Houston Chronicle, May 16, 2007 HOUSTON - Donna Leonard was turned off by peas. When her daughter, Nicole, was ready to begin eating solids, Leonard did what many other parents do: She bought jarred baby food. But she couldn't bring herself to feed the kid the peas. "I just couldn't do it. It didn't look yummy to me. I'm not going to eat it, and I'm definitely not going to give it to my little tiny person.'' Instead, Leonard, owner of Houston-based meal-preparation service Diet Gourmet, turned to her mom, Ingrid Kish, the company's chef. Kish began preparing Nicole's food, whipping up single-ingredient purées at first and graduating to multi-ingredient chunky food as Nicole grew. In December, Leonard and Kish, through Diet Gourmet, launched Lil' Tummies, a line of frozen baby and toddler foods. These new niche products are slightly chunkier and offer more exotic combinations than the strained bananas once eaten by the parents who now buy them. They cost two to three times more than conventional or even organic jarred foods. But not all experts agree that early exposure to food combinations makes baby a better eater. Dr. Xavier Villa, division director for pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, is unaware of any research "that shows it will be beneficial or detrimental to a child." One potential problem with feeding a young baby multi-ingredient foods, Villa points out, is that should she have an allergic reaction, determining the source can be difficult. Instead, he cautions parents to introduce new ingredients one by one, especially before the first birthday. "Pediatricians recommend introducing one type of food at a time and waiting a few days before introducing another," he says.