Toddler Meals

[Melanie]

Any suggestions or ideas? Ds (12 mo) just starting eating finger foods now that he FINALLY has 1 tooth. He won't eat baby foods, and is pretty picky. He's 99% BF still, but I'd like to introduce him into eating meals with us. Currently he munches on Chex or Crispix and has a sippy of water while we eat. He gags if he gets too big of a piece of food not chewed by his little tooth, so I have to break up the cereal or let him take bites from my hand. What do you give your toddlers for a meal?


Mommy to Jonah

[twins r fun]

My 12 month olds have been eating only table for over 2 months, so now they eat just about anything with no problem, but when we first started one had a lot of trouble with gagging. I found soft things better in the beginning until they really got the chewing thing down-bananas, Gerber carrot dices, pieces of bread, waffles/pancakes, canned green beans, chunks of baked sweet potato-these were our first foods. Then we progressed to noodles, bagles, peas, any somewhat soft fruit (canned or fresh), crackers, cereal, small pieces of chicken, cheese cubes. Now they eat anything-breakfast is usually some dry cereal, fruit, and either yogurt, bagel, waffle, oatmeal. Lunch varies but is always a vege, and then something like cheese and crackers, pasta, chicken tender, scrambled egg, grilled cheese, etc. For dinner they have whatever we're having (meatloaf, chicken, takeout, etc.). I think the gagging is part of learning to eat but maybe just stick with the soft mushy stuff until Jonah figures it out. I don't think the number of teeth matters too much as babies are very capable of "chewing" with their gums. Good luck!

Nicole

[egoldber]

This is true about the teeth. Sarah just got her first teeth about two weeks ago when she was 14 months old and she has been exclusively on table food since 9 months. I just have to make sure that the veggies are well cooked and soft and that meat is in small pieces. Other than that she eats absolutely anything. She is able to "gum" almost any kind of food very happily.

Gagging is a reflex and overcoming that reflex is part of the learning to eat solids process. Some babies take longer to work past this reflex than others. I would just try to offer your baby what you're eating and let him work through it in his own time.

HTH,

[brubeck]

One thing that worked really well with my daughter was mashed potatoes. I still feed them to her almost every day. They are great because I can buy individual portions (half of an adult portion is a full meal for my daughter), they stick well to spoons and fingers for self-feeding, and as baby grows you can mix in bits of veggies and chopped meat easily. I like to buy Larry's brand which you can get with cheddar cheese already mixed in.

Once you are a bit more comfortable with baby chewing, you can feed him bits of almost anything you are eating, as long as it is soft enough. At breakfast time my daughter will sample any cereal my husband is eating, at dinner we regularly give her bits of our cooked pasta or veggies, or pull strips off of cooked chicken. Try one or two new things, and then branch out.

[KathyO]

Ditto on the mashed potatoes. You can use them to conceal ground meat or grated veggies; I roll them into little balls and fry them lightly so that they can be easily picked up and munched on.

At that phase, DD also liked egg foo yong, whenever we ordered Chinese food! I found that scrambled eggs/frittatas went over well. She also liked cooked broccoli - initially she sucked the little florets off the end, then proceeded to more active munching later. Well-cooked pasta also works well - I found that rotini were easiest for her to pick up and handle.

[Melanie]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! Ds is definitely a "texture" baby, which has it's challenges in the feeding department.

Mommy to Jonah

[myllam]

Hi,

One thing that my DS liked when he first started to
eat solids is small cubes of tofu. He really seemed to enjoy the taste (even though it doesn't taste like much to me :-) and had no trouble with it since its relatively soft to chew. He liked the firm tofu better then the soft.

HTH.

Monica
Mom to 15 month Brian