Snotty Noses Happy Parents Raising Healthy Kids by Dr Orlena Kerek, Paediatrician

Celeste and Sebastian are 6 months old. They've been eating food for several weeks now. Sebastian took to it like a duck to water. Celeste was a little slower (even though she got the swallow quicker than S). There was a time when she would only eat fruit sauce, but she's improving her repertoire, including 'thumb' which is apparently very tasty, just also quite messy.

Having 4 children means I don't have time to spend hours making baby food but I still want them to eat healthily (and cheaply, jars are so expensive.) So 'quick and easy' for me is something that doesn't take very long, or something that I can cook for the whole family.

Often I just remove some of the vegetables that I've cooked for all of us. For example, vegetable sauce for pasta. There's not an exact recipe, I generally cook up whatever I can find with a tin of smooth tomatoes (rather than whole ones). Sometimes I add some pulses, a tin of chick peas or some red lentils (babies love red lentils, they're quite sweet.)

It does depend what I'm cooking, if it's something with spices in, I'll take the vegetables out early, or cook them in another pan.

A note on salt. I don't really use salt in my cooking. Your taste buds adapt to salt, so the more you use, the more you need to have the same effect. If you reduce your salt intake, you'll find you don't need so much. (A bit like coffee).

Having said that, if I think it looks a bit bland I sometimes add some cheese, normally parmesan (we can't buy cheddar here ).

So here are some of the combinations that we've tried and liked:

Leek, sweet potato, cauliflower, cheese.

Carrot, lentils, cheese, tomato.

Potato, sweet potato, broccoli, cheese.

Carrot, sweet potato, red lentils, red pepper.

Carrot, butternut squash, courgette, potato.

Aubergine, courgette, butternut squash, tomato.

Potato, parsnip, cheese.

I'd love to hear some of your successful or unsuccessful combos (to know what to avoid). Happy whizzing!