Meal Ideas for 1 Year Old

My daughter was the same way. She also will not let you feed her from a spoon she has to pick it up herself and eat it or she's not eating it. For breakfast I usually give her a nutri-grain bar and some fruit salad. She loves it breakfast is probably her favorite meal.

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Your son sounds similar to my now 2.5 yr old daughter. I look for sales on the frozen dinners (Healthy Choice,Smart Ones, and Kid Cuisine work best for her tastes), stock up my freezer, and then can offer her a choice and have it ready five minutes later. She also loves ravioli (I recommend clothes coming off before little ones dine on tomato sauce based dishes, lol.) Also, leftovers from your meals are often good options. For breakfast, my girl usually likes Publix yogurt for Kids; other favorites are french toast (plain), bananas, applesauce, oatmeal, cheese, fruit & gel cups, and/or mini-wheats (dry). Sometimes I scramble eggs via microwave for her, mixing in cottage cheese to cool them down; she loves that when she's in the mood for it. There are some days when it seems like she doesn't want to eat anything (and the next eats more than I do); but she drinks a lot of whole milk, and my stepfather says that he survived his childhood on milk alone... she's healthy, so I don't stress over it too much.

My doctor okay'd eggs before she turned 1; he didn't okay peanut butter until 2 though, mainly because of the increasing allergic reactions he has seen in others. The basic idea is, if you introduce a new food, watch for reactions and only introduce one new food at a time. Watch for choking hazards, too... she loves grapes, but you want to cut them in quarters at the beginning. No hard candy, no nuts.

You can give 1 year olds eggs 3 times a week and you can start peanut butter now. For breakfast I usually do a scrammbled egg or a banana along with a cup of milk. Lunch- I like to buy those roasted chickens publix has and cut up the meat and it is good for a couple days. Soft cooked carrots and watermelon along with it. Or a pb&J sandwich cut up in bite size peices with cut up grapes and some veggie. String cheese is also a good snack that has protein and easy to eat. (My 1 year old only has 4 teeth so I have to find the softest things) For dinner she usually has whatever we are having plus another fruit for a snack at night. Those gerber meals are easy, but processed and your 1 year old needs all the nutrition he/she can get.

I kept fresh fruits and veggies in the frig for my girls. Also when you fix your meal you could start freezing little meals for you son. I did that often. It works out great. He is plenty old enough for eggs. Be careful with the peanut butter, he could choke on it. My Mom told me to put butter on the bread with the peanut butter and that would make it easier to eat and avoids the risk of choking. On your day off you could cook the foods, like meats, potatoes, etc. and freeze them in containers so they would just have to be nuked for him to eat.. Saves a lot of time, insures that he is getting healthy meals and makes life easier. Also the banquet kids meals are a pretty good deal and my girls loved them. They only take a few minutes to cook. And the great thing with them is if anything is left over you can wrap it and give it to him at the next meal. Hope this helps.

My son still does not like breakfast food very much. He only likes bacon and sasauge. He does like those Ego French toast sticks that you just stick in the toaster. When he was one, he loved oatmeal. he still liked to eat the various baby cereals, but he loved the Earth's best toddler oatmeal. He ate that every morning for almost a year! He can still eat what you do, but as left overs. The Perdue chicken nuggets that are refrigerated, not frozen, are wonderful for that age. Very easy to chew! He still like the campbells minestrone soup, that is how I discovered his love of beans! Elbow macaroni with Ragu veggie tomato sauce and lean ground beef was another favorite. he has always loved his veggies steamed with nothing on them, unlike a lot of kids that want butter or ranch. I love the frozen baby sweet peas the best. All the soups are always good because all the veggies and meat are very tender and easy to chew. My son usually ate dinner left overs for lunch. he actually hates peanut butter and jelly! At one year old, he did eat PB. I would toast some wheat bread and add a very light layer of PB and break it up into pieces and feed one at a time. You have to make sure they drink in between and don't leave them unattended with it. After trying all these different things, you see what he really likes and look up recipes with those ingrediants. i make a lot of things with peas and beans because I saw that is what my son likes. Good luck!

I try to do all organic for my 3 kids (a 3 year old boy and twin 8 month old girls). I do lots of cut up veggies and fruits, all kinds of beans and chickpeas, cheese cubes (they like brie and manchego and all kinds of interesting cheese--offer things with more taste than processed American). I started my son on peanut butter at 1 1/2, eggs at 1. He has no allergies and is fine with it. I think I'll do the same with my girls. Other good easy meals--quesidillas (shred chicken and place on whole wheat tortilla, sprinkle with beans and cheddar cheese and mild salsa or tomato pieces, cover with another tortilla, pan fry in a little olive oil or bake until cheese is bubbly).

A.,

If your son has teeth start him out on soft scrambled eggs. What about cream of wheat or oatmeal. boil carrots for him and maybe put the foods that you make for him in the blender or food processor. Try mashed potatoes. Homemade pasta is also soft and tasty. I fed my children regular food by the age of about 8 months. They are grown now and are nice and healthy. Peanut butter is a bit sticky so I would wait a little longer on that one.
Have a wonderful day,
L.

A 1yr old should do scrambled eggs well, mine did. Instant oatmeal is a quicky breakfast. You could try a piece of toast with cinnamon and sugar on it also. I am a grandmother now so I don't remember when I started on peanut butter sandwiches but at that age it is pretty messy. There is always canned spagetti o's. my daughter loved that. Hot dogs too, they can eat those in their hands. You could try a little lunch meat sandwich but I suspect the meat will get eaten but not much of the bread. As for dinners, at that age my daughter ate mashed potatoe with carrots mashed in with them and little bits of meat mixed in too. It would be easy if you made a large enough meal to put little dinners all ready in your fridge and frezer to just microwave when it is time for him to eat. Idaho instant potatoes taste almost like the real thing and are cheap with a little canned veggie and tiny pieces of meat that you had for a supper meal would make good quick heat up dinners for when ever needed. 1 hamburger patty cooked and saved to break up in pieces to add to a baby meal would make up several.

Hi A.. Eggs you can start now...Peanut butter I would wait until he is 2.

I would sugest that you leave him some leftovers from your dinners so he can eat what you ate. I didnt buy those pre-packaged foods from gerber because my son was overweight (and still is) so we stuck to healthy easy to chew snacks.

Cheese, crackers, beans, pasta, veggies, oatmeal, french toast sticks (take off the crust because its too hard to chew sometimes), yogurt, saugage links (small peices to hold), chicken nuggets, french fries (baked at home lol), mac-n-cheese, mash potatoes, peas, carrots, corn, green beans, soups, some fish.

The list could go on and on. Really, anything you can think of that you have time to make thats easy to chew, and more importantly healthier choices of food would be the best way to go. As far as peanut butter, my son is allergic, but I gave him his first bite of scrambled well cooked eggs at about 14months. Also tuna at around that time, and other fish. But I would feed him those things when you are comfortable feeding them to him.

Here are some ideas for a 1 yr old...
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs w/ ham pieces & cheese. Dannon drinkable yogurt for kids. Watered down white grape juice. You can make him eggs about 3 times a week, and just do a banana, slice of ham & cheese, and a yogurt some days. Yogurt is a good one since it keeps their digestive system in good health. My daughter loved, and still loves them small kids bottles of Dannon drinkable yogurt. They also have the Dora ones, with less sugar, but less tasty as well :-)

Lunch & Dinner: I used to be a fan of them toddler foods for lunch. To save money, just buy the tubs instead of the trays, and add your own vegetables. You can offer steamed broccoli, soft steamed baby carrots. If you keep offering them daily he will start to love them. You can also make macaroni & cheese w/vegetables mixed in (corn & peas). I worked full-time so honestly I would first use them toddler foods a lot, and then switched to the frozen kid entres. I only cook about 2-3 times a week. Often I just take a few spoonfuls out of my dinner and give my kid, and add steamed vegetables to her plate.

Also, you can buy a tub of the vitamin gummy bears. My daughter loves them. She thinks they're candy :-) Also, it makes me feel better that I know she's getting all of her needed vitamins each day.

Good luck... Oh, and hold off on the peanut butter. If introduced too early it increases the chance of allergies.

WIC does not start giving peanut butter until age 2 b/c of the choke hazard. I would wait on that until he is a bit older. My daughter has been eating scrambled eggs since she was just under a year old. As long as he has teeth, you can give him pretty much anything that is soft and easy to swallow. Avoid popcorn, raisins... things that can lodge easily.

My daughter loves chicken nuggests and the frozen mini cheeseburgers that you can get from Walmart for pretty cheap. Mac & cheese, noodles w/ butter, raman noodles (using less than half of the seasoning package b/c of sodium content), rice & beans, hot dogs-- you probably should skin them, but I never have and my daughter has always done fine w/ them. (I'm big on starchy stuff and not so keen on meat, sadly I have pushed this trait off onto my daughter so she is particular about the meat she eats.)

It's tough because at 1, even 2.5, you still don't really know what allergies your child may have. You have to start somewhere though. Hopefully, you've got some ideas from what everyone has posted. Good luck.