I never thought this day would come but we are here. Already – I know, everyone always says this but IT REALLY DOES GO FAST!
Jude will be 1 year old in just a couple of days and we are well aware of him being ready to eat “table food”. He lets us know by him throwing food on the floor or by him completely resisting the spoon of baby pureed food! Lovely!
So here we are, trying all sorts of new foods for him. I am nervous, yes you read that right, nervous. For the past 6 months we have been on a pretty strict schedule of 2 jars of fruits and 2 jars of veggies every day for this growing boy well now that we are moving away from the easy to use jars I am really stressing about what to give him. I want to make sure he has a balanced meal every meal but also allow him to try all kinds of new foods.
We have tried the following:
Lunch meats – ham and turkey
Shredded grilled chicken
American Cheese
Bread
Mandarin Oranges
Peaches
Pears
Gold fish crackers
Black olives
Fruit cereal bars
Pasta – not a fan
Cooked Green beans – not a fan
Cooked carrots – not a fan
As you can see, this boy gets plenty of protein and fruit but those darn veggies!! HELP!! I need more ideas.
So if you are a mommy of a table food eater please send me your ideas!
Jude thanks you! :O)
Oh he does like cupcakes too – although that probably doesn’t really go with the whole “balanced meal issue”! Adorable though right? This picture was from an early birthday party we had for Jude with some family.
Owen's daily routine with food is: Breakfast – oatmeal, applesauce, and a chopped fruit (usually melon or plums) Lunch – all the veggies he wants. Frozen veggies are super easy, and he gobbles them up Dinner – a meat with veggies. Usually homemade meatballs, chopped chicken or turkey, sauteed beef bites, crock pot shredded pork
Have fun with it! I'm at the stage where he's likely going to just start eating what we eat 🙁
He wont eat veggies!!! we keep trying but he wont swallow them. Fruit he is great with! So right now we are doing stage 3 baby food veggies for dinner just so we know he gets the veggies he needs. He Owen feeding himself the oatmeal or are you doing it? It is fun to give Jude all kinds of new things but i just worry about the balanced diet thing! OCD momma here!!
Don't stress! It will be ok. 🙂 A nutritionist spoke at our MOPS group a couple years ago and said that kids really only NEED to eat all the food groups every couple of days. That's not to say that eating all the food groups every day isn't something to strive for, but don't worry if they are picky. Some foods need to be tried a dozen times before a kid will eat them. And kids go through phases. Braxton used to eat sweet potatoes like they were candy; now he won't touch them. Adeline has gone through phases, too. She's a pretty good eater now (at almost 5 yrs old).
Sadie likes veggies cooked with other foods. I can get her to eat a lot of mixed veggies if I hide them in mac' n' cheese. She's a big fan of four bean chili and "burritos" (I mix up salsa, beans, cheese, avocado, black olives, etc in a bowl and spoonfeed her) She will feed herself the shredded tortilla.
She really likes scrambled eggs, too and you can hide lots of pureed/finely chopped stuff in there. Spinach is a favorite around here. Take a bag of fresh baby spinach, chop it up really tiny and cook it down a little before adding the eggs. My big kids like to read "Green Eggs and Ham" with that meal. 🙂
Deceptively Delicious is a great cookbook for getting extra veggies in your kids. Pumpkin pancakes are pretty yummy, as well as the chicken nuggets breaded with pureed beets. Oh! Another thing that is loved in our house is "pink potatoes." Cook and mash fresh beets with potatoes. So good!! Sweet potatoes and white potatoes are yummy, too.
Good luck!
Amanda Hsays
Hey there! I'm going through a similar thing with Rylee being super picky and especially not wanting to eat veggies. Breakfast is usually banana chunks and a waffle. She'll et just about any kind. Today she tried and loved a blueberry one 🙂 but I usually buy organic ones. Lunch can be a grilled cheese. I like those wheat sandwich thins and she loves any and all cheese. OR I just found Annies makes individual "easy Mac" style packs. I Know you said he doesn't love pasta but, I mean, it's covered in cheese 😉 also she likes those gerber meat sticks, sweet potato fries, Lima beans(only veggie shell eat!) oh and ritz crackers lol right now I Just keep trying everything. Oh and yogurt too. I also end up giving her jarred veggies just to get them in her.
Rex went through a stage where he wouldn't eat veggies either. I just kept giving them to him and trying all sorts of different one's. He tended to like fresh uncooked veggies. His favorite still is cucumbers and I'm just careful with peels. He's finally getting old enough that he's doing better with them. Just keep positive and keep trying!
Caleb never ate too much of the puree'd foods. He has always preferred table foods.
We started with black beans, rice, diced tomatoes and small pieces of chicken (or shredded). He likes to feed himself so I try mostly to have things he can pick up. He loves avocado and guac, too! Tortillas = yum!
He LOVES peas and broccoli. Peas are easy to put in some mashed taters or sweet potatoes and he'll eat them right up! He LOVES noodles with butter and Parmesan cheese. We also get those microwave Easy Mac by Kraft and he'll eat about half at a meal. I feed him that, but also let him feed himself a noodle at a time.
Chef Boyardee (sp?) has those raviolis and such that have a full serving of veggies in them, too! Instant oatmeal is a big hit as well. You can always give him V8 Fusion, it tastes fruity but has veggies in it too.
NO! lol I feed him his oatmeal, and then he goes to town on Cherrios afterward.
Owen was struggling with veggies as well, but I think because they were bland. He GOBBLES up roasted sweet potatoes+carrots with ginger! Try adding herbs and spices!
That last picture is TOO cute!
Owen's daily routine with food is:
Breakfast – oatmeal, applesauce, and a chopped fruit (usually melon or plums)
Lunch – all the veggies he wants. Frozen veggies are super easy, and he gobbles them up
Dinner – a meat with veggies. Usually homemade meatballs, chopped chicken or turkey, sauteed beef bites, crock pot shredded pork
Have fun with it! I'm at the stage where he's likely going to just start eating what we eat 🙁
He wont eat veggies!!! we keep trying but he wont swallow them. Fruit he is great with! So right now we are doing stage 3 baby food veggies for dinner just so we know he gets the veggies he needs.
He Owen feeding himself the oatmeal or are you doing it?
It is fun to give Jude all kinds of new things but i just worry about the balanced diet thing! OCD momma here!!
Don't stress! It will be ok. 🙂 A nutritionist spoke at our MOPS group a couple years ago and said that kids really only NEED to eat all the food groups every couple of days. That's not to say that eating all the food groups every day isn't something to strive for, but don't worry if they are picky. Some foods need to be tried a dozen times before a kid will eat them. And kids go through phases. Braxton used to eat sweet potatoes like they were candy; now he won't touch them. Adeline has gone through phases, too. She's a pretty good eater now (at almost 5 yrs old).
Sadie likes veggies cooked with other foods. I can get her to eat a lot of mixed veggies if I hide them in mac' n' cheese. She's a big fan of four bean chili and "burritos" (I mix up salsa, beans, cheese, avocado, black olives, etc in a bowl and spoonfeed her) She will feed herself the shredded tortilla.
She really likes scrambled eggs, too and you can hide lots of pureed/finely chopped stuff in there. Spinach is a favorite around here. Take a bag of fresh baby spinach, chop it up really tiny and cook it down a little before adding the eggs. My big kids like to read "Green Eggs and Ham" with that meal. 🙂
Deceptively Delicious is a great cookbook for getting extra veggies in your kids. Pumpkin pancakes are pretty yummy, as well as the chicken nuggets breaded with pureed beets. Oh! Another thing that is loved in our house is "pink potatoes." Cook and mash fresh beets with potatoes. So good!! Sweet potatoes and white potatoes are yummy, too.
Good luck!
Hey there! I'm going through a similar thing with Rylee being super picky and especially not wanting to eat veggies. Breakfast is usually banana chunks and a waffle. She'll et just about any kind. Today she tried and loved a blueberry one 🙂 but I usually buy organic ones. Lunch can be a grilled cheese. I like those wheat sandwich thins and she loves any and all cheese. OR I just found Annies makes individual "easy Mac" style packs. I
Know you said he doesn't love pasta but, I mean, it's covered in cheese 😉 also she likes those gerber meat sticks, sweet potato fries, Lima beans(only veggie shell eat!) oh and ritz crackers lol right now I Just keep trying everything. Oh and yogurt too. I also end up giving her jarred veggies just to get them in her.
Rex went through a stage where he wouldn't eat veggies either. I just kept giving them to him and trying all sorts of different one's. He tended to like fresh uncooked veggies. His favorite still is cucumbers and I'm just careful with peels. He's finally getting old enough that he's doing better with them. Just keep positive and keep trying!
Caleb never ate too much of the puree'd foods. He has always preferred table foods.
We started with black beans, rice, diced tomatoes and small pieces of chicken (or shredded). He likes to feed himself so I try mostly to have things he can pick up. He loves avocado and guac, too! Tortillas = yum!
He LOVES peas and broccoli. Peas are easy to put in some mashed taters or sweet potatoes and he'll eat them right up! He LOVES noodles with butter and Parmesan cheese. We also get those microwave Easy Mac by Kraft and he'll eat about half at a meal. I feed him that, but also let him feed himself a noodle at a time.
Chef Boyardee (sp?) has those raviolis and such that have a full serving of veggies in them, too! Instant oatmeal is a big hit as well. You can always give him V8 Fusion, it tastes fruity but has veggies in it too.
I love the pictures! Did you have to stand on a chair to get that first one?
Yay Cupcakes!!
NO! lol I feed him his oatmeal, and then he goes to town on Cherrios afterward.
Owen was struggling with veggies as well, but I think because they were bland. He GOBBLES up roasted sweet potatoes+carrots with ginger! Try adding herbs and spices!
We are starting Carina on baby food this weekend and I am dreading it! Good luck, Momma. I hope everything works out <3
Thanks for linking up to Toddle Along Tuesday at Growing Up Geeky and Our Growing Garden!