menu for 12 month old

MrsNJSwimmer

So I guess we're supposed to start weaning off the bottle and going for milk/formula in sippy/straw/cups.  But I'm also afraid he won't get the nutrition he needs. 

Can you share some of your sample daily menus for your kiddos?

I also found these sites - does this sound like too much food?

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/feeding-nutrition/pages/Sample-One-Day-Menu-for-a-One-Year-Old.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token

https://www.superkidsnutrition.com/infants_toddlers/wh_samplemenu1year.php

smacb

We introduced whole milk in a cup a few weeks before his first birthday.  I think the key thing is to offer a variety of healthy food.  Toddlers are odd sometimes when it comes to eating.  My DS will go on binges where all he wants is a certain kind of food.  He'll have meat days, dairy days, fruit days and veggie days.  He'll also have days where he eats everything in sight and days when he barely seems to eat.  It balances out over time.  The key is to not stress about it, offer healthy options and look at their eating over the course of time, not just a one day snapshot.  DS eats best when we all eat the same thing. (i.e.  He has a plate with chicken, broccoli and rice and so do DH and I)

Hey Jellisy

We introduced cups pretty early for water.  DD still drinks a lot of milk every day, probably 20 ounces, so she still gets a lot of calories from dairy.  Pretty much, we gave DD portions of whatever it is we are eating and we eat pretty healthfully so I don't worry too much about her diet.  I think an important piece to remember is that toddlers need to eat every few hours so we have a lot of healthy snacks on hand (berries, cheese sticks, apples with nut butter dip (no allergies here), yogurt, crackers, etc.)  My pediatrician said that as long as they were eating well rounded over 2 weeks we didn't need to worry and for the most part, even at DDs pickiest, over 2 weeks there was definitely enough variety to feed her well.  BTW toddlers need fewer carbs than you think (and they LOVE carbs) so make sure you offer high protein snacks along with fruits and veggies - DD would eat goldfish and cookies for every snack if I let her.   

DCtoLowcountry

Like pp, DS likes eating what we're eating. I cheat and make a lot of single-serving size containers of stuff in advance for DS to eat at daycare. I like the steam-in-the-bag veggies (mixed veggies, peas and carrots, broccoli and cauliflower) and chunks of frozen fruit (mango is a fave) or fruit packed in water. In a pinch, slapping cheese on bread will work.

Breakfast - oatmeal, yogurt, cut-up fruit, usually banana.

Lunch - grilled cheese is a favorite, plus veggies and fruit.

Dinner - what we're eating plus fruit.

I need to get better about having healthy snacks on hand - I feel like I reach for the milk too often.

MrsNJSwimmer

do you have a "serving size" for fruits and veggies (like 1/4 cup maybe?) or do you just keep feeding them until they refuse the food?

tomandcourt

At this age, they should be eating three meals plus 2-3 snacks a day. I had an interesting article in a baby magazine (who knows which one) that basically said to make sure they're getting at least two servings of each of the food groups each day (i.e., dairy, protein, veggies, fruit, and carbs).

For us, a typical day is:

Nursing

Morning snack: oatmeal with fruit puree and some milk in a sippy

Breakfast: at daycare. Usually a pancake, waffle, or cereal, and some fruit.

Lunch: cheese, vegetable, and usually some grain/protein combo (bread with nut butter, pasta with meat sauce, etc.) and milk in a bottle (!) before his nap. (On weekends, he takes two naps at home so he has two pre-nap bottles.)

Afternoon snack: fruit, crackers or some other grain, whatever is leftover from lunch.

Dinner: yogurt, hummus and pita, some other snack - leftover stuffing last week, sometimes pasta or a scrambled egg.

Nurse again before bed.

eeclem

DCtoLowcountry:

Like pp, DS likes eating what we're eating. I cheat and make a lot of single-serving size containers of stuff in advance for DS to eat at daycare.

This is pretty much what we do. He eats a lot of leftovers. He has snacks at daycare that are usually carb-based, so I don't worry about those too much. I've never measured his fruit servings - it's basically a whole piece or half a piece, depending on size, cut up. I find veggies to be the hardest thing - not because he doesn't like them but because the easier veggies to snack and pack (baby carrots, celery sticks) are still too hard for him to eat. He usually has 3-4 small sippys of milk a day.

Here's a rough idea:

Breakfast: Toast or Cheerios, fruit and/or yogurt

Lunch: leftovers or lunchmeat and cheese with fruit (that's an emergency lunch, I worry about the nitrates in lunchmeat and try not to rely on them)

Dinner: whatever we are eating. 

DCtoLowcountry

MrsNJSwimmer:

do you have a "serving size" for fruits and veggies (like 1/4 cup maybe?) or do you just keep feeding them until they refuse the food?

I recycle Gerber puree containers, so there's a 2.5 oz and a 4 oz maybe? I do offer foods until they're refused - sometimes that's four bites, sometimes none at all, sometimes he eats until it's all gone.

PS - just wanted to say that I did puree the majority of my foods,  just kept the containers on hand because they are just right.