CHAMPAIGN – University of Illinois food scientist Susan Brewer had her doubts about whether toddlers and their parents would accept a baby food made from salmon.

A mom herself, she wondered, would babies swallow it or spit it out? Would parents even buy it?

"I said, 'Salmon baby food? Eww,'" she recalls when she began experimenting.

But as it turns out, salmon baby food only sounds yucky, she says.

"Making it was much easier than we thought it was going to be. Processing it was much easier than we thought it was going to be, and at the end of the day, it tasted good," she said.

Some moms and dads agreed. A group of 107 parents sampled the salmon baby food Brewer developed, and 81 percent said they'd offer it to their kids.

Fish baby food is nothing new in Asian countries, where people eat fish-rich diets. But Brewer knew it could be a hard sell in the U.S., where people don't eat much fish, especially in the Midwest where it doesn't come fresh.

Why feed salmon to kids? Because it's a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids that babies need for brain, nerve and eye development. The primary source of omega-3's in the first year of life is breast milk or infant formula, but once children graduate to solid food they rarely get enough of this nutrient, Brewer says.

Another good reason to feed tots fish: Taste buds are developed early in life, by about age 5.

So kids who eat salmon when they're babies might choose to eat more fish as adults, and that could pay dividends in better heart health.

Adults who hate fish aren't likely to change their eating habits, Brewer says, "but if you get to them when they're children, that's a different thing."

The American Heart Association recommends eating fish, especially fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, lake trout, sardines and albacore tuna, twice a week.

Brewer worked with both red and pink salmon, finding red salmon holds its color better in processing than pink salmon, which turns an unappetizing white.

She also tried adding bone meal and pureed salmon eggs to make her baby foods extra nutritious.

Brewer also knew salmon baby food would have to be smooth enough for the toothless and teething target audience to swallow. The combination that worked and tasted best was salmon, starch and water, she said.

"It was amazingly mild, and not fishy," she adds.

Brewer worked on her research with Peter Bechtel, a former UI professor who is now with Alaska's Agricultural Research Service, to develop products using wild-caught Alaskan salmon.

Toward the end of her study, Brewer said, she heard baby food maker Beech-Nut had a salmon and sweet potato baby food on the market.

According to the Beech-Nut website, the company's DHA Plus Sweet Potatoes & Wild Alaskan Salmon baby food contains sweet potatoes, water, peas, wild Alaskan salmon, enriched egg noodles, fructooligosaccharides, lemon juice concentrate and rosemary extract.