Food Ideas

Hi K.,

I did lot of scrambles eggs at that age! I would throw a handful of frozen veggies in the pan with the eggs too, and my boys always ate them. Good luck!

My daughter is 15 months old & eats EVERY thing that we do. She can also be a very independent thinker & eats a lot of stuff better if I don't cut it up. She gets frozen waffles, cereal, hot dogs (i know it's a choking hazard-but, small slices are fine), chicken nuggets, most veggies & fruits. One thing you might think about is that our ped. says not to give peanut butter before 2, but every doc might be different.

A few things that I didn't see mentioned that my boys love are precooked turkey meatballs. When they were younger I just cut them up in appropriate sized pieces. They also eat boca burgers and I buy them turkey sausages from Trader Joes and cut them up. They have a variety of flavors and many of them also have veggies in them so it's a great way to sneak some extra vegetables in them. Whole grain waffles and I also make sweet potato pancakes and freeze them. I do the same with zucchini pancakes. Sometimes I ground some chicken in the food processor and stick that in the pancakes as well. They don't even realize it. Hope this helps.

I have the same independent little one you are describing. I began giving him string cheese cut in to round little circles, then those circles cut in fourths. For fun I gave him a fork...sometimes he'd get it, sometimes he would resort to using his fingers. Bananas sliced in circles, then fourths, already diced peaches, pickles sliced in small pieces (I get the sandwich slices, cut off the skin and slice into small pieces), sliced olives, black beans(their small enough to just swallow) canned green beans (they are very soft to mush around and swallow),elbow macaroni with butter or sauce or just plain. All of these he can try to use the utensil, but will eventually resort to fingers.

PB&J cut in little squares are always fun. We also would give our girls pancakes that were cut in little pieces and let them dip them in a little pool of syrup. Green beans are always good veggies and we really like broccoli. You can cut the fresh broccoli bunch into small bite size pieces for everyone. Place in a microwaveable bowl with 3-4 tbsp of water and microwave for 4-5 minutes until tender. Drizzle a little butter on top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and a little salt if desired. My girls said they were eating baby trees. You can also cut up apples or even canned fruit that is in it's natural juices. Keep giving him opportunity to learn the skill of the "Spork". My girls used this better than just a spoon or fork. Make sure the handle is not too long and watch because he probably hasn't decided which hand he will favor. Some of the utensils have handles that are bent to favor a right handed kid, both my kids ended up being left handed! I also would cut up chicken or ham or even meatloaf in small bite. There just may be some foods that mom has to help him with and you will need to teach him to handle that too.

Good luck.

My kids (ages 5, 2, and 7 months) eat the same things the rest of the family is eating at mealtime. The older 2 were completely self-feeding (fingers, not utensils) by age 7-9 months. This baby is well on her way. She hates to be spoon-fed and prefers chunky stuff she can pick up. The key is just to cut everything into pea-size pieces. They can gum anything at this age (none of my kids had a tooth until after their 1st birthday). Your 14 month old should definately be feeding himself -- they are supposed to be 100% self-feeding by their 1st birthday. Just take what you are eating at the next meal, cut it into small pieces and put it on his plate.

Don't worry about utensils for now - many kids eat with their hands and don't master utensils until after their 2nd birthday. And start with a fork so they can stab foods - stuff just slides off spoons and makes them frustrated.

My 7 month old's favorite foods right now are fresh fruit (apples, bananas, grapes, peaches), french toast (no butter or syrup), carrots (steamed first so they are soft), any kind of pasta, cereal (kix, cheerios, rice krispies, etc) and chicken (cooked fork tender and shredded with a gravy/sauce).

i'm having the same problem w/ my 12 month old. i know there is a "window" of opportunity that you don't want to miss to introduce new foods and textures. i have a WONDERFUL brochure (adobe acrobat pdf file) that has awesome ideas. do you know how to attach files to this? if not - email me privately and i will send to you. Good Luck!

Frozen peas and carrots are good.They only take about 1 min. in the microwave and they are bite size.My toddler also likes chesse sticks(sliced up.) I started feeding him these when he first started with finger foods,he's almost 2 now and this is still one of his favorite meals.

Honestly, everything and anything works, just cut everything into small pieces. It's best to offer all kinds of different foods now, that way he grows used to them and you may be able to make it by without him turing into a picky eater! Always have the utensils there so if he feels like trying them he can, but other than that, for a while, meal times will be followed by "clean up the kid time"! Sometimes my kids would get so messy that I'd stand them in the kitchen sink or bathtub and hose them off!!

K.
My daughter also is very picky and loved to feed herself a tthat age...i loved my pampered chef food chopper, no im not a rep, but it made chopping all that food very quick and easy...anything from hotdogs to fruit. Another thing i learned is some finger food is quite slippery, like peaches...so i crushed rice crispies in a bad and coated the peaches so they were eassy to pick up and not go flying to who knows where ;-) good luck!

My picky toddler is also very independent. My grocer has an organic frozen section with all kinds of great veggies. They are pre-cut so a quick spin in the micro and they are done..squash, peas, carrots, beans. Cut fruits are vey easy for them, pears and peaches, little mandarin oranges are always a big hit. Keep a bowl of cooked pasta in the fridge, whole wheat macaroni noodles warmed up with some butter and parmesan..yum. Organic pierogies are quick and easy, if you can find them with brocoli or squash thats even better. A baked potato cubed and slightly smashed is easy for them too. Try a sweet potato with a little butter and if you dare a little brown sugar. I hope some of these ideas will work for you. S.

My boys really liked the smaller pasta shapes, you can cook up enough for several servings and the store very well in the fridge. They also loved ham/turkey and cheese "stacks". I would stack up several alternating slices of lunchmeat and cheese and cut it into smaller squares, they stuck together and made nice little cubes for them to pick up. My then 4 year old thought the "towers" were so cool it became his new lunch favorite. We are also big fans of the canned diced fruits and veggies.

I have a little one, almost 15 months - she's my third, so I'm used to coming up w/ something for the "wee" ones to eat. I give her vegetables that we have during dinner, or fruit (canned pears/peaches - fresh grapes cut up/ bananas cut up). She loves grilled cheese bites cut up and tortillas w/ melted shredded cheese tore into pieces. At this age, they can really have whatever we have, as long as it's in managable pieces. Mine is just now getting her teeth in( FIVE at the same time!!), so her pieces have had to be fairly small. She also loves LIFE cereal, macaroni, spaghetti...I've been pretty blessed w/ my babies eating well, it's just when they get older that I have a problem!! Good luck!

If allergies are not an issue, my son loved scrambled eggs- good source of protein and easy to eat- later starting adding chees and veggies- very small and cut up- just an idea.my son also loves noodles so i started with plaiin and have slowly added veggies, cheese and sauces to get him to eat- if you are looking for a great book try the one written by seinfeld's wife- we do a lot of sauce things with hidden veggies- all prepared on sundays and wednesdays then i re-heat. goodluck!

Buy a copy of the book FEED ME, I'M YOURS. TONS of ideas.