Need Some Food Ideas on What to Give to My 12 Mo Old Daughter

My one year loves chicken loaf. I buy ground chicken and make it like a meat loaf - eggs, ketchup & breadcrumbs. I pat the loaf down so that it's only an inch thick for even cooking. I cook it at 400 for abou 27-28 minutes and cut the pieces into little bites. She love it - b/c it's not gritty like shredded chicken, and it's really moist. She also loves pastina with a scrambled egg & butter in it. Recently I also steam yellow squash, blend it that in a food processor and mix it in with the pastina, egg, & butter so she's getting all the food groups. It's her favorite meal! Also, canned fruit cut up really small is soft and was one of my daughter's first table food.

Check out http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
for some great, healthy kids recipes sorted by age!

My 11 month old daughter loves the Broccoli and Cheese nugget recipe they have. Its a great healthy finger food!

G.-
My son would not eat the baby food meats at all. My pediatrician and family told me that I should give my son what ever we were eating; just cut up small. He was eating meats, veggies, fruits, breads, cheese, etc before he had 2 teeth. He is now 21 months old and has become very picky but his favorites at 1 year were mac and cheese, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, pasta, veggies, and cereal bars.
Hope this helps,
J.

I don't know how many teeth your child has, but there are a lot of things they can gum or chew. For breakfast, try pancakes or scrambled eggs. For lunch, my son does well with grilled cheese, Perdue chicken nuggets (they are really soft), and noodle soup. For dinner, try Pastina and Steamed Fresh veggies(frozen foods).They have great little single serving packages that you can make without a fuss. Also, try making meatballs, it's one of the few meat small kids can actually chew. Add an extra egg or some water to make them extra soft (don't add milk, it makes the meat tough). Listen, if your son is anything like mine right now (17months), he'll eat what he wants to eat. My son would be in his glory to eat strawberries, yogurt, and soup every day. But then you start creating bad habits. Before you know it, you're making three different kind of dinners to satisfy everyone. I've done that, and it's crazy. Save yourself, and introduce as many table foods as you can NOW! Good luck!

I'm racking my brain trying to remember what we did around 12 months with our little guy -- I know tofu was big, and then scrambled eggs. But as soon as we could, we moved him to table food -- the same things we were eating, just modified so that he could mouth them (ie, cutting extra fine, taking out pieces he couldn't eat). The benefit of that is that s/he grows up NOT expecting you to be a short-order cook, and demanding special foods all the time. (It was also nice by 1 1/2 yrs to send leftovers to daycare lunch -- tortellini with carrots and clams was standard fare for him!)

I could be off by a couple of months in terms of what you daughter's mouth can handle... but just thinking down the road, eating what the family eats will be important.

Hi All,

I like your ideas as well ladies. I am a full-time working mom with two children 5 1/2 girl and 11 month old boy. I also have a hard time keeping it healthy. I just started using the Grudates for toddlers. And table food, I try to give it to him without adding any salt. I read salt if given to a child that is still to young can cause seizures. I am going to try the pastina and I saved the website I saw from one of the ladies for healthy foods.

Thanks! M. :)

PASTA! My daughter loves pasta. I buy whole wheat or whole grain since it has some protein in it. This way I don't feel bad if she throws everything else on her plate on the floor.

My son is 13 & 1/2 months and really not interested in baby food anymore at all...he used to eat anything but now its getting difficult. I try to just give him just about anything I am eating - within reason of course - but depending on how many teeth your daughter has, you may have to be a little more careful. In the beggining of solid foods, I gave bananas, sweet potatoes, potatoes, pasta, meatballs (although those didn't go over very well at first)Now we give chicken, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, ravioli, mixed veggies (the frozen b/c they are already nice and small and he loves them so I keep them on the menu as much as possible!!!)He eats cheese, soft pretzels, waffles, cherrios. He eats more than I realize I think - my only challenge right now is keeping it healthy!!! It was so easy to keep it healthy with the baby food jars but now I feel like he is falling into that "little kid" menu more than I want...so I just keep letting him try new things hoping he likes them!

hi G.,

when my daughter first became really interested in table food -- around 11 mos. -- i gave her pasta, well-cooked veggies, sweet potato, avocado, berries, ground beef or turkey...she didn't have a lot of teeth at the time so i had to make sure things were very soft or broken up into tiny pieces. sometimes it all depends on that when it comes to what you can feed them. i would also give her whatever you happen to be eating -- aside from steak or something like that. my daughter was great at trying new foods and is only now becoming picky (she's 18 mos.). good luck!

When my twin girls were one, they only had 4 teeth each so I felt limited with what I could give them, and I was stuck in the yogurt, fruit and cheerio rut...so I made a beef stew in my crock pot. I through in cut up sweet potatoes, white potatoes, frozen corn, frozen peas, carrots, celery. Even string beans and asparagus(sometimes)and tiny pieces of stew meat (you can even use ground beef.) You can find a crockpot beef stew seasoning mix in the spices isle. Mix that in with some water...and in 5 to 8 hours you have dinner. My girls LOVE it and still do! It was a hit with my husband,too.

i used to make us a lot of crock pot type meals that were really soft. i'd make chili and take some out for her before spicing it up. made pasta fagili soup and gave her some without the broth. beef stews, quiches, etc. good luck!

you could give her any fruit or veggies (puree) mini blender. chicken ,coucous,rice,yams. make a soup put all type of veggies blend you could give that as well. Try not to put too much pepper or salt. It's fresh and home made .

Hi G.,

I'm using the Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron for my 6 month old. It's got a section titled "Feeding Your Super Toddler" and a whole chapter of creative recipes for kids in any food group you want. The best part is that it's all based on healthy , whole foods! Included is a "FUN STUFF" section with ideas for halloween treats, birthday parties, cake decorating, arts & crafts, etc.... Great book for now and the next several years!

Hi G.,
My daughter used to absolutely love macaroni and cheese....any kind of pasta with a little butter is good, you can probably even do grilled cheese but just break it up into smaller pieces...rice or ricearoni...if you do chicken nuggests in the microwave they are still soft....those new steam bags are really good for steaming veggies, and they get nice and soft...my pedi also suggested ground hamburger meat broken into small pieces as a texture change but I didnt do that until she was at least 1 1/2...Im sure pretty much any people food that is cut up small she will love!! Hope this helps!!
Meg :)

My son is 12 months today and we have been feeding him table food for the last 2 months.
I would say anything, depending on how may teeth she has.
Some interesting things...avacado, meatballs, pasta, crackers with humus, soft veggies like carrots/broccoli/green beans.
Try sweet potato fries. Animal crackers, waffles, pancakes, eggs.
We really try anything with our guy. He loves to eat!