Getting 1 Yr Old to Eat

There is something shaped like a strawberry that they sell at Right Start. You can put anything is this wire mesh thing and she can hold it on her own and eat whatever you put in it. When kids are teething they want cold things. So you could fill it with frozen strawberries, frozen bananas, etc. and she can chew and suck on it. This way she can eat and have something cold to soothe her teething.

Dear L.,

Put a newspaper on the floor under her high chair and brace yourself for cleaning the high chair every meal. She is wanting to be independent - who cares about a spoon when one is one ? She will eat more and love being alive to help take care of herself. She is going to be a woman and needs to have confidence in herself, and it begins now. C. N.

HI L.
Have you tried cubed cheese, avocados, turkey, diced ham, hard boiled or scrambled eggs? Sweet potatoes cut into squares? Just a few ideas. The choices are endless.... macaroni noodles,

Youre going to have to do the messy finger food thing sometime - for the longest time, I only spoon fed my now 14 month old because I didnt want the mess. I dont have any uncarpeted area in my rental home, and pictured food being flug all over the place. They have to learn to feed themselves at some point, and when they begin, it always ends in a mess. So at meal time, I put plastic down on my carpet, strip the baby down to her diapers, and let her feed herself. Here are some finger foods Ive found to be LESS messy than others (though remember, your daughter wants to explore textures and will squish and smash anything you put in front of her)

-Bananas
-Avocado
-Fresh lunch meat (roast beef, chicken, turkey) in little pieces
-Sandwiches made with wheat bread (the wheat bread wont stick to the top of her mouth) in little pieces
-Peeled and cut grapes
-fresh peaches, nectarines, cantaloupe (make sure they are semi firm or they just turn into mush)
- Cool or warm plain pasta with a little butter, the twists are nice and big for them to pick up
- Strawberries (they dont stain)
- grated cheese
-grilled cheese sandwiches
-little pieces of grilled chicken

Depending upon how many teeth she has (my daughter already had 12 teeth on her 1st birthday) give her what YOU would normally eat, just in smaller pieces. She'll come back to the spoon eventually: my daughter did the same thing with spoon feeding when she was in the middle of back teething too. Under any circumstances, DO NOT GIVE HER HOT DOGS. They arent good for her, and I cant tell you how many children choke on cut up hotdogs. She can wait for those until she is older.

Good luck!

Try soft finger foods like fruits: melons, bananas,etc. or hot dogs/tofu dogs/soft potatoes mashed up. It may be messy but she'll eat!

Aside from avoiding any possible allergens (shellfish is good to avoid until age 3, I've been told), she can eat anything you eat. I actually make myself a meal, cut some of it into small pieces, and feed that to my son. Although, he's getting to the point where he gets mad at me when the pieces are small. Like, the other day we were eating strawberries and he insisted that he have a whole one. I gave him one that I knew he wouldn't be able to swallow whole and braced myself. It took him a few tries and several times of hearing "Small bites, please" but he got and was much happier.

You can give her hot dogs, but as has been mentioned, search out the kind with no preservatives. Applegate Farms hot dogs are great. Make sure to make the pieces pretty small to avoid choking; I don't go any bigger than a Cheerio for those. Also might want to peel them. My son will chew on the hot dog but manage to leave just the skin behind (same with peas).

Anyway (sorry for rambling), she can eat anything you're eating just in baby sizes. And messes are unavoidable. Besides, they don't take that long to clean up and finger foods are less messy than anything that needs to travel by spoon.

Good luck!

No matter what you're going to have a mess. Just think of it this way, the messier they are the more they have learned. She needs to have things that are different textures so that she can learn to like things. Avocados, bananas, cut up grapes, noodles and diced melon are all great to strat with. My daughter loves PB&Js right now, and I know someone said don't give them hot dogs, but you can. You just need to get the all natural ones and make sure to cut them in quarters or smaller. Don't just slice them, because hot dogs are the #1 chocking food. Also, if you are on the go alot, Gerber Graduates makes what they call pasta pick-ups. My daughter loves any of the ravioli variety. You can take them anywhere and serve them warm or cold. Those with some cut up friut and milk makes a great meal. Just remember that she can eat pretty much anything you do, but cut it small enough so she won't choke, but she can still pick it up with her fingers. And you'll just have to learn to live with the mess for now... it's pretty much unavoidable. But thats how your little one is learning. Hope this helps a little

My son loved the mesh feeder when teething with his back teeth. I would put frozen pices of mango in it or frozen strawberries. and call it a popsicle. he loved the flavors and since it was hot out here in el cajon at the time it was nice. plus he got vitamins and soemthign cool for his hurting mouuth. They have the mesh feeder at the target on brodway or almost any walmart. oh and she can hold it her self. that was a big oen for my independant man. lol

Hi L.! I would just let your daughter eat whatever you give her with her hands. My son went through this same thing, he would eat anything from applesauce to yogurt with his hands. It made for messy meal times but at least he was getting the nutrition he needed.
Gook luck!
T.

This is what I have read... as much as you don't want to allow it (as I did not), you have to let her make the mess! If she is not intentionally making the mess, then it is okay. Allowing them to eat on their own, not matter if it is with their hands allows them to be indepentdent. It sounds weird, but it works. Eventually she will want to use her fork, spoon etc again... Good Luck!

It is actually better for them if you let them feed themselves in between teaching them how to use a spoon and a fork. It is one way for them to establish their independence and it improves their hand-eye coordination. I would suggest getting a "splat mat" that you put underneath their highchair to catch all the stuff that misses their mouth. You can dump it straight into the trash can, no mess on your floor!

My daughter eats most of her food by herself. You can always give her crackers, or fresh fruit cut into small pieces. You should feed her the same things that you eat, only in small baby bite sized pieces. My daughter eats everything, from tri-tip, to chicken, to potatoes, to bananas, to zuchinni, to asparagus, to noodles. She'll eat pretty much whatever I give to her....as far as in between snacks go I'll usually do the fruit thing, or graham crackers and milk, or even cheerios. For breakfast you could make her pancakes (no syrup), and that doesn't really make much of a mess. For lunch we usually do a sandwich, either peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese, cut into small pieces with a cup of milk. But if your baby isn't a year old yet don't give her peanut butter...she could be allergic. If she's not you can substitute regular butter with jelly...they like that too, along with the milk. For dinner, like I said, just cut up the stuff you normally eat into small pieces and she'll have a blast doing it all by herself "big girl style." Hope this helps!!

My son is 18 months old, and I had THE HARDEST TIME getting him to eat when those teeth started coming in; plus he's a very obstinant child, so... my sister in law (his babysitter while I'm at work) bought a bag of frozen dino shaped chicken nuggets. It takes one minute to heat 4 chicken nuggets, and he loves them. I give him different dipping sauces sometimes, and it makes it fun for him. It's the only I can give him that he won't make a huge mess with. He loves mac and cheese, but I only give him that in a highchair in the middle of the kitchen, because he makes a huge mess with it. He just hasn't grasped the idea of the spoon yet. OH, and ALSO, we have a lot of soup at our house, and he always wants to feed it to himself. No matter what it always ended up everywhere, until one evening we all went out for Chinese food, and... well, you know those spoons that are soup spoons at Asian restaurant... he uses that like a pro. Good luck.

Ali