Chopped apricots are the answer to everything

I remember the day I found them clearly. We were in that food-limbo period where over half of her teeth were in but dinners were still mushy rice and potato dishes. Lunches were ‘experimental’ at best but I was tired of picking up the ingredients of an entire cheese board and fruit salad from the floor. I wanted something that involved NO preparation because I was tired of the impatient food shriek and it needed a best before date longer than a few days in the hope that she could love a food, hate it and love it again before it was destined for the bin. Then I saw it: a bag of chopped apricots on the Baking pages of online shopping. I considered the throwing trajectory of each segment and bought it anyway.

Thus began my toddler’s love affair with apricot which continues to this day. Feeling snacky? Apricots. Fell over? Apricots. In a grump because mummy wouldn’t let you play with the toilet brush? You get the idea.

I have used these little pieces of orange heaven to bribe and pay ransoms (when she got hold of said toilet brush). I’ve scattered them across the high chair like I’m feeding the pigeons to teach counting and words and phrases like I want.

What’s more, I’m convinced they’re what made my daughter’s potty training a breeze at 18 months thanks to making her so regular she was some kind of pooping cuckoo clock. 

The only drawback is I will walk across the house and find little pieces stuck to my foot as her clumsy toddler hands are a nightmare for holding them. But I see it as training for the Lego days ahead of me – and it’s a price I’m willing to pay for a healthy toddler gut and a happy toddler smile.