How Do I Feed My 1 Year Old Baby?

I have a 19 month old son. He eats just about anything under the stars. Right now is your golden opportunity. She isn't being really picky so try to expose her to a large variety of foods. I did that with my son and he has a great taste for vegetables, fruits, mexican, chinese, just about anything. I give him cooked (from frozen) broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots without any other seasoning on it. He loves canned carrots and sweet potatoes.
If you aren't giving your little one enough, believe me she will be the first to let you know. Between meals, I tend to set out things like raisins, fig cookies, chopped prunes, or bananas just to supplement and he does fine. I hope this helps to answer your questions a bit. Let me know if I can help any more. Good luck, Shannon G.

Try not to worry about it so much. Buy some gerber graduates veggies if you're worried about not giving enough of them. Give her maybe 5 bites or so at a time on her plate/tray and just keep giving her more until you notice she's not interested in them anymore.

As for the formula though, she really needs to get off of it. Food takes the place of the nutrients that are in formula, so I'd be afraid if she were my daughter about her being too full for a regular amount of table food. Start out by doing say 5 oz of formula w/ 1 oz of milk mixed in. If she acts like she doesn't want it, don't give in to her, she'll drink it when she's thirsty. Many moms make the mistake of giving in to their kids during the transition into milk, but trust me, when a child is thirsty, they will drink it. Keep increasing the amount of milk in her formula every few days or so until she's completely done with formula. Also, this is something that people feel differently about, but I took bottles totally away from both of my kids at 12 months. The day after they turned one to be exact. The first day, they didn't want the sippy very much, but again, drank from it when they got thirsty. The earlier you transition children from things like cribs, pacifiers, and bottles, the easier....by far. Just something to think about.

Here's an easy and healthy meal for your child. I make this for my son who is 14 months old.

You will need a bag of frozen vegetables, some rice or pasta, and ground turkey. Once everything is cooked, just mix it together in individual, small bowls that hold about 1 cup of mixture and top with no sodium chicken broth or tomato sauce. I make these meals in batches for the week and just microwave them as needed. Serve them with cut up fruit or a fruit cup/applesauce. I like them because he gets a nice balance of carbs, fats, and proteins without any 'processed foods', and everything is a finger food so he can feed himself.

The easiest way to find out how much she is eating is to journal for a day or two. Write down the times and what and how much she eats. You can take this to your pediatrician and see what they have to say.

Until then, I would definitely cut out the formula. If she can't take milk try a lactose free milk or goat's milk. Make sure it is whole milk, or at least 2%. Give the milk in a sippie cup and get rid of the bottle. I know it might take a couple of weeks to wean her of this, but it is very important to her dental developement. Try a Nuby cup. The top of the cup is clear so she can see the liquid she is aiming for. You can give her the milk at mealtimes and/or save it for just before nap or bedtime. However, don't give her more than 3 servings a day. She can also have 100% juice (I always dilute mine 50% anyway) or water with her meals of if she just wants a cup. She should be eating her meals at regular mealtimes with 1 or maybe 2 small snacks a day. If she doesn't get veggies and fruit at meal, give them to her for snacks. Steamed veggies cut up, or a ripe banana, applesauce, yogurt, are a great place to start. Avoid oranges and grapes. The oranges can get stringy and both are easily choked on. Broccoli, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, squash, and other veggies you can buy frozen are perfect; of course avoid peas and corn unles you intent to puree them. Hope it helps.

Does she feed herself? If not, I would encourage you to let her start. She should be able to pick up things and feed herself with them. She can eat any and all vegetables now. My dd is about the same age and she will eat peas and corn. Sometimes I can get her to eat broccoli, but only if it has a little cheese on it. Also, cut down her formula. Toddlers only need about 24 ozs of milk/formula a day. The formula is probably filling up her tummy, so she's not eating as much table food. Take away two of her bottles and you should be fine. We mixed my dd's formula with milk until she got used to the taste of whole milk. If you use powdered formula, just do two scoops of formula and two ozs of water and the rest milk. I know people say that kids this age shouldn't be on the bottle, but my dd still gets three bottles a day. Most kids meals at restaurants come with the option of a veg. Keep plugging away at it, she'll get it eventually.