Crickets are a great source of protein, so I started adding them to my baby's food — and she loves them

• I'm a food writer and will try anything at least once, including eating bugs.
• I started adding insects to our meals to cut down our grocery bill.

As a food writer, I've always been the type of person who will try anything — including entomophagy, otherwise known as eating insects. I've tasted everything from fried tarantula legs to scorpion on a stick. I've also enjoyed crickets and ants when traveling to countries like Thailand and Vietnam, and I loved how they were incorporated into local dishes to enhance their textural appeal.

Back home in Toronto, I decided to add crickets into mealtimes with my 18-month-old baby. To be honest, it was not only adventurousness that compelled me to do it but practicality, too — I wanted to cut down on our family's grocery bill.

With a baby, our food costs have spiked to about $250 to $300 a week. To supplement the rising prices, I decided to get Cricket Puff snacks, Cricket Protein Powder, and Whole Roasted Crickets from Entomo Farms. Because I've started rotating these insects with more traditionally expensive proteins like beef, chicken, and pork, I've managed to cut my bill down to about $150 to $200 a week.

My baby is fearless when it comes to food

My baby and I are both hopping (pun wholly intended) onto the cricket bandwagon. She's at the age where she's fearless and curious, so this is an opportune time to try more "exotic" foods that aren't considered a dietary staple in North America.

Venus Kalami, a board-certified pediatric dietitian and nutritionist at Solid Starts, said that preferences around food begin to form in early childhood, and for babies and young children, positive mealtime experiences are key to building a healthy relationship with food. "During infancy, a child is particularly receptive to exploring a wide variety of foods — a strong argument for introducing insects early on and getting ahead of any negative stereotypes around eating bugs, such as being 'scary' or 'inedible,'" she told Insider.

As it turns out, I'm actually late to the bug-consumption party with my little one. According to Kalami, I could have started her as young as 6 months old. "We encourage parents to bring baby to the table to share the family meal as soon as the child is ready to start eating solid foods. This typically happens around 6 months of age, and there are plenty of nutritious ways to share edible insects in an age-appropriate way with babies," she said.

She explained that for safety reasons, crickets can be "modified' to a safe shape or consistency for babies. For instance, she says you can add ground crickets to warm porridges or mix them into purees and mashed foods. "Once baby has their pincer grasp, cricket and other edible insects may be served whole as finger food," she added.

Insects are full of protein

Eating bugs may seem like a novelty to many North Americans, but we're missing out because they're a nutritional powerhouse. Kalami said that "many insects are packed with key nutrients like high-quality protein, essential fatty acids, minerals like iron (some have more than beef) and zinc, vital B vitamins, and more."

For example, a mere 2 tablespoons of cricket powder provides 100% of the daily protein needs of a baby, which for my 20 pound baby is nine to 14 grams a day, or 11 grams on average. Kalami also said that all these nutrients support neurocognitive development, help prevent iron-deficiency anemia, fuel immune function, and support taste perception. As a bonus, eating bugs will help your little one with being regular. "Insects are also one of the very few animal-based sources of fiber, which is important for supporting a baby's digestive system," Kalami said.

The only thing to be mindful of when feeding kids bugs is allergies. "Parents of a child with shellfish allergy, specifically crustaceans, should also take care when sharing edible insects as there may be an increased risk of allergy," Kalami said. Our little one has no allergies or dietary restrictions so we proceeded with a bug tasting over a three-week period.

My baby loved eating crickets 'hidden' in other food

We first tried cricket cheese puffs — which look like Cheetos — and she took to them immediately. My baby devoured them with delight and didn't notice the slight textural difference. To me, compared to Cheetos, they taste far less salty and have a fibrous finish to them.

Next, I tried giving my baby whole roasted crickets. When I picked one out of the bag, I gave myself a jump scare: You could see their little heads, thoraxes, and abdomens all clustered together. I hate to admit it, but touching them was a little icky for me. Thankfully, I restrained my facial expressions, let her peer into the bag, and grab a cricket out for herself. Without hesitation, she took a bite — but promptly chucked the rest onto the floor. She shook her head and told me she wasn't interested.

We had more success when the ground crickets were "hidden" in pancakes. You could see the black flecks in the batter, but my baby was unfazed by the appearance change. She took a big bite and clamored for more. I ate some and could understand why — you couldn't tell that crickets were in these fluffy cakes. The only difference was that they had a slightly nutty finish. For dinner, I sprinkled some of the powder into our mac-and-cheese sauce, tossed it with some pasta shells, and again, she couldn't taste anything different. She then made the sign for "more" — it was a winner.

In the future, I have plans to incorporate more edible insects into our meals, such as ants, grasshoppers, and worms, which Kalami said are a fantastic source of protein and other key nutrients that babies need, such as iron and zinc. In the meantime, it will take a bit more repetition and cooking creativity on my part before eating bugs becomes second nature in our family.