Please Give Me Suggestions to Feed My 26 Mo and 11 Month Grandsons.

Hi N.,
I have been feeding my grandchildren for a while. They seem to love chicken fingers, mac & cheese, french fries or mashed potatoes. Good luck!

Carol

you could always do the mini raviolies or something to that affect finger foods are great more or less anything you eat is ok just smaller sizes and portions

N.,

Macaroni and cheese is good, hot dogs cut up very small for the 11 months old. Cooked vegetables cut very small, mashed potatoes are wonderful and filling. Pasta of any kind is usually good. If they like meat you could put some hamberger in the sauce. Any thing that is small and soft enough for the 11 month old to chew, nothing hard for him. The 26 month old could handle that. Waffles are great too!

Have fun with your grandsons!

E.

My kids are/were good eaters. Chicken and fish are healthy choices. Vegtables are good. My kids prefer fresh veggis. I would usually cut up some carrots and broccoli for them to munch on while I made dinner. Good luck!

Hello, I am a preschool teacher for toddlers and I am amazed at what the kids bring for lunch. It is all in how the parents get them started. I see a lot of sweet potatoes (in the frozen section by breakfast there is a line of foods by a Dr. that the kids seem to love) I see cooked carrots, mac & cheese, jelly & soy peanut butter sandwhiches(is case you are not ready to try real peanut butter) grilled cheese, totillas with cheese melted on them. Cucumbers, tomatoes, lots of cut up fruit, black beans, crackers with spreadeable cheese on them, lots of cheese sticks or pieces of cheese. Anything we eat, they can eat as well, just cut up in smaller portions. It is so wonderful to see such good little eaters.

I only feed my children raw organic fruits and veggies for snack times. It was harder when they were 1. We went with bananas, berries, and steamed veggies.

Hey N.,

I understand that you want to feed the boys something great tasting and good for them. My granddaughter has been eating steamed veggies and whatever the family eats since she was old enough to have finger foods. She is a very good eater too. I would say just fix dinner and share with the boys. If they don't like something, you will know. Most of the time, I have found that grandkids will eat whatever the family eats as long as nobody makes comments about not liking certain foods in front of them. I would stay away from raw onions etc, but raw carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and brocolli would be great. Foods that are easy to manage with fingers or a fork are good too. I have some recipes if you would like them, send me an email and I will send them. I have 4 grandkids who range in age from 4 to 15 and I babysat the older ones before they started school and after school.

Good luck,
B. B

Spaghetti is always a hit and fun to watch them eat, haha but maybe a bit messy. I usually get the fruit that's already chopped and then my 2 yr old loved mandarin oranges when he was younger and peaches. I also put some cheese in a tortilla and warm it in the microwave and roll it up and the kids like that and scrambled eggs with cheese, breakfast is good for supper too :).

My daughter always loved canned vegetables. She would eat them cold, right out of the can. I usually cooked them and let them cool, but she ate them fine even if I didn't. I also gave her fruit, like sections of oranges, diced peaches, and pineapple tidbits. Enjoy!

Here are some things we give our granddaughters, who happen to be kind of picky.
Pasta with sauce, PB&J sandwich and fruit, grapes, oranges(mandaren), strawberries etc. frozen cheese pizza, chicken, sometimes I get the rotisserie from Costco, sometimes, we have chick nuggets, cucumbers, carrots etc, grilled cheese, black beans and rice with grated cheese and s cream. I find that very small amounts in a bowl, are nice, then, I get the next thing. In other words, not 3 items on a plate. And sometimes, they eat a ton of grapes, and for the next feed, they might eat just chicken, so it all works out.

I would stay away from high carb meals which are usually easy to prepare but offer little in way of nutrition. A GREAT website resource is http://www.savingdinner.com/ You can subscribe to their menu mailers for either 3, 6, or 12 months. You will see a selection of different menus from low carb to gluten free to the one I think you'd use Original Regular Menu. Click there & it will tell you that every Tuesday you will receive 6 new menus with shopping lists included. It gives a great variety of meals that I think your grandchildren will like & it takes all the guesswork out of 'what's for dinner' and also gives you the shopping list!! THAT I really like.

I would suggest you avoid sweet stuff as long as possible. Introduce veggies and healthy food most. I have a friend with a 4 year old that LOVES salads & veggies!!

Best of luck to you & check out that website, it's awesome.

Think of things that are fast and easy BUT you can try to make healthy like if they like mac and cheese buy whole wheat noodles and slide some peas or carrots in there and maybe they won't know.. There are huge amounts of recipes out there. I like to use kraftfoods.com and allrecipes.com, and get great ideas there. Then if it doesn't sounds healthy then I try to do what I can to make it a little healthier. Fresh fruit is always a smile maker in my house and for my daughter I can pretty much give her any raw vegetables as long as she has dip. Anything will help and maybe the kids won't notice.. :)

Make them whatever you are eating, just cut in smaller-baby bite size portions. Chicken, roast, spagetti- (bath afterwards), raviolis (the frozen kind-not the canned kind),

Veggies-peas, carrots-as for veggies-go for the frozen also, a lot less sodium and still taste great!

p.s. also add a fruit to the dinner, its a good habit to get into for yourself also. -applesauce, pears, peaches,baked apples-I have a great recipe for fried apples if you want it- etc.

I'm kind of in the same boat except I cook for 2 grown men (who are mentally and physically handicapped -- almost like children. One doesn't have teeth, so his diet is 'mechanical soft' and the other was just placed on a 1200 calorie diet, so we're back to 'made from scratch' food instead of 'fast-food' & mostly-prepared 'quick fix' stuff like pizza & frozen French-fried foods).

It sounds like your little ones can eat about anything. Meatloaf, brown or white beans and cornbread (and onions! YUM!), any kind of potatoes, SWEET potatoes (our 4 grown kids have always loved them, as do our 3 'grands'), spaghetti, chicken and stuffing, canned vegetables, LOTS of raw fruit (but cut grapes in half for both children to lessen choking hazard), soups, peanut butter and jelly (or PB & honey after age 1) sandwiches, chili (these sandwiches even go well WITH chili or homemade veg. soup), other sandwiches (meat salad sandwiches are great -- tuna, ham, chicken/turkey), boiled/deviled eggs, coleslaw, etc. Golly, YOU'LL probably even be eating better since cooking for them! LOL

Also a tip if they need their food soft and/or chopped. Take two table/case knives act as if you're cutting shortening into flour for pie crusts (Since others will read this, I'll describe).
Hold the knives 'sharp' side down and make an 'X' with them. Holding them as close together as possible (rubbing sides), put their tips on opposite sides of the food and pull/draw them away from each other cutting through the food almost like scissors several times. I do this with chicken, over-easy eggs, green beans, baked potatoes, etc.

You can feed them pretty much anything that grownups eat, though I would stick with ground meats for the 11-month old. When you do the veggies, just be sure to cook them thoroughly so they are soft. Make sure to cut up their food into tiny bites before you feed them. Try to stay away from crunchy stuff, like chips, as they are choking hazards. Other choking hazards include grapes and hot dogs.
By the time my son was 11 months old he was eating off our plates...whatever we had...enchiladas, Shepherd's pie, pastas, pitas & hummus. Usually not steak or chicken, but we'd share the veggies. My son is now 4 and a very good eater.

i suppose i can share a recipe that my mom made up and its sooooo easy... we get frozen tyson chicken breast (as many as you need) thaw them use 3 tbs olive oil about 1 tbs minced garlic (you can buy it in a jar and it keeps forever in the fridge) and and about 1 tbs of Italian seasoning..... mix oil, garlic, and seasoning and spoon it over the thawed breast. it takes about 35 min in our oven but i know each is diff... cook at 350... you can heat up some green beans and corn to go with it or whatever the kiddos like... my girls also love to put ranch on the chicken... hope this helps!

Hi N.,

I never gave my kids candy. And you know what, I took the a long time to acquire the taste for sweets. They have strong healthy teeth.
I would advise you to feed them plenty of cooked vegetables like carrots, broccoli, spinach, kale, avacodos, fish, and fruits. Also, mashed pinto beans, blackeye peas, sugar peas, etc.
If serving meats, you should mince it, or dice it up. We use to chew it up for them and feed it to them. yep, we did.
Happy feeding, N. B.!

D.

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My 18 month old loves Garden Rotini(green, red, & regular spiral noodles) and mixed vegies with chicken nuggets. She's also a big fruit lover... grapes, apples, bananas. She's not big on being fed anymore so anything that requires a spoon has to be really thick and sticky (oats, mashed potatoes) so it'll stay on the spoon LOL!

My doc has told me more than once, not to be too picky about what my kids eat. They'll get what they need if you offer a variety of different foods, even if they get stuck in a chicken nugget and french fry rut.

My older boys (16 & 10) are awesome eaters and not picky at all. I think kids will be good eaters if you practice good eating habits around them. Even if you don't like brussel sprouts or asparagus, choke 'em down with a smile and they will too.