While it's less likely your baby will spit out homemade baby food, most children need to get used to new tastes and textures. A parent's best strategy is to give baby homemade or "real" food from the beginning instead of food from a baby jar.

Annabel Karmel offers the following tips for preventing a picky eater:

• Start your baby out with root vegetables such as sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Babies like sweet-tasting vegetables.
• Don't wait too long to introduce meats. Start by mixing chicken together with sweet potato and apple for a chicken puree.
• After your baby is used to chicken purees, introduce fish at about 7 months. Your baby can eat red meat at 9 or 10 months.
• Variety is one key to avoiding pickiness. If your baby tries different foods early on, he or she will be more likely to begin to eat family meals at age 1. Prior to age 1, the high sodium content of adult meals would not be healthful for an infant.
• If your child does not like meat or is a vegetarian, try feeding him or her lentils mixed with root vegetables.
• If your child is fussy and refuses to eat when she is older, don't give her something else, Karmel says. "Just say, 'Fine. You are not hungry.' Because a hungry child will be a less fussy child and [at] the next meal they will eat something healthy."
• Your child will probably not like potatoes if you use a food processor because it breaks down the starches. The sticky potatoes often get stuck in a baby's throat. Instead, puree in a hand-held food mill or press through a sieve.
• One of the best ways to overcome a child's pickiness is through trial and error. Karmel says you don't need to wait days in between introducing one food or another.

• 6 to 7 months
• Makes four portions
• Cooking time: 20 minutes
• Suitable for freezing

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
4 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped
1 large sweet potato (12 ounces), peeled and chopped
1/2 apple, cored, peeled and chopped
1 cup chicken stock

Heat the butter in a saucepan, add the onion and saut矦or two to three minutes. Add the chicken and saut矦or a couple of minutes until it turns opaque. Add the sweet potatoes and apple and pour in the stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Puree to the desired consistency.

Food fact: Chicken is an ideal "growth" food, as it is packed with protein and vitamin B12, which is not found in plants.

• 6 to 7 months
• Makes four portions
• Cooking time: 20 minutes
• Suitable for freezing

4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
8 ounces flounder fillets, skinned
2 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium tomatoes (8 ounces), peeled, seeded and chopped
1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese

Put carrots in steamer set over a pan of boiling water and cook for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place the fish in a microwave dish, add the milk, dot with 1 tablespoon of butter and cover, leaving an air vent. Microwave on high for two to three minutes. Alternately, put the fish in a pan, cover with a little milk and simmer for three to four minutes or until cooked.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, add the tomatoes and saut矵ntil mushy. Stir in the cheese until melted. Blend the carrots with the tomato mixture. Remove the fish from its cooking liquor and flake, making sure there are no bones. Mix the fish with the carrots and tomatoes. For younger babies, you can blend the fish together with the carrots and tomato for a smoother texture.

• 7 to 9 months
• Makes four portions
• Cooking time: three minutes
• Suitable for freezing

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 large pear, peeled, cored and chopped
6 dried apricots, chopped

Put milk, oatmeal and chopped apricots into a small saucepan, bring to a boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally, for three minutes. Puree with the chopped pear using a handheld electric blender.

Top Tip: Your baby may start grabbing the spoon you use to feed her, so it's a good idea to give her a second, identical spoon to hold while you feed her. Once she can get the spoon into her mouth, try giving food that will stick to the spoon like oatmeal.