Ideas Needed

Hi R.,
I know exactly how you feel. I struggled with finger foods at first too. My daughter really likes hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fish stick, tator tots, any of the gerber toddler meals (you can find them with the baby food), any kind of vegetable especially carrots and green beans, string cheese or cheese crumbles, fruit, she pretty much eats anything we eat just cut into very small portions, they now make lunchable jr.'s and they are perfect for little ones learning to self-feed! My daughter really like the turkey and mozarella cheese one with ritz crackers. She also likes PBJ cut up into squares, and grilled cheese, ramen noodles, mac N cheese. Those are just some that I can think of off the top of my head.
I really hope this helps!

We have a picky eater too. We make little pizzas out of pitas, spag. sauce and a slice of mozz. cheese. She loves to eat frozen things...like frozen edamame or blueberries. String cheese, turkey hot dogs, sweet potato french fries, scrambled eggs (even for other meals than bkfst), she loves lima beans (go figure), tofu, garden burgers, avocado and cottage cheese.

My 14 mo. old is a fruit-a-holic. If I can get her to eat something other than fruit, we consider it a good meal.

Good luck!
E.

Hey R....

My kids all loved boiled eggs cut up.. They all also loved mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, spagetti (try cutting it up with sissors), and my youngest loves just eating curly pasta, easy to pick up. She was also my picky eater, we discovered soy drink mix that we added to her milk, this was also a big hit ( you can purchase it a Sams club)...Hope some of these help...

D. B.

you are going to hate me for this but it is true - my son loves vegetables and fruit more than candy or meat lol. Anyway, here are some ideas for dinner and lunch:

chopped up baked chiken and mashed potatoes

a veggie bowl with chopped tomatoes, boiled zuchinni, boiled carrots, and peas and corn

sliced fuites likes banana, peeled/sliced kiwi, apple slices and yogurt dip.

pasta shapes in tomato sauce, and diced boiled carrots

cheese ravioli, with or without sauce

french toast cut into fun shapes using cookie cutters - she can help you with this ;)

sammies(small sandwiches) cut diagonally into four triagles. some hits with my 22 month old son include egg salad and shaved/skinned turkey breast.

grilled cheese sandwhiches.

HERE ARE SOME GOOD LINKS FOR IDEAS AND RECIPES:::::

http://chefmom.com/
www.wholesometoddlerfood.com
http://www.caaws.ca/mothersinmotion/preschool/eating_lunc...

I HOPE THIS HELPS!

My son's favorite food in the world (and still is at 3 1/2) is sliced avocado. He also enjoyed lunch meat from the deli - I bought Boar's Head low sodium and had them slice it thin. He was able to eat chicken, turkey, and roast beef this way - good for protein. He also ate tuna with mayo or miracle whip mixed in, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and spaghetti o's. What I did was make a huge batch of his food at once and freeze it in an ice cube tray - each cube is about an ounce - so that I could pop out a couple of cubes for him when he needed something. The book I used - and still do sometimes - was First Meals. It's hardback and the author is British I believe, so there were some recipes I skipped (like parsnips) but it empowered me to make things that I normally wouldn't have for him - and expanded his palette.

good luck!
C.

HI R.. Here's something to try that my daughter loves. Cook lentils until they are very soft and add chicken broth to season them instead of salt. Then blend them. Dip a little peice of bread into the lentil soup until it soaks it up. Since my daughter loves to feed herself and objects if I try to , then this is a great healthy way to feed herself lentils. You can do this with any kind of soup. Chop up peices of chicken to serve next to it and if your daughter has a sweet tooth then take the skin off a few grapes and cut them up in peices. Yogurt is good any time of day. My daughter also likes beans! Just try to give your daughter any kind of cooked bean where the skin is not too hard and you may be surprised, she just might eat it. To avoid constipation with beans make sure she drinks enough water or serve with a side of chopped up fig, date or apricot. Don't be worried about her diet now, you are doing a good job and the fact that she's eating her breakfast is great!

You have gotten so many responses you might have already heard this. There is a great cookbook called "Feed Me I'm Yours". It has great easy and yummy food for everyone in the family to enjoy.

Hi R.. Here are my ideas for lunch and dinner:
*peas
*cooked carrots
*corn
*cut up chicken, hot dogs, or any meat from the night before or that night
*baked crackers
*raisens, or any dried fruit
*baked french fries
*mashed potatoes
*beans
*cut up cheese
*lightly cooked apple (so it's soft)
*noodles w/ some sauce
*green beans
*soup w/out the broth
*apple sauce w/ cinnimon
*tangerenes
Pretty much everything I gave my son was on a tray. We didn't bother with dishes or utinsels until he was older. Good luck. I'm sure she'll LOVE all these new flavors and textures. If she doesn't, always let her keep trying.

R.,

I give my son black beans (canned organic usually) and rice (the boil in the bag stuff is really easy). I will add sauted onions or bell peppers or corn that type of thing occasionally. I also do a pasta salad for him. I add black or kidney beans (protein!) to it, corn, tomatoes, black olives and that type of thing - whatever I have on hand. I use olive oil and lemon juice as dressing (salt & pepper & montreal steak seasoning for flabor). He eats spaghetti (tomato and meat sauce), any type of frozen veggies. He likes potato pancakes (frozen section of the grocery store). He likes chicken and other types of meat (I just cut it up into small pieces). For dinner he eats pretty much whatever we are having just cut up small. My son is allergic to dairy and soy so we've had to be creative. I basically try to balance the amount of protein, carbs and veggies that he's getting as much as possible at every meal. There aren't many processed or convenience foods he can eat so he pretty much just has to eat real food. He eats a lot of bananas. Sometimes he eats toast. Scrambled eggs. Apples (peeled and cut into small cubes). My son was born 10/14/06 so he's about the same age as your daughter and he's only got 4 teeth. But he still eats pretty much everything.

:-)T.

I just fed my daughter whatever we ate! The diced up boiled eggs is great! I always forget to make them at home, but whenever we go to a buffet restaurants, that is what she asks for and she usually has seconds and thirds of it! It is a nice source of protein, and for whatever reason, kids love them in the bite sized pieces. That is the only way my daughter will touch the yolk. Well, I hope you get some good ideas. I am done rambling, good luck.

My daughter loved canned garbanzo and kidney beans.

I have the same issue with our son! He was born 12/27/06. One day he loves something and the next he just spits it out. I have found a deconstructed sandwich works best at lunch, turkey, cheese, and wholewheat bread. He also has yogurt or cottage cheese for lunch. Does your daughter like veggies? I steam them and cut them into small pieces, carrots and brocolli are in at the moment. He loves grilled cheese or wholewheat quesadilla's. Annie's organic mac n' cheese with some blended spinach mixed in is good and healthy. Also avocado and mango are big hits. Henry eats whatever we eat for dinner, just cut into small pieces. Hope this helps a little.....

Hey R., I just started to give my baby pasta and cream cheese. He loves it. The pasta that i use is found in the ethnic section of the grocery store. My neighbor is vietnamese and she said that in the chinese food section their is a pasta that is little tiny stars. I bought it yesterday and mixed it with fat free cream chees and a little milk and my son loved it. Chicken seems to be the best meat for my son. I bake or crockpot a whole chicken and he will eat so much of the meat. Steamed veggies are good too. He loves steamed carrots and corn. Good luck. J.

Hey R. -

A few of my kids favorites included grilled cheese, turkey dogs (sliced into long skinny pieces), noodles (no sauce), lightly steamed broccoli, dry cereal with yogurt instead of milk (more for snack times and much less messy), cubed cheeses, and cubed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Good Luck,
J.

Try some of these pinto beans, tortilla, elbow macaroni's with tomatoes sauce and cheese and my daughter loves tofu but will only eat it cold.

Good luck

The pasta is good but you can try alot of things. Canned, frozen or even fresh veggies cubed (peas and carrots) or cut in small bites, cherios, rice cakes (they disolve very easy in the mouth)cheese pizza, almost anything that is soft and can be chewed easily. Meatloaf, salbury steak,soup, (good for dipping a cacker, or toast in)casseroles, and yogurt are other things. Anything that can be picked up and squished with the fingers, let her play with it on the tray, (both her and the tray will clean up). Cut everything up in bite size. Thanksgiving is a good time to try new foods. Turkey, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, green been casserole, pumpkin pie, if she got teeth and can chew then let her try. At a year old all my kids were pretty much eating regular food.

It's not very creative, but my girls loved raviolis from a can. i would just cut them up into smaller pieces and sometimes chop up some carrots and mix that in to get some vegetables. Mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, hot dogs, lasagna, green beans, mashed potatos, mini corn dogs, grilled cheese, scalloped potatos, fetuccini alfredo. My youngest will eat anything with ketchup, no matter how disgusting i find it she can't get enough ketchup! Honestly, I pretty much let my girls try everything that I cook. Both my girls love french toast and strawberry oatmeal for breakfast though. Also, it seems that they go in spurts, my older daughter hates things now that she used to love so I'm constantly struggling to keep variety in their diet.

I had heard that you're not supposed to give eggs, peanut butter etc. to babies (under 2) as they might develop an allergy..? this may just be an "old wives tale". I don't just to be on the safe side. THese foods are too convenient for me not to be able to prepare them.
Some people feed their babies posole, cous-cous, plain pasta, plain yogurt with fruit (no seeds or extra sugars ie raspberries, banannas) and plain hot dogs (the good kind or tofu). I'm a big fan of any veggies mushed up in a blender (yams, peas). If you want some good ideas, I would look at the jars of baby food at the grocery store and then make that yourself. Don't worry about having to be too creative. It will be a lot of extra work for you and kids are finecky about anything complicated (sauces) or hard to digest (corn, green beans, apples). I would just "imagine" what would be easy to eat and digest and go from there. Soon, however, you will be able to mush up whatever you are eating and share.

My kid liked oatmeal for breakfast. He would eat whatever we had for dinner just cut smaller i.e. chicken, broccoli, sweet potato, etc. and loved tofu squares cooked crispy. For lunch his favorite was anything in a tortilla- melted cheese, peanut butter & jelly, ham & cream cheese. Hope this helps.

My kids loved all the messy foods at that age - spaghetti & mashed potatos. they also like various fruits, frozen veg cooked really well, yogurt, sweet potatos & most cassorole type dishes worked pretty well.

My son loved gerber graduates ravioli and macaroni & cheese. He also loved scambled eggs with cheese and small pieces of pizza. He also had yogurt(yo baby yogurt is great) for lunch. He would also eat sliced apples, canned pineapple, sliced bananas, canned mandarin oranges. He lived on crackers at first for lunch.... ritz, graham, saltines...with cheese or jelly. My pediatrican also said if he wanted pancakes or french toast for dinner why not give it to him...so I did. In addition, he still ate some baby food till he was about one and a half...he enjoyed it and it was good for him..so why not :)

I know that it is frusrating....I give my daughter anything that we eat. As long as it is not to spicey, she loves to eat at the table with us and have anything. She really likes potato soup, mac and cheese, chili (mild), cornbread, crackers, rice, steamed vegies, and almost everything that you can think of. My husband and daughter are not to pickey...they eat what I put in front of them...=) My baby will be 1 on X-Mas Eve, so no cow milk yet...Good luck!

cheese quesidilla cut into cute shapes with cookie cutters worked for me. Sometimes I would add a little bacon and tomato or ham. When mine were little she really loved pear or grape tomatoes, they are smaller than cherry tomatoes and she loved (and still does) the squirt.

My one friend used to take very small pasta and boil it, then stir fry it in a little butter and parsley. Her kids loved it.
My daughter also loved the Gerber "graduate" meals - they have a lot of good choices that are easy for you to make. Good luck.

there is a GREAT book called Child's First Meals and it is full of wonderful, healthy, easy to make recipes- many of them, sound like they will be something my husband and I can eat too, so that when the time comes (my daughter is only 6 mos.) we can be eating the same foods rather than making 2 different meals.
Enjoy!

Hi R.!

My son love green beans and tomatos. I would by the small cherry tomatos and he would just go to town on them. Whatever you are cooking just in little portions. He loved rice with cheese and still does at 21 *G*. Mash potatos were always a hit and they love eating those with their hands, if you can stand the messy baby afterwards. I have cute pics of him eating those. I make mash sweet potatos now and those are yummy.

Hi R.,
My kids are older now, (7 and 5) but when they were little like yours I used to give them macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, I even gave them those little vienna sausages from the can because they are very soft and they liked to mash them up in thier hands before they ate them. This also helped them get the idea of self feeding. rice works great too for dinner. at 8 months old my son was eating rice. Some times I'd flavor the rice with chicken or beef broth by boiling the rice in that instead of water. canned veggies such as peas and green beans are great too. I tried to give my kids what ever my husband and I ate for dinner even if I have to dice or mash it to feed it to them just so they'd eat what we were eating. It instilled in them that THIS is what we're having for dinner and if you don't eat it, you don't eat, because this isn't burger king, you can't have it your way. To this day they eat what I cook for them and they'll even try new foods. Recently they have just discovered that fresh baby spinach leaves are yummy with ranch and they beg to eat it for a snack. My kids also like broccoli alot too. All because I introduced them to a variety of table foods early on. Your baby can eat almost anything as long as it can be cut up very small or mashed up. hope this helped, Good luck.

My daughter loved cottage cheese, messy but good for them. Yogurts off all flavors. Also grilled cheese sandwich diced up into tiny pieces, cheese pizza chopped up (one of my kids favorite, cooled off tomato soup drank through a straw, try laying out thinly sliced turkey or ham and putting a small amount of cream cheese on it spread, then roll up, (if she has enough teeth) this was another favorite of my kids. Eggs are always a hit, scrambled, etc for any meal. The more flavors you expose her too, the easier time she will have later on with not being so picky. The Gerber graduates diced fruits and veggies are good as well as the meat sticks they carry, my kids loved the meat sticks. Good luck and enjoy this time!!! :) Before they can treat you like a short order cook and get picky! :)

My boys are older now, but I used to buy small cans of veggies and dice them up. Hot dogs and lunch meat are great when cut up small as well.
We found that we offered our kids everything we were eating, just in small portions, and cut up small. They now eat EVERYTHING, including broccoli, all veggies, all meats, etc. We are hunters, so our kids ate deer, elk, beef, and everything we put in front of them, as soon as they had teeth!

It kind of depends on the age of your child and what is appropriate for her to eat. If you are moving to table food and you don't want to get into the whole short order cook thing, then incorporate what you are eating (have her eat with you) into her meals. WIth that said, there are some great cookbooks for baby/toddler food. First Meals has a lot of great ideas.Super Baby Food.

My child loved pasta, spaghetti. If you made your own babyfood you could start adding texture -- don't make it so smooth. If you didn't, then take some flavors she loved from the jars and begin to make those things with little chunks. Offer a wide variety.

Good luck
L.

I didn't see your "what happened" it's great you've done a wide variety and that you've made food. Google ideas on the web. This site has a lot of options for babies to older kids
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

Our son love peas, cereal, pasta, banana, almost anything that can be cut into managable piece that he can pick up himself. We try to feed him at least tastes of what we eat from our plates, because that is what he will be eating eventually. We generally over cook his portion of pasta, and veggies so that they are a bit mushy and easy for him to eat. We shread or cut meat into very small pieces. For the most part, we don't try to make a separate meal for him. You'll want to consult with your pediatrician for a list of food to avoid, like nuts, chocolate, anthing that would present a chocking hazzard. I've had good luck with giving him a few bits of food he can feed himself from his tray while I spoon feed him.

My son really likes all kinds of soups. Especially ones with low sodium, lots of pasta and meat. I also give him potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken, and lots of pasta dishes. Basically he eats a little of whatever we're having. Just try to steer away from fried foods and sweets. Peanut butter and banana sandwhiches are a hit too. Good luck!

i always fed my boys whatever i was having so that they get used to having what the family is having. if i was having a lunchmeat sandwich at lunch i would make them a sandwich too but cut it up into 16 pieces that way they cold hold it better and take little bites. try pasta, lsiced fresh veggies, sliced fruit, broiled chicken cut up into small pieces, even cake and cookies if yu have them. cheese chunks, a hamburger patty cut up, anything you have. pnut butter and j sandwiches are favorites

Try the Gerber Graduates. They have little trays of finger pasta, veggies, etc. Precooked so they don't need to be warmed. Also have you tried Lunchables? I am not sure about dinner. We rely on mac n cheese some night. My soms are 5 and 10 so I know their likes and dislikes. You could probably ask her pediatrician for suggestions. Good luck.

Hi R.,
Try making homemade veggie soup or chicken noodle soup. My son loves it! You can just put it on their high chair without the broth or feed it to them with the broth. There is so much flavor so they really like the veggies. Also I make tuna noodle casserole for him (tuna, noodles, cheese, peas) and he loves that for lunch. Also they have really good cook books just for baby food, that goes into toddler food, I have a couple and they have great ideas in them! Good luck!
J. ;)

My girls liked canned greenbeans, sweetpotato, ground turkey in small pieces, mashed potatoes. work well.

Hi R., I just feed my daughter whatever we're eating. It's easier than making two different dinners; as long as you have a balance of meat, veggies, and so on. If she doesn't eat it in the first sitting wait a while and she may eat it later. Good luck!

You don't mention her age but I assume she is 1yr old, give or take a few months. If she eats strawberries and eggs with no problem, I would proceed with other foods, slowly and carefully. Add new foods one at a time so you can track potential problems, such as allergies. Dice or cut foods small enough for her to swallow. I remember one baby I had who would not eat new foods for a long while. His favorite dish was scrambled egg(s) with applesauce. We all thought it looked ghastly but he thought it was great. Rembmer little ones have their own ideas of what is good and what is not. The basic rule is: if it is a healthy food, children can eat it; ie: fruits, veggies, meats, grains. Good luck!

My kids LOVE meat, so I would just take leftover chicken & pull it apart in pieces; brisket, pulled pork. You could also try mini pita breads with humus. My kids wouldn't even try it, but my friend's daughter loves dipping her pita in it. Also Edemame (soybeans) with a little soy sauce for some taste. My son loves it, it's healthy & its a good finger food. My daughter loves chicken noodle soup. I usually drain the liquid & rinse - takes away some of the sodium, but leaves the taste. It's also less messy without all the liquid. Amy's Pizza rolls - I like them better cuz they filling doesn't squirt out the other end when they're eating it. Making little hamburgers are pretty easy - and dipable into ketchup & such. I know you don't really need breakfast ideas, but Eggo makes mini-waffles now with a "butter/maple flavor" that my kids just LOVE - & no need for syrup! There are some good ideas here. If I think of any others, I'll edit my post.