Need Help on Meal Ideas for My 11 Month Old.

The canned veggies and canned fruits work great. My daughter didn't care for the baby food either. You can cook chicken really well and cut it up into small pieces. Well cooked pasta, or mac and cheese work well. My daughter like chicken noodle soup too. The gerber graduates have those chicken sticks that most kids like. They are also really soft and mushy. Even if he gets more teeth, it takes a while for them to really learn how to chew. However, their gag reflex is really strong, so they get to be pretty good about gumming it up before swallowing. Best of luck.

I would try scrambled eggs cut into really small pieces. My kids loved them. Also ground beef and tiny pieces of shred chicken.
Jen D.-Frisco

A great book: "Feed Me, I'm Yours" by Vicki Lanski

I was told not to worry about the teeth. They don't get their back teeth until they are almost 2, and they are eating almost everything by then. They learn to gum everything.

Here's our list:

I sometimes mash up crackers, cheerios or graham crackers (the honey is not dangerous in these) and roll bananas and other slippery things in it.

frozen peas (FAVORITE!) Straight out of the bag still frozen, they're tender, almost melt (we call them green baseballs!)

frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, melon, cherries, raspberries - he eats tons and tons of these - you might have to thaw for a few minutes, they're harder, or run under water for a sec)

canned corn, peas, beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans

black olives (sliced)

pickled okra

Multigrain Cheerios

Bumpers Peanut Butter Cereal (be careful with peanuts)

scrambled eggs (another favorite, sometimes I put a little squash or sweet potato baby food in with the eggs - I do this with everything for my family to sneak in some more veggies, and they never even know)

Multigrain Club Crackers

baby marshmallows

Granola Bites and Morning Minis

grapes

bananas

pumpkin muffins

chicken vienna sausages (they have nitrates, so I go easy)

organic cheese puffs

grilled cheese (I mix grated cheese w/ sweet potato baby food and a little butter to make a paste and spread it on - he likes this on crackers, too)

frozen pancakes

bagels with cream cheese (my family loves Bagelfuls)

pasta

Hopefully, this gives you some ideas. I have trouble thinking outside of the same old foods, too!

Hi Kristen, my son is just a few months older than yours, except he had a mouthful of teeth he never used by then...

Focus on anything he can pick up himself. Gerber makes these fabulous cracker/cheerios type thing that are "puffs" and they melt away as he eats them. So there's zero mess.

We also gave him bananas (are still one of his favorites), scrambled eggs, green beans, mashed potatoes (both white and sweet), noodles/pasta (mine actually prefers the egg noodles), small crackers (graham crackers) are messy, but okay. Yogurt and pudding were great, too. He loves yogurt now, which is great when he's taking antibiotics!

I'd say, look for things that break and dissolve quickly, or would be easy to swallow without chewing. At 11 months, Gabe was mostly sucking everything anyway.

My sisters just kept telling me, try him on everything you eat, just to give him the experience of new tastes. So I did. Either mash it or just give him tiny bites of whatever is on your plate. You'll think, there's no way he can eat this, but he will.

I still remember being slightly frustrated at that stage, and I'm pretty sure when we switched to whole milk I started giving him the liquid vitamins in his bottle once a day, bc I knew that he wasn't getting everything he needed from his diet. That gave me the added confidence to not worry so much about how much he was eating, and focus on helping him to try lots of new things.

Hope this helps some, and enjoy your babies!

First Meals by Anabel Karmel is an excellent book with great ideas for meal ideas. It has gorgeous full color pictures & its published by Dorling Kindersley. I used this with my 3 kids and more often than not, they loved everything I made. My oldest wanted to feed himself at that age, no help from mom. Your son may be the same. Lots of finger foods in bite sized pieces are great.

I second what the other posters said, it's more work for you, be he'll be better off in the long run with organic (when available), whole foods made at home as opposed to jarred food. Whole Foods market sometimes has a "Make your own baby food" class, check out your nearest one to see if it's available, or just ask them.

I don't know where you are located, but in Plano on Parker & Preston a new market called Sunflower Farmer's Market opened. It's similar to Sprouts Market, only has a way bigger selection of ogranic foods at a great price, plus great sales.

K.
SAHM of 3 kids, ages 7, 5 & 3.

you might try taking your dinner and pureeing it. Baby food tastes nasty and it sounds like she is ready for flavor. I did this with goulash and it worked great. With few teeth you have to be careful of choaking so big pieces are potentially dangerous. I made all of my kids "baby" food, there is a book called "Super Baby Foods" that is wonderful. I would freeze the pureed food in Ice Cube trays then it was easy to take to daycare or out on trips. Good luck.

Try some deli meats as they will be easier to chew. Turkey or chicken. My oldest would sit and eat chopped tomatoes for ever when we would go out (9 months old) Mixed fresh fruit would be great too. Yea! They grow up so fast.

My son is so over baby food too so I can relate! You would be surprised what he will be able to manage with some hard gums and two teeth.

My 11 month old is really into:
- blueberries, strawberries, black berries
- diced canned peaches and pears (not in a syrup)
- canned green peas, cut up green beans and cut up carrots (no salt added)
- small cubes of cheese
- tiny pieces of toast
- freeze dried fruits and veggies
-mashed or diced potatoes/sweet potatoes/butternut squash
-a mini-quesadilla with cheese
-guacamole
- spiral shaped pasta cut up
- cheerios
- little pieces of banana and avocado
- cottage cheese, whole milk plain yogurt and ricotta cheese with fruit
- canned crushed pineapple in its own juice
- ravioli filled with meat or cheese
- Annie's pasta with tomato sauce
- dried breadsticks, cut up
- hard boiled egg
- shredded (moist) chicken breast
- "baby" meatloaf, homemade with organic beef and no salt
- eggs scrambled very dry and diced
- Ian's organic fish sticks and chicken nuggets
- Puffets (in the freezer section at Target)
- Gerber meat sticks
- occasionally he gets a prepackaged meal from Gerber or Beachnut for toddlers or a toddler snack bar

Hope this helps! :-)

The list my daughter would eat at that age:

Cheerios
Mac & Cheese (boiled soft)
baby yo yogurt (also their smoothies are the best to take for lunch on the run)
scrambled eggs (yolks only with whole milk)
dehydrated apple pieces
grilled cheese w/ no crusts cut to bite size
bananas (raw and frozen)
avocados
cheese cheese cheese
vienna sausages
cottage cheese
goldfish crackers
mashed potatoes (both russet and sweet)

Basically anything you can mush without using your teeth. I would make sure I could squish it between my fingers.

I hope this helps. :)

I highly recommend the site savingdinner.com and Leanne's baby food menu for more ideas to feed your little one. The recipes are great and go through the stages just like jarred food and you know exactly what's in it.

On the topic of the amount of teeth and what your baby can eat: his gums are VERY strong (have you ever had him gnaw on your finger with just his gums?). Anyway, things like noodles, chunks of tofu and avocado, chunky mashed potatoes, canned fruits and veggies (or fruits and veggies you've prepared yourself to make them a bit mushier), would all be great choices to start him on.

He is interested in what you're eating and is certainly trying to tell you that he's ready for some more texture! My now two-year-old never did like mushy baby food; she refused to eat anything (anything that wasn't breastmilk, and not from a bottle) until she was about seven months old and I gave her cheerios. She wouldn't even eat applesauce, but she loved cooked apples and softer foods like avocados.

I hope you can get some ideas from this:). God bless,
Loni

Hi Kristen!!! I would say, first of all, don't worry about the teeth. The gums are so strong and that's what they chew with. He should be able to eat anything you eat, just avoid peanut butter, strawberrys, and honey. Finger foods like carrots and peas and green beans (the frozen bags work great) are easy to prepare and he can feed himself (plus you can cook just a small amount if needed). Lasangna, pasta, cassaroles...whatever you cook he can eat. I do lots of fruit and vegies. Example- breakfast: banana, toast with butter or a whole wheat waffle with butter and milk. lunch-turkey deli meat torn up, carrots and peas. snack-cheese and apple slices. dinner-chicken and vegies or pasta.

just experiment....one day he may love something and the next day he may hate it!!

i really hope this helps you, good luck.
J.

As a personal rule, I would never give my kids anything that I wouldn't eat myself. Along with that, I try to only eat foods that I would also allow my kids to eat. As you can imagine, I disagree with many of the recommendations you have received. Vienna Sausages are OUT, as are Hot Dogs, along with all baby food (have you ever tasted the stuff - yuck!), and most processed, packaged, canned foods. Yes, it takes more time to prepare meals, but I feel better about them because I can control what is in the food I give my kids, and I don't have to tell them no if they want something off my plate.

Suggestions for your little one: soft fruits like cantaloupe, honeydew, clementine oranges, grapes, etc. are great because they can be eaten raw and therefore have greater benefit. Apple slices are great for teething babies! Plus, fruits are naturally sweet so kids love them. Veggies like baked sweet potatoes (the biggest veggie hit at our house), cooked carrots, steamed broccoli, and steamed asparagus usually go over really well. Beans and rice are always a HUGE hit, as are mashed potatoes with anything! We try to steer clear of wheat and dairy for potential allergy reasons (those things really should wait until the kids are older). If you must have pasta (I personally crave it something bad sometimes) rice pasta is a good alternative for your little on. Chicken is a great first meat because it shreds easily and therefore isn't as easily choked on as beef. Ground beef can be great as well, as long as it is crumbled really well.

Just use good nutrition sense. If the package has lots of words you struggle to pronounce, you shouldn't be eating it, let along giving it to your babies. And if that packaged food sounds really yummy and you want it for dinner, odds are it wouldn't be that difficult to prepare yourself. That's why meal planning is so important around here. Spaghetti is a big favorite (we use only half the amount of noodles and steamed broccoli to make up the difference), but making homemade sauce isn't that big of a deal if I know the day before that I am going to be making it and can therefore have the needed items on hand, and it tastes so much better than the canned stuff any day.

My son is the same way. No interest in baby food and given the chance would gnaw on a steak from the table. I have been using canned soup for a while (he just turned a year). I strain the veggies, noodles, etc and serve them as is. It adds a little flavor, variety and its grown up food. He really likes it. I'm careful though about the brands since some have very high sodium and MSG. Hope that helps.

They have lots of new "baby" meals on the market now that would probably work for him - I think Gerber makes them - they are usully close to the baby food. Also...cheerios are great, vienna sausages (although I think they are nasty, they are great for growing babies...they are soft enough that they can gum them without worry that they will choke on them), mashed potatoes or other mashed veggies, anything from your plate that you can mash up is probably good...hope this helps!

The canned veggies are good because they are soft, although you may want to try cooking up some frozen veggies which have better flavor and are healthier. Try some small-size pasta such as Orzo or Acini Pepe -- I usually cook it in low sodium chicken broth and throw in the peas and tiny pieces of carrots and really tiny pieces of chicken. Tiny pieces of soft bread and soft cheese (such as American) are easily gummed. And rice, too. How about some of the canned fruit? Go for the ones packed in water vs. syrup. If you're worried the pieces are too big for him to gum, just cut them smaller. Bananas are great, as well as grapes and blueberries. Gerber makes dried fruit -- my 22 month old still eats the strawberry/banana pieces(although the Walmart brand actually better!).

Really, he can try most anything but you just have it cut it up really small until he gets the hang of gumming his food.

Hi Kristen-

I don't know if this is true or not but I've been told to be sure and give your child water from the faucet because the flouride in the water is what helps the infant's teeth come in faster. ??? Who knows if it's true but in case you are giving your son purified water you may try this! My son is now 14 months and around 11months he had at least 8 teeth but I'm sure every child is different.

Have you pureed what you are eating? That is how I fed my kiddos. I put what we ate in the food processor and froze it in ice cubes and fed them that. My son just turned a year and I break up pancakes and waffles in small pieces for him. I give him eggs and toast. Just as long as it is very small and he can mash good wit hhis gums. Good luck in whatever you decide to do. It can be a bear to get the little ones to eat. My son stopped wanting the bottle at 11 months so he was sritcly whole milk and a sippy cup since.

Please reconsider the canned vegetables. You could steam fresh or frozen vegetables until they are very, very soft. Canned vegetables are loaded with sodium, preservatives and over-processed. Truly, they don't look or taste much like their original veggies---because they're not much like them anymore.

As you begin to adapt him to table food, try to use as few (read NONE) foods with artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

Congratulations on entering such a new and fun stage with your little one! It's a wondrous journey!

Time for table food that is mashed or finely chopped. he is ready for some more texture and taste. I wouldn't worry about the pureed part. He is getting past that. My 6mos old would never even eat baby food. We went straight to groundup table food. If it didn't come off my plate into the babyfood grinder thingy then he would not eat it. Hated baby food. So he will be fine. Pretty much anything you can mash or chop finely would be fine. Finger foods that are soft should be introduced also. He should start being able to hold a biscuit or zwieback cracker and gnawing on it himself. Messy but great practice for him.
Good luck,
L.