Switching My 1 Year Old over to "People Food"

I have made almost all of my 11 month old baby's food myself but now he mainly eats table food - his pediatrician said at his 9 month appointment that it was fine - just to avoid shellfish til he's 2 and whole nuts as they can be a choking hazard.

His day generally looks something like this:

Breakfast:

Baby Yoghurt with fruit & cereal (YoBaby) or rice cereal mixed with apple juice
Apple Sauce
Fruit (Blueberries, chunks of banana, strawberries etc)

Snacks:

Chunks of bread or toast or cheerios

Lunch:
Bread with cheese, grilled cheese sandwich or bagel w/ cream cheese in little chunks
OR whatever I'm having
Peas (whole defrosted)

Dinner:
Vegetables (cubes of carrots, potato, sweet potato, zuccini, broccoli etc)
Mac & cheese
Some of whatever we're having

He loves spaghetti or linguine - just plain - it is great to keep him occupied while we are still eating.

He more or less everything cut into little bits, so is no problem to feed. The cutting up of everything can be tedious and time consuming but worth it to have him eat proper food! He has done this since he had only 2 teeth and has managed perfectly well. Just be careful if you eat takeout as they can be very high in salt which I think babies aren't meant to have too much of.

Also, Gerber make some toddler meals, like mac & cheese with a couple of vegetables. They're in a little tray that you just heat up so there is no preparation. They also do jars of meat sticks and more adult food. I've never tried it, so can't say what it is like but might help...

Good luck

Hi, my son, 11 months, has been eating 'people food' for almost 3 months now. As soon as I tried to give him some at 9 months, he stopped eating baby food, no stage 3 for me. He eats everything we eat. As long as thee fod is well- balanced, your child will be fine. He gets breakfast, ranging from french toast, waffles, cereal, toast, and fruit with every breakfast. He gets a morning snack, fruit, crackers, he loves baby goldfish! Your child will be fine with them. they are small enough not to choke, and are easy for them to pick up. (My son only has 2 bottom teeth and is just getting his 2 top teeth). For lunch he eats anything, sandwiches, soup, mac and cheese. Dinner the same. He eats chicken, gound beef, burgers, loves quesidalas(?) The key is to just cut everything small so tour child won't choke. You can also cook veggies in hot water to soften them. I do this for all veggies and apples. Put the left overs in the fridge and freezer for later. My son loves pasta, so try it and add only a little sauce. Good luck with this and relax, your child will love trying all the new foods. Just no peanut butter or citrus fruits yet.

R.

(mom of 2 beautiful children and have taken care of many wonderful children.)

There are lots of options for food for your 1 year old. We have given our daughter (now 18 months) tastes of whatever we ate for a while now. She had a lot of teeth early so that helped, you just have to be careful to cut everything small. My husband and I have always eaten after she went to bed, so a lot of times she will have some of what we ate the night before. It's good to expose them to all kinds of flavors early so that they learn to like a lot of things. We have never really given our daughter "kid food" like hot dogs, mac and cheese or chicken nuggets. We want her to like a lot of different things and we try to give her very healthy food, so far it's working she's a great eater. I figure she will learn about the "crap food" that we all love eventually, so I'll keep it away from her as long as possible.
Here are some options beyond what we normally would have for dinner that are good for quick meals:

1. tofu- I know it sounds weird, but I buy the extra firm type, drain it, and keep in in a tupperware container soaked in vegetable broth. The texture is perfect for babies and she LOVES it.

2.Gardenburger makes quite a few different types of "burgers", her favorite is the original, but she likes the portabella burger one too. Microwave for a minute and cut it up. EASY!!!

3. I buy packages of all types of frozen veggies and will defrost a small bowl in the micro, usually enough for 4-5 servings of two kinds. It lasts for 2-3 days- just nuke enough for a serving about 10 seconds. Sweet potatoes are great for kids too. Buy one and peel it, cut it up and steam it. It will provide 4-5 servings of a vegetable. Keep it in the fridge and nuke a few pieces for 10 seconds

4. Keep lots of fresh fruit on hand. It's easy and quick to serve. Cantaloupe, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, apples, oranges. We give her fruit after every meal sort of like dessert.

5. Avacado is a great food too. Easy to cut up and good texture for babies. Just make sure it's ripe (a little soft). They don't last too long in the fridge so but a small one.

6. Deli meat is a quick option too. Have the deli slice it a little thicker than normal so it's easier for the baby to handle.

I know some of this sounds wierd but it's not that hard to give your baby "good" food. Babies like a lot more than we assume so let her explore new foods. I try to keep all the processed food out of reach for now, it takes a little effort but it's really worth it in the end. Good luck, feel free to email me if you have any questions. ____@____.com

My son is 13mo. old and we are in a very similar situation. I'll share what we've done so far. When you go in for your baby's 12mo. checkup you might be able to get some more info from your ped. as well. Our ped told us to give 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks a day. Unfortunately there is a lot of trial and error until you find out the tastes and textures that your baby likes.

For breakfast we'll feed dry cereal and diced dried apricots and apples; a pancake, waffle, or french toast with a little syrup; fresh fruit; or a cereal bar like Gerber or Nutrigrain. We also give about 6 oz of whole milk in a sippy cup.

Lunch and dinner are pretty much the same for us. We've fed the following: diced chicken, diced chicken nuggets, turkey/ham/roast beef lunch meat, black beans, frozen mixed veggies, mashed potatoes, wheat bread, corn muffins, cheese singles, applesauce, fruit cocktail in juice, fresh fruit. We usually give about 1/4 cup meat and 1/4 cup veggie or starch. For desert we give him fruit or cheese. We've also tried some Chef Boyardee mac & cheese and mini ravioli but I try not to give these too often.

For snacks we give yogurt covered raisins, cheese, bites of cereal bar, Gerber crackers or cookies, or Gerber fruit snacks.

He also gets a bottle of milk in the afternoon and one before bed. We're in the process of transitioning to just sippy cups but we haven't gotten there yet.

We're also a very busy couple, so you might want to look for cooked, ready to eat chicken strips in your meat department. I cut two of those up with kitchen shears. We keep the chicken nuggets and veggies in the freezer too and defrost as needed per meal. Motts make single-serve containers of applesauce that are convenient and Del Monte has all kinds of diced fruit in juice also in single-serve containers. The yogurt raisins come in small boxes that are the perfect size for snacks. We buy cheese singles and string cheese for ease too. For large cans of veggies, like the black beans, I dump the whole can into a tupperware and store in the fridge. I make the corn muffins in the mini muffin tins and store 1/2 in the freezer.

We had to go this route because our son won't let us feed him anymore. He has to do it all himself. One other thing that we discovered is that a 1-yr old's appetite starts to decline. You have to trust that she will eat when she's hungry, and that will vary from day to day. As long as she has energy and is growing, she's doing fine. To cut down on the amount of food that is thrown or droped to our dogs, we put a little on his highchair, wait for him to eat it, and then give him more. For meals when he's not hungry, we just put the lid back on the food and store it in the fridge until the next meal.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

I can understand your concern - its very common actually, or so it seems, that we all worry a little bit about our kids getting proper nutrition. The key is kids will eat whatever they see you eat (more or less) so it is essential that you eat healthy well balanced meals and then they pick up on your cues and habits. My daughter is 13 months and she eats whatever we give her. She actually likes fruits and vegetables more than anything. Well, its up there with meat, chicken, and any other protein sources she can get her hands on! The tofu is a great idea - never tried it but great suggestion. The deli meat I would stay far away from. All deli meats have preservatives, chemicals, or additives of same kind. I have yet to find all natural, organic, non "junk" deli meat. Your child is way to young to be introducing garbage into his tummy. We adults shouldn't be eating it either. (We eat the tofurky vegetarian stuff which still is not 100% great but leaps and bounds better than the regular stuff.) Some kids don't go for the dairy right away. I know my daughter doesn't like any dairy unless its cheese melted on pizza. I've tried it all. If you're using grains like pasta and crackers or rice cakes (which they love) you should try to stick with whole grains and no bleached grains. That is all processed with chemicals galore and it has NO nutritional value at all. It breaks down straight into sugars. Brown rice instead of white rice, whole wheat bread instead of white bread and unsalted rice cakes - the salt is not good for them because their blood can get more easily concentrated with the sodium intake. I am babbling a lot here so I think I'm gonna stop but no matter what your choices are for feeding your baby just know that whatever you do is right for you. Each and every one of us chooses a different diet and has different eating habits to share with our children. I'm sure you'll do a great job. Good luck - You'll do fine!

I gave my son a ton of tofu. Great protein source. Like the other gal said - extra firm, drain, put in tupperware with water (enough to cover it), put in fridge, should last about 4 - 5 days. I gave this to him cold, cut up in sticks or little chunks daily. I also gave him a ton of yogurt - Plain with no sugar/flavors. mashed sweet potato is good. Throw one in the microwave until it is soft and scoop out the pulp and mash. super easy. frozen peas, and we got into lima beans (a little bigger and harder) when he was about 18mo. We tended to rotate the same 15 foods w/o trying much else and maybe that is why he is picky now...(he is 2 yo) who knows.

If I did buy frozen meals - I ended up buying organic so I knew it wasn't just a bunch of "junk".

Good Morning A....First off you need to do what is best for you. You might first try to switch her to stage 3 foods only. They are bigger and have more texture. It will help her to have to chew her food with out the fear of choking. Texture is a BIG thing for some kids. You can always call your Doctor with questions, they should have a nurse on staff to answer your questions. My son is 20 months old and at 1 year I took him off a bottle and started him on a sippy cup only. If she has a hard time with the cup try the soft Nibby cups they are very similar to a bottle but requires a bit different sucking. I would only give my son milk (whole) or water in his sippy. for breakfeast I would give him 1/4 of a bagel (They love feeding themselves) and a yogurt.(I would fall back on the cereal incase he didn't want his bagle) You can also scramble 1 egg and about a 2 inch chunk of bannana. For lunch you could do some elbow noodles and some fruit (cut small but large enought for her to pick up) you can give her a childrens fork and show her how to pick up her fruit. If that doesn't work a jar of stage 3 works great!. At dinner I was lucky to be able to give Kyle anything that we ate. I just made sure that it was cut small and that he could pick it up. He would get so upset if he couldn't get it into his mouth. He loved Brocolli and cauliflower. Potatoes are great a great starch. Just remember that 1 year olds still need fat in there diet for brain growth. Really it is all about what you feel comfortable with. Mandrin oranges work great as well. Just try to start introducing things slowly and if all else fails you still have a jars to give her but I would switch her to stage 3. She can chew it, there is nothing in them that she can't have and it will help her taste buds to start tasting other things from peas,greenbeens,peachs and pears. Good luck and remember that if she is happy, gaining weight then smooch her and consider yourself very BLESSED !

I started both of my kids on table food around 9 months. This was trickier with my daughter since she has a dairy allergy and dairy proteins are in nearly everything. Anyway, here are some examples of what they were eating at that age.

Breakfast:
- Jimmy Dean pre-cooked breakfast sausage patties cut up
- bananas
- scrambled eggs (we waited until after 1yr for this)
- cheerios w/ a little milk
- french toast
- cut up fruit

Lunch and Dinner:
- cut up bologna slices or deli meat
- slices of cheese
- cut up fruit
- frozen peas and carrots
- green beans
- broken up hamburger
- pieces of chicken (really any meat but you can easily buy pre-cooked and cut up chicken if you don't cook)

It's a lot easier than you might think. Once my husband started working in the city and started getting home late, I never cooked anymore. That's when it became a little more challenging. I feed them easier to prep/cook stuff, precooked stuff you can buy in the store, and leftovers. The key is variety and that does get a little more difficult if you don't cook.

Good luck.

I recommend the Super Baby Food book. It has nutrition and amount guidelines for all baby stages. I know you said you don't cook, and the book recommends you do that, but you can buy frozen versions of the stuff. I cook and freeze all my own baby food, and I'm in the kitchen only once a week. It doesn't take much time, and is so much cheaper!! Plus, my daughter is not picky about new foods because I don't give her only jarred food, which in my opinion all tastes like slime. So she already knows what food tastes like. The Dr. Sears Family Nutrition book is also excellent! It wriiten by a doctor an is good for the whole family.