Flavours of the world

If the thought of adding a little variety to your baby’s diet has ever crossed your mind, take a look at our global baby food menu for inspiration

Forget baby rice and mashed banana. Babies in other countries have far more sophisticated menus, and weaning can take on a whole new meaning.

AFRICA
It’s back to nature for African babies who enjoy a healthy diet of steamed cowpea leaves (like spinach), mixed with millet (and you thought it was just for birds!) and a side-order of porridge made from bean flour – guaranteed to boost bouncy babies’ energy levels.

BULGARIA
Tempting dishes for Bulgarian babies include luxury meals of veal (they’re not put off by the thought of eating baby cows) with vegetables, or for the more privileged little ones, rabbit served with the very baby-friendly aniseed-based fennel. Delicious.

CANADA
Fun-sounding Tutti Frutti and Hawaiian Delight (both very popular tinned fruit desserts in Canada) are balanced by the slightly more serious-sounding creamed corn, squash and sweet potato purées.

CHINA
Forget egg fried rice and sweet and sour sauce, Chinese babies eat a nutritious, easily prepared diet. Dishes include noodles with fish in a creamy broccoli sauce, washed down with warm herbal teas such as lime blossom and camomile.

CZECH REPUBLIC
It may sound inedible to us (but then how would you explain roast beef and Yorkshire pudding to a foreigner?), but Czech babies enjoy a tempting diet of stewed rabbit served with broccoli and rice, or noodles in tomato sauce with a small portion of veal.

GERMANY
Put away thoughts of sausages and sauerkraut; German babies eat a healthy diet of rabbit with green beans, or pumpkin with potato and rice.

JAPAN
Babies in Japan aren’t born chewing on a piece of sushi – but their food does consist of healthy ingredients based around fish and rice. Japanese babies’ diets also include chopped burdock root (think of a long, thin, sweet-tasting cross between potato and parsnip), flounder (a white, flaky fish) and spinach stew.

MEXICO
We should all take a leaf out of the Mexican mum’s cookery book – they feed their babies on healthy puréed tropical fruits like guavas and mangoes. Not only are such fruits packed with vitamins including folic acid – an essential nutrient for encouraging healthy neural development in unborn babies – but they taste great, too.

POLAND
Mothers in this Eastern European country make sure their babies grow up to be strong and healthy by preparing nutritious, warming soups and stews of pork with vegetables and noodles.

USA
More than any country, the USA has food issues, with more than half of the population currently obese. American mums do their best to start their babies out on the right foot by including sweet potatoes, chicken and prunes in their baby’s diet.

What are your baby's favourite foods? Does he or she prefer something foreign from the good, old-fashioned English stapes. Visit the M&B online messageboards and let us know.