Feeding My 18 Month Old

Have you tryed feeding her the toddler dinners? You can get little micrwavable cans that have a variety of different meals to choose from. Also you could try what looks like a t.v. dinner for babies. It will have a main dish and a side of vegetables that are small enough she should be able to handle. I hope this helps!!!

Does your baby have many teeth yet? My daughter is 18 months and eats everything except corn and cole slaw. Maybe try soft, cooked vegetables and softer meats. Cooked carets, mashed potatoes, peas - those sort of things and try to keep meats moist and tinder and make really small or (this will sound gross) squishy bites.

My 2 year old love grilled chicken, yogurt, shreded and sliced cheese. He also eats often spaghetti plain or even bread slices. Slices of lunch meat are also a favorite. We also put new food on his plate so he will try it. It of course does not always work, but we keep on trying. I hope this helps.

This is a great time to try different things especially vegetables with her. I would try greenbeans, peas, cooked carrots, cooked broccoli you probably will need to remove the stems and cooked cauliflower. The more she can get a taste for now the better she will eat when she gets older. give her a variety, she may just be bored with the same types of things every day. good luck

I have a son who has and eating disorder and a daughter who is petite and is a small eater too. If milk is not a preference try soy milk, Silk Very Vanilla, goes down great! Just be careful with cheese because constipation can be an issue. Most fruits help with that. Brown Karo syrup in milk or juice will loosen things up too safely. Another thought... look at the palm of your toddlers hand. Most food portions are can be based on the the size of her plam. It's not big. Trust me very few toddlers starve themselves. Relax and make it an exploration journey.

My daughter loved yogurt at that age.
J.

Hi Beth,
If your daughter is anything like my two little ones, she may be very independent about what she wants to eat at this age (and actually, from here on out). I would suggest anything that is a finger food, that you don't have to spoon-feed her. It may get messy, but it's a stage, a learning process for her.
Um, some good foods are: peas, beans, corn, cooked carrot pieces, cut-up beets, macaroni/cheese, cut-up bananas or other fruits, halved grapes, cheese, cut-up hard-boiled egg, scrambled eggs, toast, pancakes, tender pieces of meat, cut-up hot dog, etc. I think there are more suggestions below. These are some that worked for me.
Another note is that now is the age to get them "into" fruits and vegetables. If they learn to like them young, it's much easier later. (Although, my son, who used to gorge himself on fruit, is now 3-1/2 and declines all fruit but applesauce. Not sure what happened there...)
Good luck, she will eat if she's hungry!
M. :)

I usaully give my 21 month old chicken and noodles I make with the Reams frozen noodles and chicken breast. I cut up the noodles and chicken and she loves it. She will also eat green beans. I cut those up really small also. I am pretty sure I was feeding her those things when she was 18 months. Also scrambled eggs with cheese. She has been eating that for awhile now. And of course grilled cheese. Good Luck.

My 16 month old can be picky and doesn't always want to try new foods. She never liked baby foods. She'll eat mac & cheese, hot dogs, fish sticks, rice, pancakes, elbow macaroni or spaghetti pasta with a little bit of butter. I have found that the shape of the pasta DOES matter! Ramen noodles, tortillas with cheese melted inside, grilled cheese. Sometimes she'll eat green beans right out of the can. Grapes, bananas, peaches and definitely Gogurts. I'll put them in the freezer and her and my son, 2 years old, love them!

Hope this helps,
K.

I found that soft food works really well. We did mashed potatoes, yogurt, etc. I also bought a food chopper and would chop up our food so that they were in nice small, bite sized pieces for our kids. Hope the helps!!

I have had success with the gerber graduates foods. Might be worth a try! Good luck!

If she has teeth, give her green beans, pees, etc, to pick up and eat. When my kids were 18mths, I fed them what I ate w/o seasonings and in smaller portions and bite size pieces. They are now 13, 10 and 5.

I had, and still do, have that problem. I got 2 great books you should check out. 1) 1, 2, 3 Cook For Me by Karin Knight and Jeannie Lumley and 2) The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers and Children. They were life savers!

Our daughter is 17months, the youngest of 5. We have found to make that easy transition from baby food to our dinner is soup. This way they are getting a well rounded amount of veggie and meat. Our daughter likes turkey pot pie(Campbells), split pea, chicken noodle or some homemade... The list goes on, I just mash it with a fork or food chopper and she loves it. Be careful of any roasted type chickens because they are very stringy and hard to get down. I also do apple sauce/banana or yogurt for the fruit/dairy portions. Sliced deli cheese is good because it is thin and you can give it to her. I know how you feel, sometimes what you are eating seems so overwhelming to try and feed the baby, especially with the meat part. You can always feed her parts of your dinner and work her up to the complete meal, while supplementing with the soup to fill her up the rest of the way! Good Luck!

I feed our little 17 mo old whatever we are eating as well as fruit, hot dogs, fish sticks, pudding, applesauce, yogurt, whole milk replaced formula. I would not suggest any uncooked vegetables as they can still choke and not chew correctly. I cut the other items into small bites so he can eat them up. He loves muffins, pancakes, waffles, bacon, scrambled eggs for breakfast. I try to use lowfat or turkey based items as much as possible. Oh, cheese is good in low doses-string cheese cut into bites. Just keep trying one meal at a time to see what your little one will enjoy and use common sense and I think you will hopefully find a great eater!!

I had alot of luck with the food grinder.