Food Help, Questions, and Poll
Forgive me---I know things have been posted about food in the past but I need some help! 
I am running out of things to feed Keira and need some new ideas. Let me start with: she won't eat yogurt, drink milk, eat any squishy foods with her fingers, nothing frozen to chew on, and still will only eat softer foods or squishy things from a spoon. Still loves purees.
1. When did you stop buying purees and other jarred foods? Keira still loves them and they are so easy. She loves the chicken, turkey, and beef dinners with rice and veggies, and stuff like that. I also buy her the Gerber ravioli and dinner trays and spoon feed them to her since she does not eat anything that she can easlily squish between her fingers by herself. I want to get her off of them, but I am torn since she actually will eat a good meal from those vs. full-on table foods. We will also feed her from our plates after she eats dinner to try and get her used to things.She does eat anything we give her--but from our forks. If we put it on her tray she will squish it and throw it.
2. What do you/did you feed your 1 year old/toddler? I feel like I am feeding her the same things every day.
3. Did you spoon feed your baby at this age if he/she would not eat certain foods with their fingers? Keira will eat crunchy foods with her fingers, and that's it. So far
she will eat fresh apples, cheese, crackers, bread, cheerios, puffs,
etc. She will not eat pasta unless it's ravioli and fed to her on a
spoon. This goes for potato, cubed veggies, etc. This is why I still buy jarred food.
/"><
Re: Food Help, Questions, and Poll
I don't have a ton of advice, just because it's been so long. But just wanted to tell you that it took Ben FOREVER to get off jarred foods. He would gag on the texture of real food. It also took him a long time to feed himself. She, like Ben, may just not be quite ready for it yet.
Does she eat cheese?
Sounds like K is a little lady who doesn't like to get dirty!
1. When did you stop buying purees and other jarred foods? We stopped around 10m. I pretty much stopped cold turkey. He still loved them and purees are easy, esp. since I knew he was eating well. I didn't think he ate that much table food, but as soon as I stopped purees I realized he ate more than I thought. He adapted very well
2. What do you/did you feed your 1 year old/toddler? Caleb doesn't mind being messy, he feeds himself most anything. Pasta (wagon wheels w/ parmesan cheese), Corn, Chicken Nuggets, Cheese Sticks, Waffles, Oatmeal, Yogurt, Cheerios, Applesauce, bananas, peaches, kiwi, quesadillas, mashed potato etc.
3. Did you spoon feed your baby at this age if he/she would not eat certain foods with their fingers? Yes we still spoon feed him yogurt, oatmeal, applesauce etc. I also help him when I feel he isn't eating enough. He loves to eat things off forks.He is starting to be able (and really want to) spoon feed himself. He does great with mashed potato because it pretty much sticks to the spoon.
It's totally hit or miss with meals. Sometimes he eats a ton, others almost nothing. He will eat cheese at one meal, throw it on the floor at the next. The pedi said to aim for 2-3 servings (size of their fist) per meal; and to really measure their intake over a week instead of for the day. I try not to worry about how much he eats, I know he's not starving.
1. When did you stop buying purees and other jarred foods? Allie stopped taking them around 11 months. She wanted to feed herself and not from a spoon. So we just quit.
2. What do you/did you feed your 1 year old/toddler? For lunch, Allie usually has mac&cheese and green beans. She loves Gerber Crunchies, puffs, goldfish, animal crackers, cherrios to snack on. Sometimes she will have yogurt. She likes the fruit cups (pears, peaches). She usually eats some of what we eat for dinner. She likes potatoes (roasted, mashed, etc). She loves green beans. She will eat corn, peas, pasta. For breakfast she will have mini-pancakes or french toast sticks. The only thing she really won't eat is meat. I don't think she likes the texture.
3. Did you spoon feed your baby at this age if he/she would not eat certain foods with their fingers? I woiuld stop offering it.
I'm stuck on the same foods too! She still gets purees a few times a week - they are easy and she gets a good variety! She does eat the following: cooked peas, cut up sweet potato (roasted) not steamed, sauteed carrots cut up (has to have some seasoning though), and spinach (chopped steamed) with a little parmesan cheese. She also loves black bean quesadilla, cut up chicken, plain old toast, cheese, mandarin oranges, peaches, and pears. The whole table food thing is hard - we try to feed her what we eat, but our variety is pretty limited too.
Should add - we still spoon feed her sometimes - there are some times I think she's really hungry and doesn't want to take the time to pick things up
. That's more the exception though.
1. When did you stop buying purees and other jarred foods? We stopped around 10 months or so, he had no interest. He likes yogurt, but that is the only soft or jarred food he will eat.
2. What do you/did you feed your 1 year old/toddler? He gets toast, english muffin, yogurt, pancake or waffles for breakfast. Lunch is a variety at daycare - at home he gets nuggets, grilled cheese or sandwiches cut up and in small pieces, Morning Star burgers, soft pretzel with no salt, or if we have leftovers he will have that. Dinner he gets whatever we have or one of the lunch items. We also give him fruit, either mandarin oranges, pineapple, peaches, banana, papaya or whatever else we have around. He is a REALLY picky eater so we usually go with what he will eat. He also loves crackers, cheese, animal crackers, goldfish and any kind of snacky food.
3. Did you spoon feed your baby at this age if he/she would not eat certain foods with their fingers? Nope. Only yogurt will we feed him by spoon, otherwise he is on his own.1. When did you stop buying purees and other jarred foods? Probably by 10.5 mos, she really didn't want them anymore. She loved the meals with meat too. Man, they were so easy. I kind of miss purees!
2. What do you/did you feed your 1 year old/toddler? Let's see.. some of these won't work for Keira based on what you said, but our basic rotation is:
Entrees: fish sticks, chicken nuggets, soy nuggets, cut up pieces of veggie burgers, pasta (just tossed lightly in olive oil, with Italian spices, and parmesan cheese--so it's not slimy at all)--we do bowties or something similar usually, also mini ravioli, turkey meatballs, turkey sandwiches, english muffin pizza, omelets (she's not crazy about these so far though)
For fruits/veggies we mostly do: green beans, peas, corn, kidney beans (and other beans), canned fruit (peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, pineapple), whole banana (she likes to bite it herself. hehe), freeze dried fruit
Also anything crackery--ritz crackers, graham crackers, rice cakes, etc.
3. Did you spoon feed your baby at this age if he/she would not eat certain foods with their fingers? She will tolerate very little spoon feeding these days. They're working on using utensils at DC, so we're starting at home too. We typically load the spoon/fork, then let her put it in her mouth. Or, she just eats with her fingers. She'll occasionally let us spoon feed her yogurt or applesauce, but she's getting really picky about that.
1. When did you stop buying purees and other jarred foods? I think around 10 months. I started feeding her table foods after purees and she got to where she refused to eat the purees and wanted to feed herself.
2. What do you/did you feed your 1 year old/toddler? Rosalyn is almost 1 and she eats the following: mandarin oranges, toast (multi-grain bread), baked sweet potato (messy though!), baked plain potato, bananas, blueberries, cheese, chicken, ham, turkey bacon, black beans, corn, green peas, green beans, steamed carrots, lima beans, brown rice, yogurt, spinach (cooked and non-cooked), nutri-grain bar, bagel......there might be more but that's all I can think of right now. Oh, today for lunch she is having a ham/cheese wrap---of course it doesn't look like a "wrap" b/c I have cut it into tiny pieces. I haven't really seasoned her food much at all. When I have, she makes a face. I think she's gotten so used to her food being plain that she prefers it that way. But she almost always makes a face the first time she eats something, but then I always give it to her again and she gets used to it.
3. Did you spoon feed your baby at this age if he/she would not eat certain foods with their fingers? We spoonfeed yogurt b/c she can't quite get the concept of holding a spoon just yet. She prefers to eat most everything with her fingers and she can make a mess in a hurry : )
1. I still feed DS some purees that I make, usually cooked vegetables mixed with something else. He doesn't like to eat his veggies as finger foods, so in order to make sure he's getting them I'm happy to keep feeding them in a puree form. I continue to offer veggies as finger foods in addition to the purees in the hopes that one day he'll just get over it and start eating them, like he did with cheese, but I think the veggies will remain in puree form for awhile.
2. I understand, sometimes I feel like I'm in a food rut with DS as well. It's way to easy to keep going for the old standbys. When I start feeling this way, I look in the refrigerator to see what I've got and check www.wholesomebabyfood.com to see what goes well together and to get ideas for different foods the next time I go shopping. There is more on the site than just recipes, it also tells you what foods go well with other foods, etc.
3. I have no problem continuing to spoon feed my almost 1-year-old the foods he still refuses to pick up by himself, but that he'll eat and are good for him. I wouldn't stress about it too much. At mealtimes, I just alternate with him. I put some finger food on his tray, and every once in awhile I give him a spoonful of food. Sometimes he grabs for the spoon and tries to "feed" himself (hilarious, btw), so then I give him his own spoon to play with while I give him bites of food, and he's a happy camper.
ETA #1: I never spoon fed my kid cheese. I just offered it to him as finger food, and for the longest time he would spit it back out or just play with it. And then one day he was all about the cheese and now he loves it. Lesson learned: Just keep offering something even if they seem to hate it, because one day they might decide they like it.
Catching up on sports news...
1. When did you stop buying purees and other jarred foods? I think it was around 11 months when she completely stopped letting us spoon feed her, so we had to give her all foods she could eat herself. I think it's great that Keira will still let you spoon feed her! Sometimes Savannah lets me, sometimes not.
2. What do you/did you feed your 1 year old/toddler? I feel like that too, but we feed her these on a regular basis: grilled cheese, PB&J, quesadillas, chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, ravioli, any kind of pasta that I made. Those are for the main meals. She does have sides like broccoli, or fruit, etc.
3. Did you spoon feed your baby at this age if he/she would not eat certain foods with their fingers? It depends on what the food is. We usually spoon feed her ravioli just b/c it's easiest and doesn't make a mess. Also, sometimes she gets jello for a treat, and one time I tried to make it a finger food, but she would NOT pick it up - I guess she didn't like the texture. However, she took it from the spoon just fine. But for the most part, I like her to feed herself, but if it's something that I know she'd eat better (or not make a mess w/), I do spoon feed her.i'm not helpful with the puree stuff since we never fed them, but i remember going through the same feeling of feeding him the same things every day. once he was a year, he got pretty much whatever we were eating, though i know that's a little different b/c of keira's allergy.
i'd keep putting things with different textures on her tray and let her play with them. eventually, she'll get it. but also, i wouldn't worry too much about her being on purees as long as she's getting a good meal! does she help you with the spoon? give her some child-friendly utensils and help her get things to her mouth that way, if you aren't already.
I could have written this. The only other food she really likes is quesadilla's and black beans she also loves meatballs (homemade). I don't serve her any pre-made/packaged food except the Tyson 100% natural chicken nuggets, which she will eat 3 of. She isn't a fan of pasta either, other than Annie's white cheese shells.
Jocelyn won't eat applesauce or mashed potato but recently she is also showing interested in holding the spoon and feeding herself, and she has allowed me to spoon feed her, we started feeding her cheerio's in milk for breakfast and she can't get enough!