Meal/Snack Ideas for 10 Month Old and Toddler

My son gave up baby food around that age too - and he had no teeth so I was very nervous. It ended up being just fine. He could eat chicken if we cut it small enough, most fruits and cooked vegetables, ground beef, bread, waffles, graham crackers, beans (pinto, black, garbanzo), he could do regular crackers if we broke them into smaller pieces, bread, sometimes bread with peanut butter, all sorts of things. I had a friend whose no teeth toddler gummed steak (cut up very small). The key is the size of the pieces more than anything else. Just experiment and see what works for him.

Is it okay for a ten month old to eat solids? As soon as children grow teeth, they begin to have the urge to use them :-) As others have mentioned, when starting a young child on solids, the greatest concern that needs to be addressed is making sure that the food you serve isn't a choking hazard. Food pieces should be no larger than the top of mom's index finger; from the bottom of the fingernail to the tip. A bit off topic, but an important aspect of *food* I'd like to mention is that it so often becomes a point of *power* with young children - in a world where they have very little say, children come to realize that they can cause a really big fuss in their home, simply by keeping their mouth shut at the dinner table. Very honestly speaking, if a child is of sound mind, he *will not starve himself* to death ... he may take a few stabs at a hunger strike, but if a parent refuses to be affected, it will end as quickly as it started. Food is intended for one reason and that is to nourish the body. When we, as parents, allow food to play any role other than that, we nurture a "picky eater" and poor eating habits will follow a child into adulthood. To avoid having food become an *issue*, cook a healthy meal, serve it and allow your children to consume what they want. If they *choose* not to eat much at one meal (and are feeling well), make no comment about it and, on the flip side, if they gobble every last bite, make no comment about it. The amount of food a child needs to consume changes often and changes rapidly. It can often appear that they are eating next to nothing, but if food doesn't become a power tool for a child to use, you can trust that the amount they are consuming is exactly what their body needs. When children are young, parents are in the position to teach their children *solid* facts regarding nutrition by serving them nutritious food and by setting a good example by eating nutritious foods themselves ... and also discussing why you serve certain foods (and don't serve others). Though I know that runs a bit off topic, it all (eventually) ties together. We are a country that desparately needs to learn that food doesn't need to be an emotional, taste bud exploding experience - it simply needs to keep our bodies healthy.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide such input and hoping your family has a safe and love-filled Christmas!
Dr. Tamara :-)

All of my kids have been dentally challanged :) One didn't get his first tooth until he was 13 months old! We lived on scrambled eggs, avocado, bananas, canned pinto beans, peaches, canned carrots and green beans, cottage cheese, yogurt, tofu, and cut up peanut butter sandwiches after he was 1. I am not a big canned veggie fan, but I was desperate. Most of these can be cut into small pieces and used as finger food and gummed to death. Best of luck.

Mash some banana with low-fat plain yoghurt and add some apple sause.....yum!

There're plenty of choices - anything that you can mash around in your mouth and is cut small/cooked soft enough will be fine. Corn kernels is not the greatest tho because of the skin (y'ever see it come out intact in the toilet?) but really most anything, well supervised, is fine. Breads, pastas, diced veggies and potatoes, beans, etc.

BTW- I disagree with the "no cows milk" rule. Doing ANYTHING in extremes is what causes problems - eat foods as close to the way nature intended it - how did pioneers eat? they had cows along for milk, but didnt drink gallons of it. Likewise, drink it sparingly (as in WITH but not AS the meal). By giving anything too much or entirely avoiding, we overwhelm the body or miss out on the acclimatizing period we need for all foods.

(Ironically, my husband is a diary veterinarian but does not tolerate milk that well himself. I personally was not a milk lover growing up either, so when my son didnt want to drink milk, I didnt push it! Took him a few years, and he still has to have it flavored, but he'll now drink choc milk in school. Same with peanut butter. Refused it (and since Kindergarteners had lunch last, I didnt want to have a ham sandwich sit all morning) so he accepted nutella, and it tookthe whole year to gradually increase the amount of PB I mixed into the nutella. Now he's actually asking for PB sandwiches. Take your time. It doesnt have to be all or nothing.

This might seem odd, but all my children have been eating Nancy's Quiche Florentine since they were about 1. It's got lots of good spinach in it. If you cook it (micro) and cut it into small cubes, the kids eat it as finger food. It's very soft.

My daughter stopped eating baby food at 8 months and had NO teeth. We found that she could gum cut up panckaes pretty easily. She loved canned peaches. She also liked the Gerber puffs for an occasional snack. Mashed potatoes were a good one too. Hope some of that helped out. Happy Holidays!!

I let my kids also eat much of what we ate cut smaller too. They could handle more than we realized. I also gave crackers I like the Fry's brand that looked like a Ritz, but it was softer and contained less salt. It melted in their mouth easily. We actually had worse problems with baby crackers the ones they were not supposed to choke on they did. I think as long as you are supervising the eating your kids will be fine.

Take care and Merry Christmas.
K.

I had the same problem with my older daughter when she was that age. Here are some things she ate well with only 2 teeth (and still loves as a toddler):

Cheerios
Rice Chex
Grilled chicken (her favorite! The grilling makes it soft enough for them to chew with only 2 teeth, break it up into small pieces with your fingers.)
Grilled fish (Check for mercury levels online... white fish is usually a better choice for small kids, check for bones when you break it up)
Bananas
Beans
Cheese (grated makes it easy for them)
Yogurt
Avocado
Spinach (cooked)
Cous-Cous
Rice
carrots (steamed until very soft)
Mashed potatoes

We generally eat only organic foods, but it's definitely not a requirement. You can steam any veggies until they're super soft, and your little one should be able to eat them no problem. It's totally safe to feed them table food not mashed up. My daughter much preferred the "grown up" food over the baby food. It's amazing how much they can chew with just two teeth!

Hope that helps!
:-) T.

Both of my children didn't get their 1st tooth till there 1st birthday but hated baby food. My son would never eat it. My son wouldn't eat anything if it had been pureed even if it was the same as us. Chop it up & cook his veggies a little longer you would be surprised what he can gum.

Our daughter (now 13 months) did the same thing around the same age...
Suddenly, she wanted "big people" food, even though she wasn't ready to chew it!!
Here's what we did -- we took fresh fruits and vegetables that get "mushy" when cooked, like sweet potatoes/yams, apples, pears, russet potatoes, carrots. Then we peeled them and cut them into small-dice pieces and steamed them well, making sure we could EASILY pierce the pieces with a fork.
We then froze the pieces into cubes, using regular ice trays covered with plastic wrap (and a little water or apple juice to bind the little bits of fruit/veg together).
Then, at meal/snack time, we would just microwave a couple of cubes and let her finger-feed. She LOVED it -- she felt so much more like a big kid! And we, of course, supervised her while she ate, but didn't have to worry too much about choking hazards, because the chunks were small and mushy.
NOW -- THIS IS IMPORTANT...
Because there weren't many green, nutrient-dense vegetables that would turn mushy when steamed, we made sure she got enough breast milk (or formula). The food was more like "big girl practice" than it was a means of getting nutrients...
However, the better she got at self-feeding, the more fruits/veg we could introduce -- eventually we even incorporated shredded cheese (mild, like mozzarella or mild cheddar) and small bits of deli meat.
This has worked very well for us, and once we respected our daughter's desire to be like the rest of the family, she even stopped fighting the spoon! Now she gets finger food sometimes and spoon food sometimes -- and she's perfectly happy with the arrangement!!
Good luck!
-- A. (Tucson)

My little one is 11 almost 12 mos. old and he has been eating table food for a couple months now. Amazingly enough they can "chew" with their gums. Most of the meats I either hand shred or break up into tiny little pieces and I started giving him just one piece at a time. Now I can set several in front of him at a time and he will eat them at his leisure. For veggies I either give him what we are having just break them into tiny little pieces or I get canned vegetables with no salt added and give him some of those. He also will eat the peaches in light syrup. I wish they came with a lot less sugar. We only give him those every once in a while. Last suggestion is try some of the 3rd foods. Mine will take those as long as they have a pretty good texture, we save those for the rare occasions we have pizza or something I am not ready to give him. Hope this helps.

If your son is anything like mine he may just want to be like his brother. When I had the same issue with my 10month old. I started giving him table food (what ever I'm eating)but cut smaller for him. He does fine with only 4 teeth. Think about how a grandma would do it if she took out her dentures those gum's are pretty strong. His favorite is pasta that he can try to stab with a fork.

Good luck

I really like what Dr Tamara said =)

Funny you ask this because I just talked w/ my 10 mo olds Naturopathic Dr for 30 min yesterday about this!
I love her! Dr Orona, 32nd st & Thunderbird

She recommends no juice, use rice milk fortified w/ calcium & almond milk as a "treat" in a sippy cup
Alittle OT & we arent supposed to start until 12 mo anyway, but she recommends no cows milk at all. For calcium, dark green veges blended into chunky purees & poured onto chunks of organic hormone free chicken, turkey.
ie chard, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts (which I found both my daughter & I LOVE)
She says lamb chops ground up are very healthy for them.
~also garbonzo beans steamed until tender, kidney beans, ~tofu in little cubes dusted in wheat germ or oat germ which makes it easier to pick up
~halibut
~for cheese she recommends "raw" goat or sheep, says organic is hard to find & regular is ok.
~carrots steamed & cut into thin small pieces (ORGANIC only because of nitrates)
~peas

hope that helps!

Also, my FAVORITE website is www.wholesomebabyfood.com