I have a 10-month old son who has started eating some table foods (puffs, cooked peas/carrots, rice, breads, pasta). He is now often refusing to eat his baby food purees, even the chunkier purees. I am looking for meals that I can cook for my husband and I that will also be appropriate for our baby. He only has two teeth, but does gum food fairly well. He has tasted sloppy joe's and Mexican rice and loved them both so I don't think he needs bland food, just something easy to gum.
Mom's what are some things you make for the whole family? Any suggestions on how to serve them to my son? I really don't want to have to make something separate for him.
Thanks!
Get "The Petit Apetit" cookbook. You can find it on Amazon. Lots of good ideas for family meals in there.
Hi N.,
My son also quit eating baby food pretty early, and I just started feeding him slightly modified versions of what his dad and I were eating. For example, if we were having pasta, I just cooked his a bit longer so it was softer, if I was making chili, I took some out for him before I made it spicy. He ate everything we ate, from fish burritos (his favorite!) to oatmeal to lasagna. My advice would be to prepare healthy, nutritious meals for you and your husband and feed him the same foods you are eating, just make sure they are cut/mashed up so she can manage them. My son also loved to feed himself with a spoon, but at 11 months was not great at it, so I gave him his own spoon and let him help, but I tried to feed him most of foods like yogurt or soup. He was more likely to let me feed him if he could participate, and by 15 months was really good at using silverware.
Good luck!
I'll provide a link from the American Academy of Pediatrics that has a lot more clarity to help you when meal planning.
A few years ago they changed their policy on introducing foods. According to our pediatrician, the biggest issues are the concern for choking hazards (which is detailed on the link) and known family allergies to certain foods.
They no longer endorse that you have to wait a certain amount of time to introduce specific foods (such as peanut butter, etc) as long as it's not known to be an allergen in the family.
I'd recommend making the meals that you and your husband want to eat, and make sure that parts of it are suitable for him. It's OK at 10 months for him not to want baby food (my kids were done with it by about 9 months).
Frozen vegetables are great, good thinly sliced lunch meats, beans (black, pinto, kidney, edamame, lima, etc), pasta, etc.
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/f...
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/f...
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/f...
Hi N.,
My daughter is 11 months old. Since she was about 8 months, she refused baby food.
She eats what we eat everyday. It happens that I adjust meals for her (cooking her part a little bit longer, removing before spicing), but usually, she eats like us - except for chocking hazards of course (and no honey).
Here is the menu for our week:
Mon: lunch: pasta with brocolis. yogurt
Mon. dinner: steamed cauliflower with ham
Tue. lunch: cod with carrots
Tue. dinner: Quiche and spinach
Wed. lunch: grec raviolis (raviolis au gratin with eggplant and feta cheese)
Wed. dinner: apple stuffed chicken breasts with mashed potatoes
Thu. lunch: spinach risotto
Thu. dinner: broiled tipalia parmesan with broccoli and rice
Fri. lunch: zucchinis stuffed with chick peas
Fri. dinner: butternut squash risotto
As a note, we are not big meat eaters and our meals are based on veggies and fruits. Our kitchen is salt free (we never add salt, even before we had the children). Everyday, we get more proteins and grains from our snacks: usually one snack is a fruit and the other is a bread (whole wheat regular bread, naan, bagel, crackers, pita...) with hummus, peanut butter...
Our daughter only gets 3 meals and sometimes a snack in the afternoon. She has a bottle instead of a snack before morning nap. She thinks chick peas and toasted bagel slices are a treat, so she has that to complement her diet, or yogurt as a desert. And always some fruit at breakfast. She does well with cut blueberries (I was afraid of the chocking but is they are cut, she does fine and love them)
Beans, shredded chicken, meatloaf, chicken soap, hamburger, pastas... mostly anything you cook and cut into small pieces. Be creative! I have an almost 10 month old, too. I 'm doing both the jars and whatever I cook. He's loving it! I give him a scoop of baby pureed food and then our food. It confuses him, but I get him to eat both and so I know he's eating enough. Just a trick. good luck!
There are a lot of things you can fix for the whol family. Spaghetti, chili, tuna cassarole, taco rice, lasagna, hamburger helper (any choice) adding steamed vegetables so he can eat them. The meals you make that needs a little help with cutting, take a little time to really cut them up fine for the baby.
You've gotten great advice! Hopefully your daughter doesn't turn out picky. My daughter eats everything. My son, who has been served the same food, really won't touch vegetables and is pickier about a lot of stuff. So I have taken to making foods with a lot of "removable parts." So pasta with chicken and broccoli. Three of us eat all of it, my son eats just the pasta. Or I make a dinner where everyone likes at least part of it (mashed potatoes for my daughter and husband, turkey burgers for my son and husband, salad for me and my daughter) and everyone just eats the part they like. At this point, though, your son can certainly try just about everything. If he doesn't like it, just offer him a yogurt and next time move on to the next thing. Have fun!
My 8mo loves:
Speghetti
meatballs
meatloag
broccoli, peas, green beans, carrots (cooked to death so their soft and mushy)
beans
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes
yams
chicken (I chop hers into tiny pieces)
soup
Hope this helps
Some of the things my kids loved and still do...
Spagetti w/ meat sauce- I use to get little noodles for the babies and make them a few in a sperate pot or cut up our noodles really small (I used sissors to cut up everything).
Boneless chicken any flavor - bbq, marinated, grill, bakes... whatever way you like it(cut in small pieces) w/ mashed potatoes or noodles (cut up) and a soft veg.
Homemade Vegtable or Chicken soup - I'd use a slotted spoon to get out the little guys so it had less broth. Some kids like chili and other soups also.
Stir-fry w/ rice - just use sissors to cut up the veg & meat into small peices.
Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes, steamed veg. and rolls.
"Thanksgiving" dinner - turkey, potatoes w/ gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing ect.
To be honest - by the time my kids were a year they didn't touch baby food anymore. They ate everything we ate, just cut up in small pieces. If your unsure how small to make the pieces by a toddler meal for Gerber & it will give you an idea on how small to make the pieces.
I have a lot of people comment on my kids eating & ask how I get them to eat so many things... all we did was have them eat what we did. No special meals and ask them to try everything... if they don't like it they don't have to finish it, but they are to try it every time we have it. My 4 yr old doesn't like green beans, but he will eat one everytime I serve them to get seconds... but this is a rule we followed once they were about 2 1/2 - 3. But if you start your son eating what you do now it will help w/ the picky eating later... kids do better if they see they are eating what you do.
Have fun w/ the new foods! I'm sure he will love ateing all the new things :)
N.,
pretty much and vegtable you cook for dinner or mashed potatos,well anything pretty much but meat if you cut it into smallers pieace F.E green beans he will be able to eat them i just went through this with my 6 month old daughter the only baby food she eats is the apple,strawberry banana mixed.its crazy but its not unhealty for them so just keep up what your doing and let him try things..good luck
