Good foods/snacks for toddlers?

Question

My little girl is two weeks away from being a year old, and we're still on baby foods. She does however get adult food depending on what it is exactly. For the most part I'm not big on cooking (which will have to change soon), but for the sake of my little girl it's important to me that she gets healthy food over junk food.

As a mother I feel that I should know exactly what to feed my child as she gets older, but sadly I'm clueless. I've read a lot of mother's giving their baby's yogurt, and bagels with cream cheese. I on the other hand have allowed my daughter to try those, but I don't give them to her because I always thought it was best to wait until after the age of 1 to introduce milk products, etc. I've also been told by my baby's doctor not to give her eggs. So, I'm looking for some ideas on what I can feed my child without having to spend over a $100 worth of baby food. She's not a picky eater. She loves her fruits and veggies, but I'm looking to give her more.

Answer 1

Anything in its most natural form that you can cut or cook to a softness the little mouth can handle.

Fruits, veggies, ground meats, tiny  pieces of bread, pasta, noodle soups (low salt versions), soft-cooked rice.

Avoid the temptation to season or sweeten her first foods.  You want the to learn to like the 'real taste' of things that are good for her.

Answer 2

The best stuff of course is the natural fruits and veggies.  But go one step further and make a game out of it.  Get co-jack cheese slices - make funny faces on it with raisins, sliced grapes, sliced bananas.  You can also graham soda crackers or club crackers and using cream cheese make a train and have her put soft veggies on the crackers.  You  can also let her put her own fruit in her yogurt or applesauce.  Have some fun with the food !

Answer 3

I am in the same boat as you.  I started giving my son cherios and yogurt for snacks.  He loves cheez-its when we are on the go.

toast

no-sugar popsicle

bananas

chicken nuggets (tyson are the best)

all beef hotdogs

quakes, in the chip aisle he loves those

lil entrees (by gerber, they are pricey, but nice to have on hand just in case your not eating or going to a friends house or something.)

I let him try what I eating  I am over worrying about the seasonings and all that.  I take what i have and see if he likes it.  I was clueless and I started feeding him what I eat and it has worked just fine.

Answer 4

cherios

Answer 5

Avocados! Easily mushed and full of nutrients. Any overcooked veggies. Our doctor had no oppposition to milk products before 1 year, just milk. Babies need the extra nutrients in formula or breast milk before they are one, but milk products, liek yogurt and cheese are fine. Tiny pastas (like pastina and orzo) and ground beef are easily chewed. You don't need to add salt or spices. All veggies can be over cooked to mushy - the same reason I don't like frozen veggies for myself are the same reason they are great for toddler! You can bake apples (let them cool). When baby food got to be too expensive, I boiled fresh ones in the morning before my son was hungry so that they were mushy and cool when he was ready.

Answer 6

gerber products, they have a whole line of age appropriate snacks...they are made organically and naturally too

Answer 7

I have a 15 month old and we never used any baby food in our house.  I don't cook much either and I promise you'll be fine.

Some of the easiest things for me to do and some of the things that my son has loved the most are whole foods.  I buy bags of frozen veggies that I can heat and serve as needed.  Right now we have mixed veggies and some summer veggies (squash, zucchini, asparagus etc), as well as corn and broccoli.  These veggies have already been cooked before freezing so they don't need my cooking to soften them.  Some days I'll heat them right before a meal, but other days I'll keep a container of some in the fridge that I can heat as I need them.  Since it has been warmer he has even eaten them cold and loved them.  Buying them frozen is about the same price as buying them canned and they're a healthier, easier option over all.  We don't eat a lot of veggies, so this works great.

We eat a lot of canned fruits even though they are canned in a syrup.  While we can get a lot of fresh fruits like oranges, apples, and bananas, it's really hard to get good fresh peaches and pears, so we used canned.  I drain them and rinse them to remove a lot of the added sugar.  We use a mix of fresh and canned fruits (sometimes frozen strawberries) and don't have too much trouble.

So, what do you actually feed her?  If you aren't waiting on grains or meats, you have tons of options.  Breakfasts can be essentially fruit with some grain for the added carbs.  We do oatmeal, French toast, pancakes, biscuits, or regular toast, but oatmeal is by far the easiest for preparation.  Most of our toddler's breakfasts are two or three different kinds of fruits and some grain.  This morning he had peaches, bananas, and toast.  Some day's well add cheese for the extra protein if we know lunch might be a struggle for some reason.

Lunches and dinners for us are more or less the same.  Mostly veggies and protein with some carbs/starches and maybe some fruit.  If I don't feel like cooking I'll make some mixed veggies and add some cheese/meat/beans and some pasta or rice.  I try to keep a container of cooked pasta or rice in the fridge that I can use to just make a meal for our son.  

When we do cook we use a lot of grilled chicken b*****s (cooked on the George Foreman grill are super easy), cheese, frozen veggies, pasta, rice, and potatoes.  It's just a mix and match of whatever sounds good.  Some of our son's favorite meals are chicken casserole, homemade pizza (bread dough with any type of sauce and any type of toppings... be creative), chicken/beef curry, frozen ravioli (with out sauce), and homemade chili.  

Most of the foods that you eat that aren't processed and come in a box in the freezer section you can feed your toddler.  If you're eating something that you're really not comfortable with it's super easy to boil some pasta (whole wheat if you want to be super healthy), add some frozen veggies, some protein (beans, meat, or cheese), maybe some fruit on the side, and be good.  You're going to do great!