Just over a month ago, I went to a friend’s child’s 2nd birthday party, and they asked me to bring some snacks for the kids. So I brought some veggies that Kaia likes: roasted bell peppers and sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were roasted in olive oil and tossed with cinnamon, nutmeg, and some allspice. When the birthday girl was eating the sweet potatoes eagerly, her mom asked how I had prepared them. I told her, and she seemed surprised that I used cinnamon. Later on, her husband (my friend) told me that because his wife doesn’t like cinnamon that their child had never been exposed to it. I was a little bit shocked that she hadn’t offered it since cinnamon is pretty ubiquitous in the U.S.; plus, her kid was already 2 years old now! Anyone who has read any baby solids feeding guide (and no, not just baby-led weaning or Solid Starts) will see that cinnamon is one of the most common and popular recommendations to introduce babies to (not hot) spices and build a varied palate.

I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised, though: we’re all humans at the end of the day with our own preferences for things. It’s only natural that we’d try, consciously or subconsciously, to pass them to our kids. I have hated ketchup since even before I could speak, so up until last week, Kaia had never had any exposure to ketchup. But, I will say that given ketchup does have extra sugar (that’s what gets kids hooked on it…) and salt, there was no real reason to give it to her and even more reason to withhold it from her. While I was at my work offsite, Chris had to make his customary visit to In N Out while in California, so he went to Fisherman’s Wharf to get his fix. While he did that, he let Kaia have some fries and suggested she dip them in some ketchup. He even took a video of it to prove it to me. On the one hand, I was proud that she was finally getting into dips and “dipping” since she seems to have some aversion to sauces and mushy things like avocado and egg. On the other hand, I was completely grossed out that she actually seemed fond of that American monstrosity that we call ketchup.

If Kaia likes to dip an occasional fry into ketchup, I guess I will have to just suck it up and turn my eyes (and my nose, ugh) the other way. But, if she even attempts to squeeze ketchup onto her white rice or add it to steak…. then we will have a very serious problem on our hands that will need to be addressed as soon as possible.