Solid food suggestions for an 11 month old

[DeeEast]

DD will be 11 months old on the 6th. So far she's tried:

rice
bread
broccoli
carrots
green beans
pancakes (no syrup, just dry, yuck)
corn
apples
bananas
grapes
peaches
pineapple
kiwi
american cheese
cheddar
monterey jack cheese
chicken
bologna
turkey ham (lunch meat)
turkey lunch meat
Gerber meat sticks
egg yolks
Cheerios
Gerber puffed veggie/fruit finger foods and wagon wheels
cantaloupe
peas
potatoes
yogurt
mac and cheese
various pastas and noodles

The thing is that of all of the foods she's tried, she will only consistently eat lunch meat, cheese, wagon wheels, grapes, cheerios, yogurt, and the occasional carrots and cantaloupe. Even of these foods, it seems that most of the food ends up on the floor or otherwise smashed up but not eaten. Sometimes it seems like almost none of it is eaten because she puts it in her mouth and then spits it out.

Now I do give her cereal and fruit in the morning and before she goes to bed and she's still BFing. I just introduced whole milk this week, which she seems to love (my ped cleared it). When she really seems to be rejecting the fingerfood veggie I've given her, I try to sneak in a jarred veggie between bites of jarred fruit. She doesn't act hungry and she's not losing weight, so I'm trying not to worry but after reading a lot of the posts her, it seems like she should be chowing down on these foods more instead of playing with them and spitting them out.

I'm going to try sweet potatoes and waffles soon. What do you put on waffles or pancakes? Anything?

Can she eat string cheese? I saw lots of posts here regarding that but I thought it would be a choking hazard.

Finally, is there anything else I can be giving her for a varied diet? I hate to just give her lunch meat and cheese and fruit every day for lunch and dinner but it seems to be all she likes right now.

Thanks for getting this far! TIA

[sadie427]

Do you give these foods plain, or regular seasoned food from your plate (eg plain pasta, or lasagna? plain steamed veggies, or stir-fried w/ spices?). It may not make a difference, but I find Sammy likes our food better than plain things. He has gone thru phases where he won't eat a lot of things, but I just keep offering and then he usually goes back to eating everything.

We put butter on waffles or pancakes, no syrup. They are sweet enough for a baby, remember they have not had candy, etc yet so they don't know the difference! Plus that would be really messy.

Sammy eats small cubes or sticks of cheese. Never tried string cheese, I haven't eaten it myself in so long, I can't remember if it's too chewy or not. We gave him fresh mozzarella and it was too chewy.

[DeeEast]

I've been giving them to her mostly plain. I tried a little salt once or twice but I'm afraid of using too much. Maybe butter on the veggies? It makes sense that it would taste better. Hmmmm.

[sadie427]

I never saw any reason to skimp on the butter for DS--babies need fat. Plus since she's getting towards the age when they start eating more food and less BM/formula, it makes sense to increase fat and protein. I was personally comfortable salting his food a little once he had tasted most things plain--then I could give him what we eat most of the time, which is the ultimate goal.

[miki]

String cheese is DD's favorite finger food and DD doesn't really like to self-feed much else. I pull off a thin string and then tear the cheese into little pieces the size of half a Cheerio.

How about trying avocado or zucchini?

[amp]

Like Susan's DS, my DS much prefers our food to the bland food I tried to make for him or that Gerber makes. He loves seasoned food and really that's all he wants to eat. Veggies he sometimes eats plain, or other times with butter or cheese melted in them. Pancakes and waffles have butter on them, but you could also do jelly or cream cheese. And the fat in butter is good for babies.

We usually to shredded cheese (colby, cheddar, mozzarella), but as long as you do thin strips or bites, it should be fine. I would not cut circles of string cheese or use big chunks, but smaller bites would be fine.

Our son eats pretty much everything you mentioned, plus more things that you didn't mention that we eat, including...
hamburgers
hot dogs
various pastas with sauces, chicken and beef
quesadillas (cheese or chicken and cheese)
bits of steak or pork or chicken
fruit & cereal bars
oranges

[DeeEast]

Thanks so much for the info. A couple of questions:

I thought that hot dogs were a major no-no choking hazard. Are we past that age now? I'm super-paranoid about choking and thought I had a handle on it until week before last when a friend of mine told me that I should be peeling the grapes as well as cutting them up when I give them to DD. I was only cutting them up and have since heard from other people that cutting them into little pieces is sufficient. But that was enough to blow my confidence down to zero again!

Also, how many times a day do you feed your baby? Do you give snacks inbetween? What kinds of snacks? I give DD 4 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and cereal and fruit before bed) and hadn't really been giving her snacks (but she nursed in the afternoon) and now I'm trying to give her wagon wheels or something when I think about it. I don't want to starve the poor kid! But again, she doesn't act like she's hungry. ?

[amp]

Hot dogs, if cut into little circles are a major choking hazard. We cut each little coin slice in half or quarters and then they are no longer a hazard. At least we haven't had any problems. I wouldn't say this is his fav food anyway.

We do not peel grapes. I have never, in my whole life, peeled a grape. We cut them into halves or quarters now (I started him out really small with sixths or eighths on large grapes). Grapes are one of his favorite foods!

I feed DS 3 meals a day, plus 2 snacks (between breakfast and lunch & again between lunch and dinner). He sometimes still gets a bottle when he gets up in the am, and he still has a bottle of formula and whole milk about half the time at bedtime. The other half of the time he is ready to sleep without having the bottle first. I didn't find that DS was really terribly hungry for a snack, but I found that he was having a hard time getting all the way till lunch (he'd get hungry at about 11:45 and about a 1/2 hr before DH came home for lunch) and until dinner. At that time he was getting some formula, but not as much as in the past. Once I instituted the snacks, it did help him make it until meals without so many major meltdowns. Just follow her lead. She'll let you know what she needs.

[Jen in Chicago]

Jude loves string cheese, I tear it in threads for him. A great food on the go item.

Our Dr told us not to shy away from seasoning his food, but I admit I have. Last night I gave him cut up chicken breast, he did not eat it, I added BBQ sauce to it and he ate it like a champ. I also gave him plain noodles... rejected... added butter and he liked it.

Our staple foods you did not have on your list, or I missed:
Cheese turkey burger
Veggie Booty
Pirate Booty
Raviolli (I admit I will pop open a can for a no-cooking night)
Baked Beans - HIS FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!
Kix (AKA Balls)
Bread- not toasted, just torn up
Canned Carrots (they are soft and a bit salty)
Frozen Pea and Carrots mix (I heat to room temp.)- I don't season

At daycare he is eatting the "big kid" meals without a problem. They just chop up everything for him.

Tonight we are going to have tacos, a first for him. I am trying to get better about seasoning things for him.

[mlewis]

My son is also 11 months old and he is eating some of the things you've said (carrots, green beans, pasta, cheese, peaches), but I've been scared to try some things - for instance baked beans, ravioli out of a can, etc. mostly because they're so darn messy. Do you let them self-feed or do you feed them these things? Maybe I'm just too paranoid about this. So far my son loves grapes and cooked plain carrots the best. We've tried to feed him lunch meat, gerber baby sticks, chicken, but he doesn't seem interested at all.

[amp]

Yes, he finger feeds himself pretty much everything he eats. And that includes spaghetti, baked beans, ravioli, other pastas, etc. If he can pick it up, he gets it on his tray. Although, he likes chili and we don't let him have that any way except off of our spoon. Gotta draw the line somewhere!

[Jen in Chicago]

It is kind of a crap shoot, you never know if he'll let you come at him with a spoon or not these days. They are messy, but he loves them! I bath him after really messy meals, and plan appropriately.

We may be on the only people with bake beans and spaghetti in the drain of our bath tub!

[sntm]

Just agreeing with others. Definitely don't be afraid to add some seasoning. Olive oil is a great alternative to butter, though either are fine for babies. I still stay away from salting foods, since I think that sets up bad future habits, but we heavily season foods with other herbs and spices. Jack, the other night, ate pasta with al verde sauce (which was olive oil, parsley, basil, lots of garlic, capers, olives, and a couple of other things - I didn't think he would like it but he loved it!) He loves things with barbeque flavorings, cinnamon, baked beans, cajun rice and beans... When we were in Puerto Rico last week, he ate all the local foods that we ate (other than allergy-risk foods like shellfish.) Beans are a great alternative to meats and are faves of babies since they can self feed. Just cook them enough that they are softer.

Allow to self-feed whenever possible. Allow her to have control over what foods she will choose among the healthy ones you have offered and she will be more likely to eat.

If you are choking-paranoid, one piece of advice is for higher risk foods, only put one or two pieces at a time down on the tray, to minimize the "cheek-stuffing" gobbling that can increase the risk.

I often will spread jarred fruit or jam on waffle pieces. I've also put cream cheese on it. Butter would be good.

To make veggies more appealing, definitely flavor them. Spices, sauces (cheese, lemon-butter, hollandaise, yogurt), dressings (ranch, oil and vinegar, etc) are good additions. Even ketchup. Jack picked up the concept of "dipping" with french fries two weeks ago and now will gleefully dip anything into anything as long as you say "dip, dip, dip, dip, dip" while he does it. I personally don't see the appeal of carrots dipped in yogurt, but who am I to judge??? :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03

[DeeEast]

Thanks guys. Can I ask, what is Veggie booty and Pirate booty? Hmmm. sounds interesting, lol

[jk3]

DS has tried all of the foods you mentioned. He's a picky eater too who prefers yogurt, cereal, cheese, turkey, chicken, sweet potatoes + steak. he pretty much refuses to eat veggies so I tend to mix some in with fruit or sweet potatoes. Sounds gross but it tricks him every time!

Sort of a random new favorite: We were out to dinner the other night + we gave our DS a mini-bowl of fried rice. He loved it! He ate everything in it including eggs which he refuses usually + vegetables. Perhaps not the healthiest but fun to watch! He's really skinny (under 19 pounds at a year) so I am happy when he eats fattening food!

Jenn
DS 6/03

[aguinn]

my 11 mo old DS eats lots of the foods on your list, and:

blueberries (loves loves loves them)
mandarin oranges (canned, as they have the membrane removed)
waffles (the whole wheat fat free eggos, unless you want to make your own, with nothing on them, although sometimes i'll dip them into yogurt)

we haven't tried string cheese, but if your DD has enough teeth then it might be ok to try it.

we are also looking for a more varied diet - annie's mac & cheese is his favorite right now, but he'll only eat it if it's fresh and not reheated, so DH and i are ending up with a lot of leftover pasta! my mom suggested mashed potatoes with various meats mixed in: ground turkey or shredded chicken. those things can be cooked and stored for later use.

i'd say that as long as she's eating, she's doing great! i was just down visiting my 2 yr old godson in atlanta, and he eats less than my DS does, so be prepared for eating habits to change even more in the coming months! maybe the old saying "they'll eat when they're hungry" rings true sometimes!

;)amy
proud momma to DS 2003

[ohiomom]

My girlfriend makes little meatballs for her son and freezes them for a fast protein source -- just cut them in 1/2.

DD still gets jarred meat/veggie combos since it seems her intake self-feeding is not so hot... but she'll only allow us to feed her w/a spoon if she can simulaneously self-feed. So far she'll eat nearly anything we eat as long as it is soft enough (only 2 teeth and 2 more starting to come in.

Nicole's Mom 7/03