Feeding a One Year Old

There is so much a one year old can eat, even with allergies.

Please visit www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com. They have great advice on allergies and recipes.

My girl is only 10 months, but wouldn't try solids, so I tried some of the recipes on this site and she loved them.

Good luck.

I she is content with baby food there is nothing wrong with it. She may not like the consistency of table food. Are you giving her stage one baby? Try to give her tiny pieces and allow her to get used to the consistency of chunky foods. Sometimes babies are so used to not chewing they don't want to be bothered. Give her small finger foods at first very tiny and allow her to feed herself. I would give my kids for breakfast pancakes and waffles, french toast or regular toast but cut up very small. Once they get the hang of it they loved table food. She may want to feed herself. As far as a sippy cup have you tried not putting her formula in it and perhaps just water or heavy diluted juice. Sometimes babies will only drink their formula from a bottle and want nothing to do with a sippy cup with milk. Let her watch you put the water into the cup and maybe she will try it because it is something new. As far as continuing baby food she is getting plenty of nutrition from her formula and the baby food so i wouldn't worry about it.

Hey allison!
I think you are giving her too much formula that is why she is not always interested in it. My daughter only drinks 3 6 oz bottles and gets 5 oz mixed in with cereal. Please dont give her deli meats!! there are so many bad things added to deli meats. Try making boiled all natural, no antibiotic, hormone free chicken. shred it up real small and let her feed herself. Vanessa eats a lot of food now I have a lot of good suggestions when we talk tomorrow.
E.

Hi there. We have a similar situation here, minus the soy. Try deli meats. Ask for a low sodium turkey or ham and have them shave it. It super easy to just kinda throw it on their tray! I still do baby cereal. Lots of applesauce, ummm...there is 4 packs of vegetables, corn, peas, carrots, beans that you can get. They come like the little fruit cups, just veggies instead. Those are super easy also. It seems like it's the same thing everyday for my little kiddo with his special diet! I'll keep thinking.

There are a lot of good food suggestions from everyone here, so I'm not going to add to that, but I will add (which you might have heard before) that it takes 10-15 tries of a new food, before you can say, "she won't eat it". I can attest to this with my 1 year old daughter, at first when feeding her table food, she preferred the mush of babyfood, and I had to repeatedly present it to her at different meals. Some times she would just mush it around, sometimes ignore it, and then there were times when I would just leave it for a bit, and I would catch her putting a piece in her mouth and then would go for more. She still at times refuses new things I give her, but I don't make a big fuss, and when I can tell that she isn't interested in eating or touching it any more, I take it away. You can still give your daughter something she does like first, like babyfood, and afterwards introduce the new foods. keep trying, hope that helps :)

She really should be cutting down on her bottles and getting more nutrition through food now. She can really eat anything - considering her allergies - be wary of peanut butter - but other nuts may be ok (peanuts are not considered nuts - they are legumes - so one doesn't necessarily affect the other). Can she eat anything with dairy? There is nothing really wrong with baby food - but she should be actively moving toward chewing. But - considering all the other things you've been dealing with - it may be one fight you don't want to undertake right now!! But, fruits, meats, other protein like beans (your Ped will likely tell you to go slowly with nuts d/t her allergies), vegetables are all things she can go for right now.

But - really - you can move toward table food that she can eat - make sure it's soft and cut up small. If she is really having a hard time giving up the baby food - give her baby food, but give her a plate with other things too - veggies - fruit - meat, etc. Let her eat what she wants for awhile - if she doesn't eat the table food - so be it. Little by little - you can even set her up with the table food first and just be "taking your time" or "forgetting" until she asks for the baby food - she may just start to eat it - especially if she's hungry. Or - maybe even put some into her baby food. I know my dgtr HATED almost all stage 3 foods - still loved baby food - but dove into table food - I rarely altered the spices I put on it and I think she just liked the taste better (but - she also does not have the allergies you are dealing with either - I don't know if that made a difference).

As for the other cups - I started my dgtr with straw cups at 1 year. I set it down with her for lunch - if she drank it - fine - if not - I didn't fuss (I still gave her a bottle after breakfast, one after afternoon nap, and one after dinner - she drank what she wanted following the meals and usually finished the after nap one). When she started drinking with the straw cup (maybe a week), I added it to the breakfast routine and took away the after breakfast bottle too, but kept the afternoon one and after dinner one. That took maybe 2-3 days before she drank that one - moved onto the straw cup at dinner and only had the after nap bottle (which I kept until she was probably 17-18 months before realizing I could give her a snack instead!! LOL I just loved her curling up with me in the afternoon for the bottle and didn't really want to give it up!) Now she still drinks from the straw cup (26 mos) and quickly moved to a sippy for water. The liquids never varied in each cup - milk in straw cup, water in sippy - so she knew what she was getting everytime.

Good luck!

Oh, I hope she grows out of some of those allergies! It's harder on you than her! :)

I think the key to moving her to more "real" food might be fruit! Small pieces of banana, avacado, peach, and plum. Good, unsweetened applesauce. Those freeze-dried apple bites from Gerber are fun to pick up. (no other ingredients, just apple)

You can also give her toast with fruit jam. Well cooked spaghetti noodles. (I use the pasta wheels, and cut them in half.) Veggies like green beans (cut up), peas (very well cooked), mushy carrots, mashed potatoes, etc.

Small pieces of meat work, too! As long as it isn't tough, any of kind of meat is good.

It sounds like you're doing just fine with formula. She will start to drink less as she eats more finger foods. Normally this is the time to introduce whole milk, but I'm assuming your doc told you to keep offering formula because of her allergies?

Hi Alison,

These are some of the things I feed my 11 month old:

avocado pieces
organic refried black beans (thinned with a little water if it's too thick)
black beans
banana pieces
chopped tomatoes
small pieces of boiled potatoes
really any soft fruit or vegetable cut into small pieces
rice (I'll put a tablespoon or two of rice on his tray and let him pick at the grains)
I'll mix a little cous cous into baby food likes carrots

Oh, and my daughter had a dairy/soy allergy as an infant which she outgrew shortly after she turned 1. Good luck!

I think 5 6 oz bottles are a little too much. She may be filling up on liquids so she is not interested in food. My 10 month old drinks 4 8 oz bottles a day and has some water along with his food. I think you should try to feed her anything you eat (obviously making sure the food allergens are not in the food). I think if you put the food in front of her, she may be curious and want to eat herself. Try pastas and soft veggies with some seasoning on it for some flavor. Also little pieces of chicken are good too. My son had a hard time at first grabbing fruit since it's slippery. But he still got half in his mouth. So try some of her favorite fruits.
Good luck!

At one, my kids ate everything. I just cubed food and they especially enjoyed minestrone soup. I beleive at the time I bought canned Progresso brand. It has all different and INteresting colors and shapes

I understand where you are coming from as my son has allergies to milk, soy, wheat, eggs. He is still on formula as well due to allergies, he is currently 15 months and gets around 20 oz a day of that. Try the macaroni, fruit, and veggies. Start out with the foods she likes as the baby food. Cook the veggies up tender enough for her, she may not like the different textures of 'real food'. Also check out http://allergy.hyperboards.com/index.php its a great website for allergies and they can also help out a lot. GOod luck!

Hi Alison,
At a year old is when babies make the switch to food being their primary nutrition and instead of their milk. 1 year olds normally eat 3 regular meals a day. Their milk (whatever type) is usually a beverage given with meals. They might still have some separately, maybe after a nap and before bed. As for what to eat, some 1 year olds still eat baby/toddler jarred foods, some eat mostly table foods. If you're unsure of what to plan for healthy meals due to the food allergies, I'd suggest a visit to a pediatric nutritionist who can help you to formulate a meal plan that will ensure all of your daughter's nutritional needs are met. Good luck!

Suggestion...take your daughter to her doctor to be weighed and examined. Talk to the doctor about her allergies, diet and your concerns at this point...

Having a bottle at one years old is fine. Give her the foods she like. Give her vitamins that will increase her appetite. Take some of the food that you eat and put it in a food processor, that will make the food look like baby food, maybe she will eat it. She's still young she'll start eating when she is ready.

All the best
C.

It is ok to continue giving formula, especially if you are worried about her getting the correct nutrional value. You may want to ask your ped. if she can go to a toddler formula. Have you tried her on rice milk in a sippy? My kids would not take formula in a sippy no matter what, but they did milk ok.

At one you should start trying to wean her off the bottle. My ped. said by 15 months they should be off the bottle completely. (Of course, my 16 month old is still getting a bed time bottle, but that is the hardest to get rid of... I'm hoping by the end of the month).

She should be getting 24 oz of milk or formula a day. Baby food is still ok, but have you switched up to the older baby levels? That should have some chunks in it and some more advanced flavors. Once she gets used to that table food is a natural step.

Is she eating cheerios and those stars that melt in her mouth?
I am sure the food allergies make it difficult, but you may want to ask your doc or do some research for cookbooks that avoid dairy, eggs, and soy.