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The Best Foods, Age by Age

When your baby is ready -- he can sit up in his high chair and shows interest in your food -- you'll want to start certain kinds of foods first. Be careful not to inundate your little gourmet with too many different foods in a short span of time. Allow at least three days between new foods. That way, you won't overwhelm him, and you'll be able to spot any problems that may arise with a particular food.

Let your baby decide how much to eat. For some meals -- or days -- he may not eat much; on others, he may be ravenous. Go with the flow.

What you eat matters, too
When you were pregnant, the flavors of the foods you ate were transferred through amniotic fluid to your fetus; if you're nursing, what you eat flavors your milk. Research shows that when your baby is ready to eat solid food, chances are he'll remember those flavors. For instance, in one study, 3- to 10-month-old babies of moms who drank carrot juice in their last trimester or during breastfeeding seemed to relish the taste of cereal made with carrot juice instead of water. Those mothers who didn't drink carrot juice had babies who were tentative about eating carrot-juice-flavored cereal.

There's no guarantee that if you love broccoli your baby will as well. But the more varied and healthy your food choices, the better your chances are of raising a kid who likes his veggies, too.