Looking for Simple, but Healthy Snack and Meal Ideas for 13 Month Old

We love the web site http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com
Great recipes and meal ideas for baby/toddler. Good luck!

Tracey,

This was the age, I started to introduce a variety of fruits and veggies in small cut up mushy pieces...like apples, mangos, oranges, bananas, avacado, squash, tomato...things that had great texture and fun tastes. You can also start doing things like cheerios and other finger small sized cereals.

But, we also began introducing things like cottage cheese, cheese slices, cubed meats like turkey, chicken and fish. If it's cooked to soft enough and with a nuetral flavor it is great to start introducing these things at meal and snack time.

I also, started with Earth's Best snack bars cut up into smaller pieces and Gerber has a great variety of other graduate snacks that can help with hand eye coordination and are yummy.

But keep in my mind that at this age, it is just introducing new foods. And, my son still are jarred foods in stage 3, to maintain his nutrients and we didn't begin actual table food meals until he was about 16-18 months when he was beginning to self feed well and respond well to new foods.

This link was helpful:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-by-age-guide-to-feeding-y...

Also, check out weelicious.com for fun ideas for healthy baby foods and snack.

Good Luck!

Tracey,
Check out www.weelicious.com. It's written by a mom who has a nearly 2 year old and she's all about wholesome, usually organic, foods that are good for kids. She has recipes and recommendations on various snack products you can buy at the store. Anytime I'm at a loss, I just jump on there and start searching through her stuff. It's a blog, so she has something new everyday (or almost everyday!).
My little man loves applesauce, string cheese, broccoli (something about the tree shape I guess) all kinds of diced fruit (LOVES mangoes!) Have fun and think outside the box.

Oh and about the grapes, I don't know if yours would like this, but I cut some into halves or quarters and freeze them. Then he has something to gnaw on as he's cutting his teeth...

Also, if you're going to go with store-bought products, choose Beech-Nut over Gerber. Not only is it cheaper (at least in my area) but the ingredients are all natural and not full of the junk that Gerber uses (http://www.beechnut.com/letsgrow/No_Junk_Promise/index.asp)

I found Hummus to be a favorite of my daughter, and avocado.

Good luck

Cold watermelon can do wonders for a teething baby. It's messy- but they love it! I like to mix chopped brocolli in with mac'n'cheese. Just put it in with the macaroni during the last few minutes of boiling and strain and prepare as usual. Try sweet potato pancakes- There's a mix from Albertson's that I like to use and my kids love 'em! If she likes spagetti you can puree all kinds of different veggies and add them to the sauce. I find that brocolli goes well with spagetti sauce. Peas are a winner with a lot of little ones. See if she's into smoothies. I keep a jar of wheat germ in the fridge and add it to just about anything. It's a good source of vitamin E and folic acid. I think it's great that you're lookin out for your granddaughter's diet! Best Wishes!

Hi there,
Bananas, avocados, hummus, shelled edamame beans cut in half, cheese slices, apple sauce, super thinly sliced apple, tiny pieces of soft mango, tiny peas....
I'd stay away from the Gerber products, personally. Check out the ingredients! If you have a Trader Joe's in your area, they have very healthful O cereal (just like Cheerios, but better). Also, none of their products contain high fructose corn syrup (just reported to have MERCURY in it!) or preservatives or chemicals. In fact, you can read and pronounce every ingredient Trader Joes uses in it's products :)
Good for you for looking for healthy food items for your daughter!!

My sister-in-law just taught me how to make "fideo", a fine pasta, or you can use angelhair pasta, for her grandbaby. You crush the pasta so it is in about 1/2 inch peices, and toast in in a frying pan with a little olive oil. Keep stirring so it doesn't scortch. she added in little veggies like sliced up green onion, little bits of whatever you have left, (cooked corn, carrot, or peas), after the pasta is toasted, you add some chicken stock to soften it up, cook & stir until soft, add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste, and serve. Her baby loves it and mine did too. I even made it with rice pasta, which doesn't have as much flavor as wheat, and they liked that too. You can get tomato paste in a tube like toothpaste at World Market. Great for recipes like this that don't need a whole can. B.

As always, when introducing a new food, it is important to feed it to her at least 7 times before giving her anything else new. It seems that kids are allergic to more stuff these days than ever, so it is good to be able to isolate the allergen. That being said, My youngest daughter rejected all baby food at 9 months, so we started this pretty early. Any ripe fruit, cut into pieces the size of a cheerio, small shapes of pasta, any cooked/cut up veggies, cottage cheese, tofu, tiny pieces of tender meat, cheese, scrambled eggs, toast, and try giving her whatever you are eating cut up into very small pieces. I used to make soups and just scoop out the veggies and meat and give it to my kids (very small pieces). Really, they can eat almost anything, but start with fresh, whole foods (not processed stuff like mac n cheese or microwave burritos) and they will learn to enjoy fresh veggies, etc at a young age. It is pretty fun to try new foods, and soon, you will be able to go to a restaurant and NOT have to bring all those little containers of stuff with you!

Small chunks of bananas, little smaller than bite size pieces of peeled apples with just a touch of peanut butter, nuke a sweet potatoe, or a regular baked/mashed potatoe with a little melted cheese, noodles, spaghetti, scrambled EGGS (great source of protein) with a little cheese, whole grain bread in small bites with Simply Fruit jam. I gave these to my son at about 11 mos and he did great. If she can chew at all, you may try later on breakfast turkey sausage (Jimmy Dean heat and serve).....he loves those with some apple sauce, whole grain bread and sweet potatoes.

Hope this helps, but as you know all babies mature at different levels and she may not be ready for these suggestions, but perhaps try those that have similar textures to things she is eating now.

Blessings,
A.

Hi Tracey,
I used to buy the frozen mango chunks and blueberries from Trader Joe's and my son used to eat those like crazy! The mango I used to cut into smaller sized pieces. Depending on teething, he would either eat them still somewhat frozen, or thawed out.
Avocado is nice healthy snack also. I'll try to remember other things that I used to give my son. I did use a book called Super Baby Foods for recipes for healthy foods that I made instead of using jar baby food. It has a lot of good ideas for things to add like grains that contain protein. Also, I used to add flax seed oil to many foods to get in some of the Omega oils.
Take care,
M.

try plain boiled (& of course cooled) whole corn. My baby enjoys chomping it and can concentrate on eating & playing with the cob for a loonng time.

Hello! Just want to make sure that you're cutting the grapes into small pieces. I cut mine into 1/8ths for my 15 month old twins.
Also, is there a Trader Joe's near you? They make a wonderful Organic Baked Tofu in "savory" or "teriyaki" flavor. I cut that into little pieces and my babies go nuts for it! It's a great low fat protein option. They also have All Beef, nitrate free kosher hot dogs. I cut them into very small pieces, of course. The babies love 'em. String cheese is great cut into little pieces. Avocado is a "good" fat. Earth's Best makes a Whole Grain Pastina. Mush some avocado in there w/ a little olive oil and Parmesan cheese. I also boil carrots until they're really, really soft and cut those up into pea size pieces for a snack.
Good luck!
A.