One Year Old and Table Food

This is my third baby, I would defiantely say no more smashing of peas at one. My 9 month old (no teeth) eats diced ham, turkey, and chicken, ripe pears, cut up melon, diced or thin sticks of steamed zuccini, steamed carrots, black beans, white beans, low salt canned green beans. I just fed my baby baked ziti with the zitis cut up into little rings. He LOVED it. I usually dice things in about 1cm cubes. One step ahead makes a little dicer that I like. Basically if you can squish it with your finger a baby with no teeth can eat it. www.wholesomebabyfood.com has lots of ideas. Oh and I think at this age he can start eating pastas -just find shapes that work well for him (I think one brand makes mini shapes now as well, as little tini dried raviolis). Processed things like spagetti os and mac n cheese.

My daughter is a year and has been eating everything we do (cut up fine) that we do. She eats sausage and hamburgers and corn you name it... Just try introducing him little bits at a time and see how he does. Oh and I havent mashed peas since she was about 7 months :) Good luck!

Give him whatever you're eating! Just cut everything up very small, no bigger than a cheerio, smaller for tough, chewy things like crunchy fruits or meats. You don't have to mash anything. If he doesn't eat what you give him, no big deal, but don't give him other things instead. Just keep presenting new foods to him and eventually he'll become a great, varied eater. If you give up on foods because he doesn't seem to like them the first time or you give alternatives when he doesn't eat what you present, you'll only teach him to be a picky eater, which no one wants. Kids won't starve themselves, so if he doesn't eat or only eats a tiny bit, he'll eat more later when he's hungry. Good luck!

My 11 mo/old eats almost everything we eat. He never did mashed up baby food. I tried, he refused. We essentially did baby-led weaning, without knowing it til after the fact! He went straight to table food at 8.5 months when he decided he wanted something other than just breastmilk. I just cut everything up into tiny pieces. Vegetables I just make sure they are cooked til very soft. The softer the food, the bigger the piece (but not bigger than a cheerio). He loves chicken, but I cut that up smaller.

My son is one of the pickiest eaters out there and the latest one food at a time that he'll eat is little chunks of ham. I think it's a salted ham. He also loves bratwursts. Well only the kind with cheese in them. I'm trying to find a better substitute for it though.