What to feed a 2 1/2 yr old and 15 mo old for breafast lunch and dinner.?

Question

I am taking care of 2 1/2 yr old and 15 mo old girls I have no clue what is healthy to feed them.. This morning I fed them crackers and oatmeal for Breafast.. PLEASE GIVE ME IDEAS!!!!!!!!!!

Also can you put it into a menu type thing?

Answer 1

I have 3 grandkids under 4-1/2:)   They love eggs for breakfast, and yogurt and fruit (bananas, berries, watermelon, peaches).  That's also good for other meals too:)   Peanut butter/jelly sandwiches, crusts cut off and cut into smaller pieces;  pieces of cheese;  chicken nuggets; hot dogs .....they LOVE Jello Jigglers.... broccoli, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots (especially with Ranch dressing to dip them)

Answer 2

Breakfast 1

Scrambled eggs, toast fingers (cut up the toast so it doesn't look so big to little eyes) , milk

Morning snack 1

Cherrios, diluted apple, cranberry or orange juice(1 part  juice, 1 part water)  Kids don't need all that sugar that juice packs in.

Lunch 1

Chicken nuggets (maybe cut up a bit for young one)

Baked potato (microwave a potato, scoop out flesh and mash up with butter)  Canned pears (diced, or cut into small chunks), milk

Afternoon snack: Vanilla wafers, milk or diluted juice

Dinner 1

Spaghetti with tomato sauce (chop spaghetti into tiny pieces) green beans (cut up to small pieces) bread or crackers, milk  diced peaches for dessert

Breakfast 2

Oatmeal or other hot cereal, milk, mandarin orange slices

snack 2

graham crackers, diluted juice. water or milk

lunch 2

hot dogs (cut up for 15 mo old) mac and cheese, diced apple or canned fruit

afternoon snack 2

fruit flavored yogurt (NOT the "lite" kind), water or dilute juice

Dinner 2

hamburger patty (chopped up)  home fries or the frozen steak style fries (They are easier for the 15 mo to eat) green beans or cooked carrots --you may need to experiment to find which vegetables they like.  For dessert  More fruit.

Kids can eat grown-up food as long as it is in manageable proportions and chopped up.  Be careful giving young ones things that are hard to chew like peanuts and even grapes.  Hot dogs can also be a choking hazard for some so peel them or chop them up for kids 9 to 18 months.

And visit your local library.  There are great resources for how to feed kids.

Answer 3

You want the following things in the morning:

Fruit (energy, fiber, taste great, anti-oxidant, filling but not fattening).

Starch (needed, helps settle stomach w/ highly acidic fruits). You always want non-white bread if possible (bleaching process is not healthy) and multigrain if possible.  Oats are arguable the best things in the world for you (no, I do not exaggerate), so oatmeal is great, and allows you to add fruit, milk, honey/maple syrup (the REAL maple syrup, not fake High Fructose Corn Syrup w/ caramel coloring and artificial flavoring).

Finally, arguably not so important for breakfast, is the proteins, best way are eggs, and if you need to throw meat in there, get high qualilty sausage, bacon (preferably turkey for both, and I only say that because laying a good foundation for health is important at a young age, and bacon is the fattiest food in the world [save fat-back] and low density lipo-proteins clog arteries and lead to hypertension.)

For Lunch:

Same basics, only not so much on the fruit, as energy boost is not so important. You want to keep lunch light, so a good sandwich with some meats (if you want) and some cheeses (not american cheese, which is technically a coagulated cheese sauce, not a cheese) like cheddar, munster, mozzarella, even provolone is fine, with lettuce and maybe tomato (recently tomato's have had salmonella scare, so you can avoid that), and mustard (mustard is great for you, mayonaisse can be fine in moderation, so go with what they like).

Try to include vegetables, in a fun way, with (as was said before) a cottage cheese or sour cream dip.  And maybe like an apple/orange for handheld easy snack.

Dinner:

Ok, so the days over, and we can start eating heavy (still healthy) foods.

Go for the pastas, as they are cheapest by far, easy to make, delicious, malleable (make all sorts of different recipes with them) and overall just a good thing.

Bottled/canned pasta sauce is fine, or you can make your own, the basic sauce is as follows:

Basil, Oregano, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, plum tomatoes... hold on, let me get you an actual recipe:

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/00...

You can cut out the carrot and celery, and anything else you don't have, its not written in stone.

Hmm, I'm sure theres more, but thats it for now. Let me know how it works!

P.S. I forgot, Salads Salads Salads. You can use basic canola oil/olive oil and vinegar dressings, as those fats aren't bad (high density lipo-proteins).  Salads are great for lunch and dinner, breakfast no so much.

For drinks - Juicy Juice is 100% juice, and for anything else, check the labels, you are looking for nothing but fruit juice and water, any sugar added is useless and empty calories with no nutritional value, so your paying for a sugar rush/crash and some extra calories that turn into fat.  Fructose, Glucose, Sucrose, all different types of sugar, avoid them like the plague, as there is no reason.

SODA IS THE DEVIL. Tooth rotting fat producing non-nutritional anti-health demon. No, I do not exaggerate (really, I think thats reasonable, honestly).

Ok, I'm done, I think.

Answer 4

You can make them pancakes, they even make the batter that comes in cans like whipped cream now, it doesn't get easier than that!  Just squirt it out and viola!  Pancakes!  You can also make them sausages to go with it, but chances are the pancakes or waffles are going to be plenty!

Breakfast:

Pancakes

Cereal hot and cold

Waffles there's eggos, toaster ones!

French Toast

Scrambled Eggs, SO easy! 5 minutes!!

Bagel and peanut butter/cream cheese, but I would do half for this age, and see if they eat it before doing a whole one.

Lunch:

Chicken Fingers

Soup

Pasta, spaghetti, ziti, penne, anything with butter or sauce

Hot dogs, just make sure to cut up small!

Hamburgers

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Pastina

Mac and cheese

Pizza, bagel bites

Franks in blankets

Snacks:

Cut up fruits, pineapple, grapes, (yes cut them, you don't want them stuck in their throat), bananas, peaches, etc.

Cheese and crackers with fruit!

Juice

Carrots and Celery, with dip, like Ranch

Make sure they are sitting when they eat! You do NOT want them running around or even walking and something happening where they get something stuck in their throat.  At this age, it's safer to keep them sitting while they're eating and snacking!

I hope this helps!  You're very sweet to consider these things.  You can also talk to their parents and ask them what they should and shouldn't be eating.   It's really up to them to provide their food and menu and to tell you what their menu should be and helping you with this.  

I hope this helps though and gives you some ideas!

Answer 5

Best supplement I had ever ever used for a child is "pedeasure" its a powder to be given along with milk n you WILL find changes within 45 days but do take care you add little on first week than slowly increase every week, buy in 800gms pack it would be economical + give "Kellogg's "available in different flavors  start with honey flavors you will remember me rest you feed as usual what ever you can try to add fruits during evening hours never before bed time. Do NOTE when the baby is on "pedeasure" feeds its usual intake might go down as it takes care of all basic requirements of baby.

Answer 6

For snacks Cheerios is a good thing. Milk or water, or half juice with water. (Some juices have large amounts of sugar) Bananas are a good fruit for the 15 month old (cut them up) The older one can have apples (probably cut)  Bananas can be dipped into peanut butter.  I took care of a girl and was really creative with what was in the frig. We did Ranch roll ups. Tortillas with ranch, lunch meat, lettuce, cheese. Anything that was found in the frig. She loves cottage cheese and using that as a dip for like chips or even crakcers.  Did the same thing with refried beans.