Trying to Find Healthy Meals and Snacks

If you google 'healthy snacks for kids', there are TONS of ideas with recipes- things like a roll with honey, a roll with butter, a roll with jam- you can give him the same thing- just make it a bit different. Muffins- get the little mini packs. Try some of these websites- there are hundreds of ideas!

http://kidshealth.org/kid/recipes/index.html

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Healthy-Snacks-for-Kids/Detai...

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/990531a.cfm

http://www.babycenter.com/0_quick-and-healthy-snacks-for-...

He can eat pretty much everything that you eat, as long as it isn't a choking hazard. I rarely ever make anything special for our daughter, she eats everything we eat and has from the start of introducing table foods. I think it's made it easier and keeps her from being quite as picky.

Good finger foods: peas, small pieces of cheese, frozen blueberries (serve them frozen, my daughter LOVES them, especially when teething), green beans, cut up cooked carrots. Cut up lunch meat is a good quick fix, we also do natural chicken nuggets too, and sometimes for breakfast I make her frozen whole grain waffles and scrambled eggs.

Frozen fruits and veggies are a life saver! You can get out exactly the amount you need and it's easy to heat and serve. We usually do leftovers from the night before for lunches.

- Beans (red, back, pinto, navy). Refried beans as a dip.
- Carrot sticks (i started out cooking them a little but leaving them a little crunchy) and humus to dip.
- Canned/jarred fruits (i rinse them first to get rid of the syrup)
- we did eggs too, but you might want to check with your ped on allergies
- tortillas/quesadilla style (you can put ANYTHING in them)
- soup...kids love to try and make it work
- turkey pepperonis, mini hamburgers, baked chicken fingers
- cauliflower cooked, zucchini raw in strips, butternut squash, sweet potato, mushrooms

If you don't like cooking...think about prepping and freezing. I make 15 little hamburger patties then freeze individually. I can cook it in a skillet in just a few minutes.

I am crazy about healthy foods and I applaud you! It is not easy to do these days and more often than not, I see parents giving their children processed foods, hotdogs, and fast food...which is not good for them. I can see every now and then, although I don't even do that.
I would suggest "Super Baby Foods"...its a book with amazing nutritious meals and snacks. I just bought a copy for a friend who is going to try the healthy route.
Wild salmon is great for them, hummous, etc. I found a wholewheat blueberry flaxseed muffin mix that my son loves! I make a big batch of mini muffins and freeze them. He just begged for more and more at lunch.

Hi E.,
We feed our daughter avocado, pineapple, peaches (the little fruit cups in lite juice), shredded peeled apples, and whole grain pancakes and bread (toast), scrambled eggs and cottage cheese. Plus we feed her basically what we eat too if it is soft enough and not too spicy like pot roast, risotto, rice dishes, spaghetti. My daughter is 15 months and she likes to eat a variety so we just keep giving her new things. Sometimes she will reject things because she is getting to the fickle toddler phase but she likes to try most things. Hope this helps!
D.

For our son, here are some sure-fire wins:
Black olives (the kid just loves them; straight from a can)
French toast (make a bunch; freeze it; just pop it in the toaster from the freezer)
Pancakes (make a bunch; freeze them; pop them in the toaster from the freezer; add pureed pumpkin and cinnamon to boost the nutrition)
"Pizza" (toast with spaghetti sauce and cheese; pop in the oven to melt the cheese)
egg sandwich/scrambled eggs
cheese cubes
crackers
raisins/dates/figs/prunes/dried cranberries (any fruit dried)
apple slices/cubes
rotini pasta (it's the only one he'll eat)
bagels (cut up)
grapes (cut up)
yogurt (try to find full-fat yogurt)
cottage cheese
crackers

Good luck!

I have been using the book "Super Baby Food" in trying to get healthy food into my son. I particularly like the Granola Hors d'oeuvres. They are inexpensive to make and are very good for him, containing no preservatives and all natural ingredients.

Yogurt is always a good healthy snack, as well as applesauce (just not too much because of the sugar). You could also try oatmeal or some type of soft cereal bar (Gerber makes one, or Nutri-Grain) for breakfast or a snack. Pasta is quick, easy, and healthy for dinner. Try any kind of whole grain pasta, and top it with tomato sauce so he'll get some veggies that way. My little girl used to love a whole wheat tortilla topped with melted cheese cut up into bite size pieces. You could even throw bite-size chicken on this too. Soup is also good; they have plenty of kinds available especially for little ones, just make sure the sodium isn't too high.

Hey E.!!! Seems like we fed kayla oatmeal for breakfast for 2 years!! Anyway - some other good stuff - applesauce (great in the little individual cups, cottage cheese (our day care provider actually introduced this to kayla and she loved it), broccoli - steam it so it gets nice and soft - broccoli is a good form of Vitamin A. We did milk and water, too and she is a big water drinker now.

Hi E.,

It sounds like you are doing pretty good. I had and still have a picky eater, so I had a hard time trying to get my son to eat different foods. I know it seems they eat the same things constantly.

It sounds as though your 13 month old is eating solids pretty well, judging by the things you say he's eating. I'm just going to throw out some suggestions for you, but only you know whether he will/can eat them or not.

Cut up canned fruit in their own juices always worked better for my son, as he never liked fresh fruits, same thing with veggies. Anyway, they tend to be softer for the little ones. Applesauce, peaches, pears, green beans, peas, carrots, etc....always make sure they are soft and cut up bite-size. Spagettios, mac n cheese, soft flavored pastas always worked good too. I sarted spreading a thin layer of pb&j on bread and cutting into bite sized pieces for my son after he turned 1. Yogurt, pudding, and if he likes cottage cheese. Scrambled eggs, pancakes or waffles (cut-up). Pretty much anything we would eat, but softer and cut-up.

Good luck!!

My Dr. told me to mix colors; that different colors mean different vitamins. SO, just give him a variety of different things. I don;t think you have to be a master chef at this point either. When my son was that age I used to cook a chicken breast and cut it up into small peices for him for dinner. Green beans cut into smaller pieces, peas, carrots (cooked), pasta, yogert, sweet potatos (I used to microwave them and add butter and cinnamin and he loved them cut into squares), regular potatos, etc. I'm not sure how much they mind eating the same thing everyday, but you may want to mix it up a little for the sake of different nutrients.

While he is still open to new foods try an assortment of textures and tastes...give him hard boiled eggs chopped up, good cheese that you cube yourself none of that processed garbage, fresh veggies that he can eat raw like pea pods
( or that you can steam so they retain crunch) my son loves steamed broccoli especially with some melted cheese. Wheat thins are thin and crunchy but have more nutritional value than say a soda cracker. I buy whole fruit spread instead of jelly and use it on graham crackers or whole wheat toast cut in squares. Cottage cheese can be mixed with diced fruit, berries and grapes I still quarter so they aren't choking hazards...an odd thing my guy eats is butter beans!
The thing is his taste buds are wide open and he has no pre concieved notions of I don't like this or that yet...while he is still open to try foods go forward with gusto and offer a lot of variety of healthy foods = )
Lots of luck!
B.

I give my daughter gerber meals and snacks...I know they might be a little more on the expensive side, but since I don't cook much, these give her the nutrition she needs. She also likes the fruit snacks (the freeze dried kind) and just about anything she can get her hands on...I do cut up apples into slices and she loves them too. My daughter also likes nutri grain bars for breakfast along with pancakes.

My daughter loves Trader Joe's Veggie Burritos. They're cheap ($2.49 for a pack of 2), frozen/microwavable, and the filling is a very soft consistency that is easy to eat. I also have had success with all kinds of beans-ranch, chili, black, kidney, baked--and hummus on crackers or pretzels.