Getting your baby accustomed to eating solid foods can be a bit of a challenge, not to mention a bit of a mess! It's almost as if the sound of a food jar opening immediately sets off a signal in a baby's brain that pureed chicken is on its way to the high chair, which makes him/her instinctively push the spoon out of the way so that the mashed chicken winds up in mom's hair.

Not that you can blame junior for refusing to eat something that really isn't meant to be in the form of mush. Have you ever smelled a jar of that stuff? Gross!

This past weekend, our 6-month-old babies finally got their first taste of solid food: delicious, nutritious pureed squash. Yummy! I mean, the stuff was goopy and stinky and reminded me of ... well, baby food, but the little guys dribbled and blibbled and slurped it right up!

Leading up to this first feeding, I'd read and heard several different opinions on what foods to start with, when to start them on solids, how to introduce new foods, and on and on. I think some advice is universal: start them anywhere from 4 to 6 months, introduce new foods in the morning, don't introduce another food until they've been on the previous for 3-4 days, and don't force it on them. Also, food at this age is not a supplement for their breast milk or formula, so you need to continue to give them the same amount of milk as always. I got a few other helpful hints though that I definitely think are worth putting into practice.

It's a classic moment every parent wishes they'd caught on film: Baby's first lemon. That face! I'll never forget the look my daughter gave me: Have you gone mad, woman? What made you think I would want to eat that?!

And then she wanted to try it again.

Just like the baby in this video, whose lucky parents did manage to record the citrus fruit milestone for posterity. It's a good one, too -- and if the setting looks familiar, that's probably because most babies end up testing out their first lemon wedge in this place ...

It's obviously important for your baby to like and eat those mushy and colorful solid foods you feed her for the first time. But it's even more important that YOU like them. Your baby has never tasted food before. Only you know if a baby food fruit or vegetable actually tastes like a real peach or carrot and not some artificial representation with an icky aftertaste. Trust us, a lot of the baby food on the shelves tastes this way -- and that's no way to set the stage for a lifetime of healthy eating habits. The moms at The Stir felt a baby food taste test done by grown-ups was long overdue and we recently took the gastric plunge. Trust us when we say DO NOT buy another jar or package of baby food again until you read our surprising -- and at times unpalatable -- results. Your baby will thank you -- and us.

What the heck is going on in California? As of January 1, a whole slew of new laws went into effect that moms should be checking out. You can no longer try to ban male circumcision in your community, health insurance must cover autism related treatments, schools can suspend students for cyber bullying, booster seats are required until age 8 or 4' 9", and stores can no longer sell expired baby formula or baby food.

Ummm, what? This wasn't already a "thing" before this law? You could actually sell expired formula and baby food? For babies to eat? Legally?

You know how some babies get obsessed with certain foods? For a few weeks, it seems like your little one is never going to eat anything besides bananas, then he won't even look at anything that's not a Cheerio. Well, the baby in this video definitely ... um ... well, he seems to be in a bit of a yogurt phase.

Okay, that's putting it mildly. He seems to be in the throes of a hardcore yogurt addiction is what I really want to say. This baby needs yogurt like Edward needs to tap Bella's jugular, you dig?

The following information is not to be taken with a grain of salt. I’m already worrying about feeding my baby too much sugar and setting off nut allergies; now, I’ve got another nutritional worry: My baby is likely getting too much salt in her diet.

In the United Kingdom, approximately 70 percent of 8-month-old babies get more than healthy levels of sodium, and researchers say the U.S. diet has a similar trend.

Though salt is necessary in small amounts, most kids are getting more than twice the maximum safe amount. Why is this bad? What are the risks? And where is it all coming from? The answers to these questions are seriously pissing me off!

The nutrition a child receives during that crucial development period is so important that it can affect them for the rest of their entire lives. Recent studies, and many older ones, show that nutrition in the first 1,000 days of your child's life -- conception to the second birthday -- are some of the most important times during a child's development. A child's birth weight can dictate the likelihood of suffering from heart disease and heart attacks as a middle-aged adult.

We know diet is important during pregnancy -- without a decently balanced diet, the baby can have developmental issues, and mom's own body will suffer as well. But as soon as baby comes out, sometimes we shift to "it doesn't matter what baby is fed, as long as they're being fed." Honestly, we all know that's not quite true -- of course a child being fed is better than not, but what they eat when there are options matters a ton, too. And no, I don't just mean the choice to breastfeed or not.