If your baby seems put off by certain foods, don’t just stop giving them to him. In fact, whatever’s on the menu for your family, offer to your baby once they’ve got enough teeth to deal with it. Until then, just cut it up in small pieces – although I think you can safely skip the salad for the time being – that’s pretty much a grown up food. Although, I have been known to pick onions and tomatoes and other selects from my salad to my baby’s delight.
If you just assume that your baby isn’t interested in a food, there will never be a chance for him to develop a taste for it. Many times too, your baby might just need some good dinner time conversation to get all his food eaten. Most babies start off by eating their prefers foods first and only if they’re still hungry move on to the next item. This is why limiting particularly “bad foods” such as starchy noodles and rice is a good idea. Your baby simply won’t be motivated to eat a balanced meal if they have other choice foods.
Play around with food presentation until you find a way that your baby and toddler will eat everything. Give your baby some choices as to which spices they’d like on their veggies. We routinely offer lemon spice, garlic plus butter and Cajun spice. He likes all of them, but giving him the choice puts a bit of control in his hands. Just like adults, kids need variety too. I would recommend against giving a wide array of choices for meals though because you don’t want to be stuck having to make specialty foods. In most cases, if your food is prepared to the standards of visiting guests, your child will enjoy what he’s being given.