moms of toddlers

MrsZiz

Tell me your go to meals for your LO... Bella has hit 18 months which according to our pedi is the "picky eating stage" and she's clearly going through that! She will rarely eat any meat, she pushes it off to the side of her high chair. She loves fruit and only likes certain veggies. She LOVES any kind of pasta with sauce as long as nothing else is in it (no meat/veggies)... Any tips/ideas on things to feed her. Usually breakfast is her best meal! 

 Also any tips on things I could make and freeze for her for while I'm out on maternity leave? I have a great blueberry muffin recipe that's super healthy that she loves so I was going to make and freeze those.  

MrsNJSwimmer

Can you puree the veggies /meat into the sauce?

 

Breakfast is our best meal here too.  Sometimes we will have breakfast food (toast, nutrigrain bars, eggs, bananas, cereal, etc) all day long b/c that's all he wants to eat!

MrsZiz

MrsNJSwimmer:

Can you puree the veggies /meat into the sauce?

Never even thought of that! Maybe it's not a bad idea, I'll have to try it and see if she catches me

We snack on breakfast food all day too because she's still so small and we just want her to eat!  

Married2MrWright

I was going to say the same thing about sneaking veggies into the sauce...does she just eat PLAIN pasta or with sauce? If it's marinara then try to add in some pureed carrots, peas, etc. I had some jarred Earth's Best (my mom stocked up before she knew we were doing BLW) so I always just mix them into other foods for Libby...cottage cheese, yogurt or spread them on toast.

I remember my godson at that age...always on the go. My BFF just fed him throughout the day...a bite here or there. He LOVED raisins. And crackers with hummus. Will Bella do dip? Kids at that age seem to love to dip EVERYTHING. You could try green beans (steamed) with some sort of dip (yogurt or cottage cheese) or sweet potato sticks, etc. Make it colorful and fun. Also, if she'll do grilled cheese or quesadillas you can sneak some pureed veggies in there too.

mrspresley

she doesn't really have "meals" per se, she just eats a hodge podge of different finger foods every day.  the only real prepared food she has had is a bean curry.  i can't seem to get her to eat pasta with sauce yet. just pasta alone. I think the problem is that she prefers to eat w/her hands and not be spoon fed....so I may just give her a bowl/plate w/pasta and sauce next and let her eat it by hand and see if she'll eat it then

have you seen this book by Jessica Seinfeld? there are all sorts of ways to hide veggies in the food in those recipes my want to check it out for just $7

and, if there are days she will only eats fruits but the next day she eats lots of veggies then it is ok, as it all balances out. that is what DH said...he said as long as over the span of a few days it's balanced, it's ok. 

ETA: have you seen this? I was going to get it b/c I love all the little compartments but I was also reading the reviews and apparently it really helps with picky eaters!

MrsZiz

mrspresley:

she doesn't really have "meals" per se, she just eats a hodge podge of different finger foods every day.  the only real prepared food she has had is a bean curry.  i can't seem to get her to eat pasta with sauce yet. just pasta alone. I think the problem is that she prefers to eat w/her hands and not be spoon fed....so I may just give her a bowl/plate w/pasta and sauce next and let her eat it by hand and see if she'll eat it then

have you seen this book by Jessica Seinfeld? there are all sorts of ways to hide veggies in the food in those recipes my want to check it out for just $7

ETA: have you seen this? I was going to get it b/c I love all the little compartments but I was also reading the reviews and apparently it really helps with picky eaters!

I haven't seen that book but I'll see if our library has it. I'm a BIG library fan!

As for the compartments, it's really cute but Bella would be more fascinated with taking off and on the lid and shaking everything around. She does that with all of her snack containers which is how we end up with snacks all over the place!

As far as eating, we let her eat with her fingers since she first showed interest. We put things in "piles" on her high chair and then she eats what she wants. She would NEVER let us feed her!! She even eats cereal and milk with a spoon and does very well with it. She can get even the last cheerio out of the bowl! It's not as fast as if we would do it but that's ok, she enjoys it. 

Lori, Bella LOVES dipping but she ends up eating the dip off of the broccoli or whatever and then eats all the dip and ends up with a pile of broccoli on her tray! She loves fruit bits (dried fruit pieces) and yogurt and all sorts of things, but it seems like it all goes in a phase. She ate bananas every day for a week and then said "yuck" one day when we offered her one.  

mrspresley

MrsZiz:

I haven't seen that book but I'll see if our library has it. I'm a BIG library fan!

As for the compartments, it's really cute but Bella would be more fascinated with taking off and on the lid and shaking everything around. She does that with all of her snack containers which is how we end up with snacks all over the place!

As far as eating, we let her eat with her fingers since she first showed interest. We put things in "piles" on her high chair and then she eats what she wants. She would NEVER let us feed her!! She even eats cereal and milk with a spoon and does very well with it. She can get even the last cheerio out of the bowl! It's not as fast as if we would do it but that's ok, she enjoys it. 

Lori, Bella LOVES dipping but she ends up eating the dip off of the broccoli or whatever and then eats all the dip and ends up with a pile of broccoli on her tray! She loves fruit bits (dried fruit pieces) and yogurt and all sorts of things, but it seems like it all goes in a phase. She ate bananas every day for a week and then said "yuck" one day when we offered her one.  

oh the library, great idea! I just ordered that tray and I'm going to see if it has any raised writing on the bottom.....if it doesn't, then it will work great w/the Lil Baby Diner we have that suction cups the bowls/plates to the high chair tray Miss A will do great sometimes just holding the bowl or moving it from one side of the try to the other but then sometimes she just flips it over onto the floor so I can't really trust her w/something like this either unless I can attach it to the tray!

did you teach Bella to use the spoon or did she just pick up on it by watching you? I have tried teaching Miss A to use the spoon and she will hold it ok and bring it to her mouth but as soon as the spoon is inside her mouth she lets go of it LOL so we are half way there, sort of.  it's hard to try teaching her though when she doesn't really like being spoon fed most of the time.

do you continue offering her the same stuff even after she refuses it? I have found that I have to do that.  she ate a TON of bananas for a while then for about 3 wks refused to have any and then all of a sudden started eating them again.  same thing with cheese - she didn't have any for about a month and then one day she wanted it - she ate 5 sticks of string cheese in the span of 24 hrs and then ever since then she hasn't wanted anymore cheese it's been about 2 wks since that happened.  it's really hard when they change their food preferences so often but I guess that's part of toddlerhood

but maybe you can find some good recipes in that book, it was featured on Oprah and they made all sorts of stuff for the kids and they all loved it!