Ideas for Foods for My One Year Old

Lunchmeat and Cheese are great and easy for the sitter to just cut up and feed him. Also not too messy!

Hi J.~

My one year old does the same thing. She likes to eat cooked baby carrots, broccli, green beans,pretty much any veggie that is big enough that she can hold. Meatballs, hotdogs, also chicken strips. I will also buy deli meat and crackers. For breakfast she likes french toast, waffles, toast with cinn. and sugar. Hope that this helps!!

Hi. I am a mother of six and grandmother of nine, so I have dealt with this many times. I have a fourteen month old granddaughter that I babysit while my son and his wife are at work and she also does not want to be fed anymore. I keep lots of canned fruit on hand, and she eats that really well, also just try giving your child toast, or any kind of foods that you can cut in really small pieces so that he can pick them up himself. I don't even use a plate, am afraid it will go in the floor, so just cut up some pieces of food and put it right on the tray of the highchair. This does lead to a lot of clean up afterwards, but it is worth it to get them to eat. Good luck!!! since your child does go to a sitter, you may want to discuss different things with the sitter to see if she is willing to go along with it, and then together see if you can come up with things to send with your child.

Thats great he is showing he is going to be a doer and take care of himself! great for him, but, not you, you have some more issues. Since he is one, you have to consider what foods will choke him, is he walking and eating or is he grabbing off the table? How well is he waling, if he is? If he is feeding himself at the high chair, you have no problems. Give him small foods that aren't hard to chew, I used to get tortillas and cut them up in small pieces, peas, you can smash a banana and give him a spoon and put plastic (under the high chair on the floor) never put plastic by his hands to his mouth, just a reminder, I'm sure you know that, I just feel better adding it he will be a major mess, but, well worth it, although your sitter won't like cleaning him, he will be learning how to take care of himself. Start thinking of soft foods you can give him, make it where he has control of this, or you will have a fight on your hands. I always suggest to everyone, get a book on this, what foods babies can easily eat thats age specific, and let him have it, mess and all. In the end you will be glad, but not your sitter. Always watch children while they are eating in case they start to choke no matter what they are eating, esp. babies, make sure your sitter knows the heimlich maneuver.
I'm a horrible speller. I hope you get more responses on different foods, its been 14 years since I did all that, I used a food processor and mixed things together so he would get good nutrients. He never knew it! Ha Can't do that anymore . thanks
D. E.

My daughter loves pasta (I usually by the corkscrew either enriched whole wheat or the spinach & tomato mix), just make sure it cools and cut it up into bite sized pieces. She also loves green beans, corn, carrots and broccoli (the florets, not the stems), any of which are usually good frozen, but gerber also makes jars of green beans, carrots and fruits like pears and apples (soft, so as not to be choking hazards). Gerber also makes several other foods like dinners with a main dish and a side vegetable and meat sticks (hot dogs, but softer so not a choking hazard. You can also find a lot of freeze dried fruits in the baby aisle. When he's good with more solid foods, raisins are also great. Grapes, (cut into 4), blueberries, ripe cantelope or honeydew, Sams Club has mandarin oranges and other fruits in little snack cups. You can also try different varieties of fish, just so long as you ensure he isn't getting it too often. A little tuna salad (like for a sandwich) is easy and not too messy if you are stingy on the mayo and don't mash it too thin. But any kind of fish that is flaky is easy to pick up and chew. We also cut up cheese sticks, or make things like scrambled eggs for protein.

J.,
I would try something like whole wheat fig newtons as a snack my 2yr old loves them and they are very nutritional! They come in a box with separate bags in them I think 5 or so. As far as main meals Tyson chicken has some good options, there is also PB$Js. If you want to get some extra nutrition in there I would make a carrot puree and mix it with the peanut butter he will never notice. I love the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld! There are some really good ideas in there. I have issues getting my son to eat vegetables so it works wonders for me! I hope I have help some. Oh and real quick I don't know what kind of fruit he eats but you might want to try a nectarine my son loves them!

everything that sara said is good. i also liked to buy the grilled chicken strips made by tyson, they come in a bag and are usually in the meats section at the grocery store. i would heat them in the microwave and then chop them up in pieces and my daughter loved them. i'd serve them with chopped up cooked veggies like carrots, green beans or peas.

My best advice would be get some of the Gerber finger foods especially the fruit ones. I can't remember the exact name of them but they are right with the baby food. They actually dissolve in their mouths so they don't choke on them. Other than that depending on how well he can chew things try cheerios, fruit snacks if he can handle them mainly finger foods except for grapes,raisins, hot dogs, and popcorn because they can choke on those if they are that little. Hope I've helped.

I have a one year old...we call her the shoveler:) because she loves to feed her self and shovel everything at the same time!It is hard to find food that are not to messy. We let her feed her self as long as the food doesn't have a sauce on it!
She loves chicken and hamburger meat torn up in tiny pieces. She loves summer squash cut up and cooked in just a little bit of olive oil.
She loves whole grain rice with veggies like peas and carrots ( you can buy these for about a buck at the store, and they take like 7 mins to cook and last two days)
Anything with shredded cheese( this is how I get her to eat veggie) Some great snacks are teddy grahms (they are whole grain) goldfish( whoel grain). My daughter love ritz crackers with a little peanut butter topped with a slice of banana!
she loves turkey sandwhiches with mustard! Basically anything that is soft and can be torn into bit size.
anyways hope this was helpful!

I have a 1 year old and i also babysit two other kids 11mo and 17mo. I do a lot of easy things for lunch because i have to feed 3 at once. Some are more nutritious than others... but we always eat a very nutritious supper... so hopefully that saves me.? Anyway... here are several things we eat for lunch... Grilled Cheese (cut into little squares... use a pizza cutter) chicken nuggets (again cut up) fish sticks, ham, Homemade pizza (very good left over to take the next day) chicken noodle soup, mini ravioli's. Those are a few i can think of...

Try this site: http://stepbystepcc.com/menu.html
They list a month of sample menu's then at the bottom it says "more sample menus" and it list TONS of things to fix. It has helped me a bunch.

Good luck!

Hi J.,

I'm a home child care provider and I have a 1 year old myself and watch 3 others.
So here are a few things that I give them for meals.

Breakfast: toast, waffles w/butter, pancakes w/butter, toaster strudles (all flavors), french toast sticks, biscuits w/butter, cheerios and the yogurt cheerios.

Lunch: mini chicken sandwiches, chicken fries, hot dogs (I cut in 1/4's), cheese quesidillas, chicken quesidillas, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, we make lunchables too at home with sliced cheese, deli meat, pizza. I also give them a fruit and a vegie everyday so i buy the canned fruit and veggies.

Snack: I buy the big bag of animal crackers and they also eat cereal bars, I don't buy the nutrigrain bars because they are nothing but sugar. I did find some called back to nature they are all organic and no high fructose corn syrup which is the one that gives all the sugar.

For you since you have to pack his meals I would buy the little cans of canned veggies you can send half one day and the other half the next day. For the fruit you could buy the little fruit cups. Also the little yogurts are good and even cheese sticks. A few of my daycare kids that are 1 years old have been on table food since they were about 8-10 months old. So thye have been eating table food for awhile now. Also when we have snack they get juice which counts as a fruit.
Hope this helps and you get some ideas, W.

Gerber Graduates makes great finger foods for kiddos. Have you checked those out? My daughters loved them!!! Best of Luck!

You didn't say which foods you were/ were not giving him. Are you still giving him baby food out of a jar? My advice would be give him what you are eating. Jarred baby food is terribly bland and chances are, unless you're eating a lot of junk food, what you normally eat is better tasting. We fed our kids food straight from the table as soon as they could sit up, ground either in a blender or with a baby food mill. Surely the babysitter will accept ground up food?

My girlfriend just sent me the book called Super Baby Food. It's great! Also has more than just food ideas...party planning, crafts, cleaning solutions, etc.

Highly recommend getting it from the bookstore or library! Or check www.half.com (used books for sale cheap!)

my son just turned 16 months - by the way, the next few months are A BLAST! anyway, all the suggestions on here sound good, and it sounds like you got lots of ideas. one thing i would recommend is think about how many teeth he has. my son just got some back "chewing" teeth, so he pretty much eats everything now. but we were giving him lots of the things that are on here when he was that age.

I am a Pampered Chef consultant. At one of my shows, a mom there had a great idea that I'd never even thought of. Take the Food Chopper and a small cutting board to the table with you at meals and just chop the food you and the rest of the family eat into as small of pieces as you'd like. That way you're not having to make something different for the little one. This is not a sales pitch, just a great idea that was shared with me that I think might be helpful to you. If you don't have a chopper and want one, I do have a website I'll share, but please do not feel any obligation. It's www.pamperedchef.biz/cook4youincolumbiamo . Best of luck with your beautifully independent little man! :-)

Hi J.,

Something my little one loves are the small meatballs that come frozen, I tried to make them myself but she likes the frozen kind because they are very soft, the original version.
She loves olives, black olives and tater tots.
I wanted to feed her all natural no frozen stuff, but sometimes it is hard to find protein that they can eat and that they like, my daughter was also a self feeder.
The other good thing is that you can make banana bread or zuquini bread (or other versions) that are soft and cut into small pieces, they love that! And is healthy! It also last for several days.
Quiche is great! I made those with spinach, corn, carrots...almost anything! They got used to veggies and they love the colors too!
Hope it helps....
Mariana Abadie
www.MyKidsFirst.com

Oh my gosh...just about anything! Peas, corn, cooked carrots, chopped up strawberries, bannanas, Gerber makes some great snacks like diced dried apples (a fav of my kids still - now 3). You can always go with the pre-pkg food from Gerber if you can afford it...the ones with the meals...pasta, etc. are easy and fun for the kids at that age. I liked the vanilla wafers over the biscuit cookies because I didn't like how the biscuits broke and didn't turn mushy too quickly - I was afraid of a choking hazard. Best of luck...this is the fun time & the messiest....L.

I have a 1 year old too. She doesn't eat baby food at all anymore, hasn't for about a month or so. She eats pretty much everything that we eat, with the exception of hard & raw veggies like carrots, apple peal, etc. We just make sure to cut it up into small pea-sized bites.

Most days I like to do left-overs from the previous night for lunches. We also do low sodium canned soups. I have lots of frozen veggies and fruits, so I take out a small amount and put it in the microwave. I also cut up pieces of cheese (cheddar, colby, mozzarella, everything). We occasionally do chicken nuggets, I don't like to do it too often because it's so processed, but it works in a pinch. Those veggie nuggets are good too. I also get her YoBaby yogurt (made with whole milk, which is important, and all natural ingredients).

I say save your money, baby food is expensive. By 1 year old they can eat almost everything.

I hope this gives you a few ideas.

Please be careful....the Academy of Pediatrics warns against feeding hot dogs, grapes, raisins, and popcorn to children under the age of 3 because they are choking hazards, regardless of how small you cut the pieces. They may be convenient "kid" foods, but the risk of choking is NOT worth it. My toddler attends a licensed and accredited daycare, and they do not serve any of these foods specifically due to the risk.

The other posts list a lot of other great, healthy options that your son will enjoy. Good luck!!

Does he have teeth? My kids loved vegetables. We treated it like appetizers when they were about 10 mo old and could start feeding themselves. They would have veges before most of their other food was served. If the child has teeth why shouldn't he be eating what you are? My kids were not big on pasta like others because we didn't have it that often and they were eating regular meat with us. What is your daycare policy on the food being brought in. When does she start providing? Once my daycare kids are on table food, I provide- not the parents. My advice is not to cater but, expose them to a variety of food and if not successful today, try again another day. It can be really messy, but, it is a important learning experience for them- and they will wash!! My own and daycare kids are not picky eaters because we don't make a big deal about new foods we just make it a habit to try to intergrate a variety of things on a regular basis and not have the same old foods all the time. Good luck!

I don't know what you are already feeding him, but my little guy is 13 months old and loves casserole type dishes (that's what he gets at daycare a lot) and anything with noodles! I make those noodle and rice side dishes and put ground beef, chicken, turkey or pork with them. Chipped beef gravy on toast is one that he loves as well. Velveeta shells & cheese is always a hit and the occasional grilled cheese sandwich. I also make a lot of the au gratin type boxed potatoes because he eats those quite well. My son isn't real big on eating meat yet, so I do make sure I give him a helping of cottage cheese with most meals to provide him with ample protein -- he loves cottage cheese! I hope some of these ideas help you. Good Luck!

I have a one year old boy too. He loves nutri grain bars (just pull apart into bite size pieces), saltine crackers, cheerios, graham crackers. Also, if he likes them, I think Spaghetti O's would be a good thing to try. My son doesn't like them though.