I’ve been lucky so far that my kiddo is a decent eater. We have meals (or days… or, rarely, weeks) where there are struggles, but for the most part he is interested in trying new things and also in finishing what’s in front of him. But, there are the mealtimes that feel like a fight. With an almost-two-year-old, I assume this is normal, that some foods are just rife for a pushback. Luckily, I have a magic trick: it’s bananas. Ernie will 100% of the time eat bananas. Usually he has them just on their own, but we’ve also done with peanut butter dip, spread on toast, or alongside yogurt. If we’re in a strugglefest of a mealtime, I can bring out a “na” as he calls them and know that at least his belly is being filled by this, a basic and healthy snack. This isn’t a new favorite food for him, as he’s preferred fruits since the get go and bananas have been his number one for quite some time. Here are four ways we introduced bananas (“na!”) to him as a baby. (Sidenote, he also has this banana teether and it is still one of the favorite toys, even in non-teething times!)

• MASHED — This was the first way Ernie tried bananas. I would mix them with breastmilk or water so it was an easier to consume consistency. Then, after checking with his pediatrician, I also would add peanut butter to start him on a peanut friendly diet to hopefully avoid an allergy.
• PUREED — Then we moved on to using bananas in purees. I made all of Ernie’s purees as a baby, and if he wasn’t psyched on a newly introduced food (i.e. spinach), sometimes I would add in some banana to sweeten the deal.
• PANCAKES — I have loved this recipe for “two-ingredient paleo pancakes” since I discovered it a number of years ago, pre-baby. They’re so simple and taste surprisingly akin to “regular” pancakes. For baby, they’re fun to cut up into strips to work on taking bites when those first chompers start coming in!
• PEELED — Ok, this maybe sounds like a copout as a “way” because it’s just peeled right? Wrong. This trick for splitting a banana into near-equal thirds is a game changer for little baby mouths. It means you don’t need a knife or other utensil to still have an easy snack. I third the banana and then break off small bite-sized pieces with my fingers and it’s always a win.

Anyone else have other ways their baby has loved eating banana?