The First 100 Foods: Why We Started Tracking Variety, Not Just Reactions

For the first few months of solids, every log entry in our house was about risk: did this food cause a reaction, is it safe, how long until we can try the next allergen. Useful, but it meant we had no idea whether our baby was actually eating a varied diet or just cycling through the same six 'safe' purées. Turns out that is a really common blind spot. Somewhere around month five we started counting distinct foods instead of just distinct reactions, and it changed how we planned meals.

Direct Answer: A reaction log only flags problems, not gaps — tracking distinct foods tried against a target of 100, broken out by category (vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, dairy), reveals which food groups a baby hasn't been exposed to yet, which a simple 'ate, no reaction' log won't show.

Tracking meals and symptoms manually is harder than it sounds. Our app makes it quick, and stays completely private.

Coming soon — clicktap to get notified

Scan with your iPhone camera to get the app.

Or open the App Store link →

The app is iPhone only for now.

Tell me when it comes to Android

Reaction-free is not the same as varied

It is easy to get comfortable with a rotation of five or six foods that never cause trouble and just keep serving them. Nothing goes wrong, so there is no signal telling you to branch out. But paediatric dietitians generally recommend exposing babies to a wide range of textures, flavours, and food groups during the early weaning window, partly because early exposure is linked to less picky eating later, and partly because different foods bring different micronutrients. A reaction log will not tell you this. It only flags problems. We needed a separate way to see, at a glance, how much ground we had actually covered.

What counting to 100 actually reveals

Once we started tracking distinct foods against a target of 100, spread across vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, and dairy, the gaps were obvious immediately. We had tried at least fifteen fruits and almost no legumes. Plenty of soft carbs, barely any fish. It was not a crisis, just a blind spot we could not see when the only thing being logged was 'ate, no reaction.' Seeing the count and the category breakdown together turned into a simple weekly prompt: what has not shown up yet this month?

Milestone cards turned it into something worth sharing

The unexpected part was how much grandparents cared about this. 'No reactions to report' is not exciting news to text a grandparent. 'Baby just tried food number 40, first time with lentils' is the kind of thing people actually want to see. The app's shareable milestone cards gave us something to send to family that was not just medical bookkeeping. Free accounts track the first 12 foods, which is enough to get a feel for it. Premium unlocks the full 100 Foods Board so you can keep going all the way through toddlerhood.

It also made the allergen schedule easier to plan

There is a practical side benefit too. Once you can see which food groups are thin, it is easier to decide what to introduce next during a structured allergen window, rather than defaulting to whatever is easiest to prepare that day. We started planning the next few allergen introductions around the gaps the board showed us, instead of just working down a generic list. It did not replace our paediatrician's guidance on sequencing major allergens, but it made the in-between choices (which fruit, which vegetable, which grain) much less arbitrary.

Questions parents ask

Why track how many different foods my baby has tried, not just reactions?

Tracking the number of different foods a baby has tried shows gaps that a reaction log never will. A reaction log only flags problems, so a rotation of five or six 'safe' foods looks fine even when whole food groups are missing. Paediatric dietitians generally recommend a wide range of textures, flavours and food groups during early weaning, partly because early exposure is linked to less picky eating later.

Source: BDA: complementary feeding (weaning); NHS: your baby's first solid foods

What food groups should be on a first 100 foods list?

A first 100 foods list is easiest to use when it is broken out by category: vegetables, fruit, protein, grains and dairy. Seeing the count and the category split together makes gaps obvious. We found we had tried at least fifteen fruits but almost no legumes, and plenty of soft carbs but barely any fish. That blind spot was not a crisis, just something an 'ate, no reaction' log will not show.

Is it bad if my baby only eats the same few foods?

Serving the same few foods is very common and is not a crisis, but it can leave gaps. When five or six foods never cause trouble, there is no signal telling you to branch out. Different foods bring different micronutrients, and paediatric dietitians generally recommend a wide range of flavours, textures and food groups in the early weaning window. A simple weekly prompt helps: what has not shown up yet this month?

Source: BDA: complementary feeding (weaning); NHS: your baby's first solid foods

How can tracking food variety help plan allergen introductions?

Tracking food variety shows which food groups are thin, which makes it easier to decide what to introduce next during a structured allergen window instead of defaulting to whatever is easiest to prepare that day. We planned our next few allergen introductions around the gaps. It did not replace our paediatrician's guidance on sequencing major allergens, but it made the in-between choices (which fruit, which vegetable, which grain) much less arbitrary.

Is the first 100 foods tracker in the Log app free?

The First 100 Foods Tracker in the Log app is free for the first 12 foods, which is enough to get a feel for tracking variety. Premium unlocks the full 100 Foods Board, so you can keep going all the way through toddlerhood, with shareable milestone cards. Those cards give you something to send family, like 'food number 40, first time with lentils', that is not just medical bookkeeping.

Source: Log app pricing