Healthy Meals for 1 Year Old

I also have a 1 year old son who was also 9 lbs 2 oz at birth. Right now he isn't too picky. I mostly give him whatever we eat for dinner. Take baked chicken for example what I do is let it cool and break it into bite sized pieces. The reason I give him what we eat is because he won't eat if it looks different to him. Jayson also doesn't eat with a spoon or baby silverware, but he will use a small fork. I guess he just like to jab at his food.

Have you ever heard of the book called Super Baby Foods? It's a great book and very inexpensive. They have ideal meals, easy recipes for things kids will eat, etc.

V., Now is the critical time where you have the power to influence your child on his food choices for the rest of his life. Do you want him to eat natural healthy foods for optimum body & brain growth or un-natural processed foods that will stunt that growth?
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What we have done is take what we're eating for a meal and whiz it up in a blender. And as the child gets used to solid food blend it less and less giving more substance to chew on. Cheerios are wonderful, just be sure to give them one at a time if baby isn't used to them, maybe break it in half at first, and watch while they're experiementing with it in their mouth.

For other ideas for what to feed a child ages newborn through toddler I recommend the book Super Baby Food:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/explorer/0965260313/2/ref=pd_lpo...

It's really helped me a lot to know what foods to wait on and even has finger food recipes that are simple to fix. In the back there are fun activities and crafts to do with your child and directions on how to back creative birthday cakes out of square cakes....loads of fun.

Hope that helps,
K. D

You aren't doing anything wrong, first of all. Don't let anyone make you feel differently.

You just have to find foods that he likes. Experiment- not all kids are willing to eat whatever you put in front of them. My daughter isn't picky at all- but we don't give her a plate at reastaurants either- I'm sorry, but any waiter/waitress who offers to give a 1 year old a plate obviously doesn't have kids that age! LOL.

Try giving him a plate that sticks to the high chair at home first. Or a bowl. target has really cheap ones that work pretty well. Any time he'll cooperate and try to use a utensil- praise him intensely. Make a huge deal out of every bite (or attempted bite). We did this with Leah and even though she still uses her hands sometimes because forks and spoons are hard- she tries and that's what counts.

Some suggestions for healthy foods that he might like to try- carrots are sweet so try cooked carrots cut up. He like's fries, right? Well I found these really great fries at Target by a brand called Ian's. They are Alpha Tots and they also have sweet potato fries. They are organic, gluten free, wheat free, soy free, nut free, etc. so they are healthy for him. Try those. They are 99 cents a bag and they're in the frozen food section. Another healthy suggestion is turkey dogs. OH, and I'm not sure what graduate dinners you've tried- but Leah really loves the pasta wheels meal and the turkey/chicken with mashed potatoes meals. She doesn't much care for the others and she really loves any of the ravioli that they make (beef and tomato, chicken and carrot, spinach and cheese, and regular cheese).

If you want to talk some more or maybe meet up for a play date- email me! ____@____.com

Hi V. - have you tried a meal preparation service? The concept preps all the ingredients for you, which allows you to prepare several meals ahead of time very quickly to take home and freeze.

I am with Dream Dinners. The meals are very delicious and we get a very good response rate from parents with picky kids (and husbands). Our guests find the kids begin to develop a more sophisticated palate sooner, by being exposed to varying flavors so early. Even very young kids!

This would be especially great for you since you are not that into cooking. This way there are good meal choices in the house for you, as well.

To find this service near you - just such the web for "meal-assembly" or "meal-preparation" service. It is a mom�s best friend!

Hope this helps....

Take care,
S.

there are plenty of books you can buy with wonderful and nutritious recipes for your child. The one I use is called first meals, and you can actually make the food and freeze it for later use, so it is not like you have to cook 3 meals a day every day!!!!. my baby is 11 months and he eats EVERYTHING i put in front of him b/c I have been cooking for him since he was 6 months. The key is not to give up. If he doesnt like something make sure you keep trying to give it to him (but dont force it, just offer it). It can take up to 12 tries for babies to actually like something, so dont give up. I hope this helps

Mine is a picky eater too. Eats a great breakfast and noodles and fruit. I'm not the greatest cook either, and during the week, with 2 kids (2 1/2 and 8 weeks) - my time is limited. I buy the tubs of cut up fruit at Publix. My daughter loves pasta, so when I cook it, I cook a bunch and keep it in the fridge to reheat. Jarred pasta sauce. (Great to pour out of the fridge onto the hot pasta - cools the pasta to eating temperature quickly). In the prepared meals section of Publix look for the pre-cooked turkey and chicken pieces (I think it's Hormel and/or Purdue?) - good protein source if you can get him to eat it. You said he doesn't like solids? Another great source of protein and not high in sugar, my daughter eats the dannon plain yogurt (NOT the lowfat). You can add granola to it or fruit, too.
hope this helps.
A.

My daughter ate alot of American Cheese when she was that little. and Cheerios, cheerios cheerios. You can also try canned vegetables like sliced carrots and green beans since they are pretty soft right out of the can. Spaghettios without any meatballs would be fun and mashed bananas or oatmeal should be ok too.

Good Luck

Hi I have a 1 year old and 4 year old. I have been lucky in that both girls will eat anything. Your one year old is totally ready for solids. He can eat what ever you eat you just have to cut small. Things that are easy are Chicken you can cook up a chicken and cut into bite size. Any kind of pasta put it on his tray and let him go at it. I usually save pastas for dinner time then you can put him in the bath. I give my girls slices of sandwich meat, small pieces of apple oranges are good, they love the mandrin kind these are softer. Peanut butter and jelly if there are no allergies. Pretty much try everything. Just watch when he eats. They have a pretty good gag reflex at one. Oh yeah we live on cheerios and string cheese sticks and yogurt. I stay away from the processed foods that come in a box. They may seem easier but they have lots of stuff you may not what your baby to have. Plus have you tasted those things? I have they are gross. LOL Hope this helps

My daughter is 11.5 months. I don't cook either who has time when you get home at 6pm.

Anyway I had great suggestions from co-workers:

The canned pastas she loves: Beefaroni, Spagettio's. Also chef boyardi however you spell that also does mac n cheese. You can cut into smaller pieces until he is ready for larger ones. This makes a mess but she loves it and will try using the spoon.

Canned fruit in juice or light syrup is great she will eat a whole small can they sell them in four packs. Also plums, strawberries, bananas any fruit all ripe cut up like a pea size are great.

The veggie nuggets she will at least eat a few bites. Canned veggies with no salt are best if you can find them.

I just test everything by trying to mush it with my tongue if I can she does great eating it. That is the best, the 3rd stage meals are terrible if you try them.

The throwing the plate thing, I think is normal my daughter trying to knock everything over. She is doing well and there is no need for a plate at a year old. They always want to throw it. Just get those stick on disposable placemats that way you can use it as his plate and keeps him from eating off of the table.

Hi V.! I don't have any answers for you - I am in the same boat as you! I'm not much of a cook and my son - who is 13 months - mainly drinks bottles - doesn't like Stage 3 foods, only eats a little of the Stage 2 and then refuses. He does like crackers, goldfish, cheerios - things he can eat himself - he will NOT sit in his highchair anymore either - has a fit. So please, if anyone comes up with anything good, please share it with me at ____@____.com. I'd really appreciate any help - I feel like I am failing as a mother!!

My son just turned one, and is become somewhat of a picky eater....I know he will always eat cut up cheese sticks, chicken tenders (I try to find ones that have least amount of fillers....tyson brand is our favorite.....easy to defrost in microwave in 20 sec and put in toaster oven for a few minutes), cut up cooked baby carrots, he loves toast, waffles, yo-baby yogurt, bananas sometimes, cherrios, gerber finger puffs. I put a lot of different things in front of him.......but with all my efforts, usually if he doesn't want it he will start to shake his high chair or just throw it all on the floor for the dog. I just keep trying!!

He does seem to have a senstive gag reflex, and even though I cut his food up well, he has times where he will start babbling loudly when he is eating and he must get a piece of food in the back of his throat that makes him start to gag....and then all the food he has eaten starts to come up. He gets upset at first, but then after clean up is usually ready to eat some more or happily go play. Unfortunately this has happend once when we were at Olive Garden with him and another time at my cousins wedding reception. I must say baby puke isn't quite at disgusting as adult puke :)
Good luck!!

Hi V.,
Kids go thru phases but one important thing is, if you want him to eat, try to offer the food first before the bottle and don't wait til he's too hungry cuz then he will just get fustrated and want his quick fix of the bottle..something easy is the deli counter at publix,,I ask for the deli chicken cut thick, like a 1/2 inch slice or 2 (I think it's called aristica chicken) I cut off the edges bcuz it's seasoned and then cut it into long strips for my daugter to hold, when I started this she was about 14months old. Sometimes she would eat it cold and other times warm...chicken is a good protein..your kid is normal..sometimes it takes a few times before they start eating a particular food.. Have you tried scrambled eggs? or natural oatmeal with some strawberry jam. Try to stay clear of the french fries...it's really not good for kids or adults for that matter...It is scarry thinking they might choke, I was like that too even with my third child, now she's almost 2yrs old...and believe it or not she has no desire to eat mac&cheese..crazy kid.
Good luck...I'll post some other ideas later - I belong to a moms group - and we all have kids the same age and plenty of great ideas about feeding toddlers.

Hi V.
I don't know if he has any teeth yet but I come from a cuban mom who would always make us home made food. I would make home made food for my kids. I would get my pressure cooker & I would get all vegetables, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoe, spinach, green plantain, if I would put meat (like a whole piece of steak) the ingredients I would put is salt, garlic powder, whole oregano, ground cumin and beef flavored bouillon or if I would put pieces of chicken I would put chicken flavored bouillon fill the pressure cooker halfway with water(like making soup). Leave it in the pressure cooker for about 1/2-45 minutes. I would then put it in the blender & mix it all up & make like a mash potatoe. I would put them in plastic containers & freeze them for the whole week, just put enough amount he eats in a container. Then everyday I would unfreeze the food & give it to them. After that I would give them fruit baby food. It taste really good. Or if he does have teeth just cut the meats in very tiny pieces along w/anything else u are going to give him. Like small amounts of vegetables or something. I have to teach him how to eat when they are young, baby foods to have enough ingredients & it doesn't taste good. Hope this helps, good luck!!

This is just my advice but I would never feed a one year old cookies, french fries or potato chips, they don't need those high fat and unhealthy foods. Plus, if they try stuff like that then they wont want to eat the good healthy foods like vegetables. What i do for my daughter is make her favorite foods like spaghetti and grilled cheese, then I had vegetables to everything like tomatoes in the grilled cheese. She loves it and eats everything. I use the crock pot a lot so my cooking time is almost nonexistent and make mainly foods that can be cooked quickly. I purchased the vegetables that are in the freezer section and can be steamed in the microwave so I can make them in minutes and add them to everything. I wouldn't worry about him choking because my daughter at the age of 11 mths was eating strickly our food, I just had to cut it up into small pieces and remind her to chew. Right now my daughter will eat all of her peas and carrots before her main meal. Just remember if they learn now to eat healthy that will carry with them forever so they will be able to make healthy choices on their own. Find short cuts when you cook so you can prepare quick, easy and healthy meals for your son. Remember he is growing and needs to have lots of nutrious foods so he can grow and develop healthy.

V.,

I just read this today and I saw your "so what happened" remark. I hate the idea of anyone making a new mother feel like she's doing something wrong. You just need to be confident and keep trying new things. He's your son, you have to do what is right for him. Nobody knows him better than you. Babies are constantly changing, so if he doesn't like a food this week he might like it next week. I don't see what the problem is with you giving your son food from your plate. Who gives a 1-year-old a plate? My 1-year-old likes to chew on his plastic dish at home, but only after it's empty. :)

Maybe I'm a little sensitive about this because I recently had a similar encounter. I dropped my son off at my church's childcare and I told the caretaker that he needed his bottle soon. She asked if he is feeding himself yet and I said no. He needs to be fed and he likes to be rocked. She seemed surprised and it made me feel bad. But my baby only has 3 bottles a day now and when he drinks them, it's our quiet time together. It's nice to hold him while he drinks it...why should I let someone else's opinion of what my son should be doing change that?

I'm sorry to carry on about this, I don't even have any good advice. My son loves to eat and will eat whatever I'm eating. And I love to cook, so I don't share in your problem. But there seem to be some good ideas for healthy foods in the other mothers' replies. I hope something works out for you. Stay strong! Keep on trying. I hope you can at least get some encouragement from this.

-T. Q

My one year old doesn't really like PB&J (unless I'm eating it) or the "normal" lunch items that most children eat. She does like grilled cheese cut up into four squares and a sure bet for her to eat is pasta of any kind and green beans. She likes green beans because she can hold them like french fires. haha. She does like meat though so I don't have a problem in that area for dinner. Good luck.

Hi V.,

A healthy meal item that I have found both my children (3yr and 1yr) like are the vegetarian "chicken" nuggets. You can find them both in the frozen food section and the health food section. My little one also likes the spinich/artichoke nuggest. Of course, I cut them up into bite size pieces.

My little one also really likes cut up ripe avacados (Haas avacados, the black ones) and yogurt. And my older one used to really like the tofu hot dogs. It is really important to slice them length-ways twice and them cut the strips up into bite sized pieces.

As for choking on finger foods, just make sure the food you give him is smaller than his wind pipe (about the size of a green pea, or a little bigger). Put it in your mouth and see if you can "gum" it. Then, just be sure to always be with him when he eats. He might choke here and there (all of them do). Just keep in mind, if you can hear him cough, he is OK. Just let him work it out. With my kids, I tried not to make much notice of the choking so it wouldn't scare them. I might make a gag face with them while they were coughing and then, once they coughed up/spit out the food, then I clapped and said "yay!" It is when he can't make any noises that you have to worry (by the way, every parent should have the basics of infant heimlich either memorized or hanging in their kitchen, in my opinion.)

I hope this helps (I gave you more advice on choking than on healthy foods...sorry).

T.