Ideas for Food for My 15 Month Old

Don't give up. I give my son anything we're eating and at first he wouldn't eat any of it, but now he'll atleast try everything and eats about half of it. You're son won't let himself starve, so just do the best you can. I found that my son loves anything with Italian tomato sauce like spaghetti, pizza, lasagne... etc. Every kid is different, but keep trying. Sometimes if you make veggies look like fun (i.e. new dips and shapes) then that helps too.

Hi, I have raised 3 kids, and all of them did the same thing at that age. One thing that helped in transision from babyfood to table food was anything fingerfood, cherios, vegie-booties, and homemade toddler blobs. I know that sounds weird, what I did was put cooked, rice, chicken, and mixed vegetables in a food processer until it was a dough consistancy, then make marble sized balls out of it and put them on a plate for baby to pick up and eat by himself. Don't forget to season the foods lightly, cause even babies like some flavor in their food, but not too much because they are still getting used to the new flavors that were not in the food they ate for the first year of life.
If that doesn't work, you can try this:At that stage, I worried, and then I remembered what my older cousin's pediatrician said. She said that kids will eat when they are hungry, and we must remember not to give in to the tantrums for chitos and candy. I know that may not be the issue but the same principal applys. If you give him crackers and juice, that's what he'll eat, if he is hungry he'll eadt real food, the trick is letting him get hungry enough. Some times it takes a while so you have to stick to your guns, he will not starve in one day. My oldest son held out for 1 and a half. But he is now an eight year old happy healthy boy ready to pass me up hight wise. I know it isn't easy to not feed him when he's reaching for the box of goldfish, but once this battle is over it is over.
I hope I could be of some help to you, best of luck to you and your lil one.
A.

I say keep trying. Have you tried sugar snap peas? My son always loved munching on them. If you give in at 15 months is could be a tough road ahead Just keep offering a veggie at each meal and see what happens. Also, you could try making smoothies with fruits and veggies. Let him help you put things in the blender and push the buttons. Getting kids involved in the cooking process really helps!- www.weelicious.com

Hi C., that is great that your son will eat fruit! My 16-month-old daughter will only eat white or beige food for the most part. I have had some success with sweet potato fries and these frozen spinach patties called Pitter Pats at Whole Foods in the kid's section. Whole steamed green beans are usually a hit, as well as shelled cooked edamame. Also she'll eat whole grain bread items, like tortillas and waffles. Sunflower nut butter is good too, but messy.
But some days all I can get her to eat are crackers and cheese.
Hope this is helpful! I am interested in the other responses too.
-R.

Here's what I feed my 13 month old...

For breakfast he generally has rice cereal and banana slices.

At lunch, he'll have peas and corn (I buy them frozen). He'll also have either chicken fingers, meatballs. grilled cheese or something like that.

For a snack he has yogurt, cheese slices and sometimes mini frozen pancakes (I don't thaw them...neater to eat and takes them longer to eat them!)

At dinner, he has what we have I just cut it into smaller pieces.

He also has a sippy cup of water all day and has milk at lunch and dinner.

Hope that helps!
-M

My 5 children have never had the choice of not eating what I make. I refuse to give in. Eventually, they get hungry enough to eat what is set out before them. Because of this, they are now very good eaters ages 14, 12, 12, 8, and 3.

Now, if I make something that I know they really didn't like in the past, I will not make that one kid eat it. The rest have to, but not the one that despised it. Usually, I will not make that dish again.

Good Luck. It isn't easy being the mom. Much easier to be the friend.

Give him time to explore the different textures of food. My son (13 months) first refused anything slippery, squishy or wet feeling. I recommend finding at least one thing your son will consistently eat (for my son it is buttered wheat toast) and then serving that thing along with a more adventurous choice like bananas or vegis or whatever. Also, I had good luck spreading the toast with cream cheese or melting cheese on it etc. Homemade mac n cheese was a bit hit too - so then I started mixing in peas etc. Before you know it, your son will be enjoying a variety of finger foods! Good luck and have patience with yourself! :)

My daughter lived on Trader Joe's mini-tortellinis ("linis" was one of her first words!) or mini-raviolis.

Here are some things I do to include veggies/fruit in my little ones meals:
*Finely shred carrot & zuchini, saute to soften and then put in quesadilla or grilled cheese sandwhich...even mix into pasta.
*Veggie sticks/cubes (sweet potato, zuchini, etc) baked or sauted and then rolled in grated parmesan cheese...or you can let them dip in the cheese. Messy, but they like it.
*Steam sweet peas, in pod...let her pick out the peas!
*Corn on the cob is a big hit! As are brocolli trees!
*I still puree veggies and use as pasta sauce...add cheese or cream if necessary.
*She also loves beans - black, soy, lima,....you name it! I make a black bean salsa with corn and avocado that she devours! Or I mash black beans (or use refried) and mix in mashed meat, cheese, avo and other shredded/softened veggies for a mexi-mash. She'll eat alone, with tortilla or on chip/crackers. You could also try as a veggie dip (softened veggie sticks).
*She changes her mind daily whether she wants fruit sliced or diced or to take bites out of it whole. But she'll usually eat it, I just try to vary it (she eats banana and avocado pretty much daily, but she also likes pears, plums, grapes, kiwi, blueberry, strawberry...).
*I rarely serve juice...only once in awhile as treat. She drinks water. I do sometimes make fruit smoothies to share. She loves drinking with a straw and she gets a good serving of fruit!

Since I've always made her food, it was a pretty easy transition to having her eat table food. She usually ate what we were eating, just a pureed version. I think that helped because she was used to the flavors of what we already normally eat. And we eat together so she copies us. However, it does seem to change meal to meal whether she wants to use her fork, her fingers, have me feed her, etc. So that is just a trial and error scenario at every meal. The thing is, if they are hungry they will eat. Sometimes she'll refuse and just play for the first portion of our meal. But once she realizes that I'm not going to get her anything else, she eats. She's still nursing, so even if she doesn't eat a big dinner, I know she'll get some milk before bed to hold her over. I hope this helps and your little one starts eating for you! Some resources I've used, if you're interested:
www.cookusinterruptus.com
www.weelicious.com
www.mom-a-licious.com
If I think of any more I'll send your way. :)

Hey C.,

My 18 month old daughter thinks she's a fruitaterian. We know she is not (haha). She would also like to become a full-fledged boop addict (boop = grape). Sometimes, in order to encourage her to eat the main course of her meals, I will mix in some boops (yeah, even if it's something you or I would never add a grape to). Last night I put a little piece on top of whichever part of the grilled cheese she just rejected. After a bite or two *with* boops, we are able to get back to just having a meal. I hope this helps. I know how unnerving it can be when the baby starts exerting his/her own will over mealtime.

Hi C. - I just went to see Dr. William Sears speak Wednesday night about children's health (he probably has a ton of awesome ideas on his website askdrsears.com). He says it's sooo important to shape young tastes, so do your very best to avoid just giving in to him and resorting to the easy things he'll eat (mac & cheese, processed chicken nuggets, white flour crackers, etc) and keep working on training his tastes to like healthy foods. Get him used to just drinking water and if you do give him juice make sure you water it down a lot so he doesn't get accustomed to the sugar. Then everything else will taste bland and he won't want it (also not great for the teeth and gums). Another great site for ideas that I rely on a lot is www.fruitandveggiesmorematters.org. Get on their email newsletter list and you'll get tons of great healthy ideas every week. Another great tip I learned from Dr. Sears is to raise a grazer. He would fill an ice cube tray or muffin pan with a variety of different healthy snacks and leave it there on the table. When the kids were hungry, they would see the tray and items conveniently ready for them to pick at. Your child won't starve, so if he's truly hungry he will eventually eat what's there. Dr. Sears says it's inevitable that by the end of the day, the tray would be empty.

Lastly, if you want to be absolutely sure that no matter what your child eats that he's getting proper nutrition, you should look into Juice Plus gummies for him. www.WeThriveonJuicePlus.com. If you want to hear Dr. Sears talk about the benefits to your child as well as some of his ideas for getting your child to eat healthy, listen to him on 800-942-1260. Have a great day!

Here are some interesting informative links, per development of taste/taste buds pertaining to children:

http://www.babyzone.com/toddler/nutrition_first_foods/pho...
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Science-Nutrition/Sensit...
http://www.danoneinstitute.org/objective_nutrition_newsle...
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/kids-taste-buds.htm

all the best,
Susan

My son is 16-months old and is getting better at eating what we eat. I've heard have them try a food ten times before you determine they don't like it and that has proven to be true with my son. He tends to like noodles, cheese, peanut butter and jelly, pizza, fish sticks and most fruits. He actively dislikes most meat and veggies, but if I make something into a dip he will eat it. It must just be the novelty of getting to dip something into something, but he eats avocado dip on pita chips with relish. He also likes dipping peanut butter into apple slices and chunks of bread into tomato sauce. Just be forewarned - it's not a tidy activity!

Scrambled eggs and yogurt are big in our house (my daughter is also 15 months). And she loves plain breakfast sausages, even though she isn't that enthusiastic about other meats. Do you normally cut his food up in small pieces or give him chunks of stuff to nibble on? My daughter likes different foods different ways. She loves to gnaw on a whole apple or a big slice, but doesn't like it cut into little pieces. With waffles, she likes both a big piece to nibble on and a pile of little pieces to eat from. Might be worth experimenting.

We have been fortunate to have a very good eater. He loves meat (hamburgers, any beef) and chicken - pan fry/saute with pretty much any sauce (soy, teriyaki, add ketchup later, etc). He also loves chicken nuggets, fishsticks, hot dogs, sausage

He'll eat any fruit - melon, peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, grapes, etc

Veggies - he eats steamed broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, squash, zucchini, mushrooms

Sweet potato fries, tater tots, mashed potatoes, rice, pasta

Applesauce, occasionally yogurt, fruit cups in gel

He really eats pretty much anything. I hope that gives you some good ideas!

K.
http://oc.citymommy.com