s diet. They are rich in antioxidants and plant-based phytochemicals.

Start ‘em young!

G.S.: Tips on how to avoid tantrums at meal times?

T.M.: Take the pressure off and remember that mealtimes are so much more than just about filling a need. A meal is an opportunity to connect with your family, to slow down and talk about the day. Creating a relaxed and positive atmosphere will foster good feelings around mealtimes.  

Tantrums boil down to a child feeling out of control. If you remove the pressure that many children feel around having to eat, you are removing the power struggle. Allow the meals to be baby/child led (you offer food without pressure, coercion, bribery, etc. and let your child decide if they eat and how much). 

Always offer 1-2 items that you know your child likes so they won’t go hungry, and then consider offering some rejected items (with no pressure to eat).

Some additional advice: Avoid becoming a short order cook. If your child rejects the family meal, resist the impulse to quickly create a meal you know they’ll eat. Unfortunately, this perpetuates the problem of the child refusing food as they know you will cave and cater to their preferences. 

G.S.: Any favorite cooking techniques for making food for babies?

T.M.: Roasting brings out the best in ingredients. It enhances the flavor, it caramelizes and adds a depth that other methods of cooking can’t achieve. A simple example is stock made from raw bones, as opposed to stock made from roasted bones. 

Some of my kids’ favorite roasted finger foods when they were babies were:

• Roasted blueberries with coconut oil and a pinch of cinnamon (a wonderful alternative to puffs for pincer grasp practice)

• Roasted taro fingers with extra-virgin olive oil and paprika (great practice for palmar grasp)

• Baked apple with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger with some browned butter.

Talia and Navi examining the bounty of berry season up close!

G.S.: What’s your #1 nutritional boost add-in ingredient when you’re cooking for your kids?

T.M.: A good quality homemade bone broth! Bone broth is an incredibly nutritious immune-boosting superfood. It can easily be incorporated into babies’ meals to make that one small mouthful of food incredibly nutrient-dense. Some ways you can incorporate bone broth, is to cook your grains and oats in the broth, rather than water. You can also add a tablespoon of bone broth to fruit and vegetable purées or an ice cube of bone broth can be added to smoothies. I recommend making your own as it is so easy and store-bought bone broth is often high in sodium, has added flavoring, and very little of the good stuff (gelatin & cartilage). You can choose to make the bone broth neutral-tasting (without onion, garlic and other aromatics), so that even the pickiest of little palates won’t detect the flavor or alternatively, you can add a variety of vegetables, herbs and spices for added flavor and nutrition.

G.S.: A final take-home lesson?

T.M.: The ultimate goal is to make mealtime a positive experience for both you and your baby and to raise a human being who loves food and has a positive relationship with eating.