Been asked, I know, a MILLION times...

Shaina

dinner for your LO's?   What and when do you prep? 

My girls are almost 1.  They are home with the nanny (new one to replace old one soon)   They are still eating mostly pureed foods and a little finger foods--one of my girls doesn't even have teeth yet, the other a few.  I want to start intorducing some more finger food/table foods--but what and when?  I work F/T and get home around 5:45.  We usually do dinner around 6:30.  New nanny may prep food but I would also like to know what you ladies do.   Thanks.

Mrs.McLovin

DS loves chicken, cooked carrots, cheese, lunchmeat and cut up fruit. I will give him bites from my plate too. He still eats stage 2 food as well.

I have not given him grilled cheese yet.

DallasHorn

Just about any canned veggies (I used canned b/c they are generally softer) and depending on the veggie I may cut it up.

Fruits (again cut up) - bananans, plums, kiwi, cantalope, strawberries

Cooked pasta

Cheese - natural cheeses such as swiss and munster

Baby Yogurt

Ground beef (such as when I made meatloaf)

My son has is just getting his first tooth in, yet still eats all these fine.

flyer23

Give them what you eat... with appropriate modifications, of course. For example, when DD was little, we'd often cook food and then set aside some for her before adding any seasoning/spices. We also chopped stuff up smaller, as needed.

For example, if we had pasta, she could eat it cut up small and sauceless (until we introduced tomatoes). If we had turkey tacos, she could eat plain ground turkey and some bits of tortilla. If we had chicken and veggies, she could eat the same thing, cut up very small.

That cut down on prep time (since we were already cooking dinner for ourselves, and didn't have to do anything special for her) and was also a good way to start integrating her into family meals early on.

FYI, teeth aren't important for table foods. Babies don't start really chewing until they get their 1yr molars -- for DD, the molars came in about 15 months, and by that time, she'd been eating everything we ate for quite a while.

blondie75

At 14.5 months, DD is JUST getting her second tooth, but she can pretty much mash up anything with her little gums.  Some of her favorites are avocado cubes, raspberries, diced peaches, raviolis or gnocchi mixed with pesto, any type of bean, grilled cheese, just regular sliced or string cheese and veggie burgers -  most of the stuff requires no prep or just a couple minutes.

Shaina

Thanks so much for all of your replies!  Appreciate it very much!

jlw2505

Your kids do not need teeth to eat table food.  My 16 month is a really late and slow teether and didn't get her 1st tooth until she was around 10 months and she started table foods at 8 or 9 months.  She still only has about 8 teeth and eats the same stuff that I do for the most part.  My kids pretty much have always eaten the same thing that my DH and I have for dinner.  I never make separate food unless its something that they can't eat due to allergy or chocking hazard.  We always make sure there is at least one thing with the meal that we know that they will eat.  Both my girls are great eaters.