Need Good Finger Food Recipes for a Picky 14 Month Old Boy

Hi A.
My son is 21 months old is also a very picky eater. Here are some Indian recipes that are healthy, easy to pick up and eat and wholesome.
Chickpea (besan) Pancakes. Just miss chickpea flour with water, whisk to pancake like consistency, add grated carrots or broccoli, salt, pepper and make them like pancakes.
Wheat flour parathas stuffed with boiled potatoes or any other vegetable of your choice.
Idlis(you can get them ready made at an Indian store)
hope this helps.

1 mom found this helpful

Could be that your son is asserting his growing independence in the culinary department :-). I was also mystified when my girls were around that age and suddenly things they wolfed down weeks ago were going untouched .... later I read in Ellyn Satter's "Child of Mine, feeding with love and good sense" that it's VERY common for children at this age to be more assertive in the food department. Her advice is to continue offering a variety of healthy items even if the same item was just rejected hours ago, because oftentimes it'll take 10 attempts before your child will allow the item to be left on his plate and maybe another 10 attempts until he decides he wants to put it in his mouth.

Some things my kids liked:
-slice bananas into discs about 1/4" thick, dip them in pancake batter and cook like regular pancakes (make a bunch and freeze the extras, they reheat quickly in the toaster oven. sprinkle a little wheat germ on the toaster oven tray to prevent the pancakes from sticking). Tasty and the perfect size for toddler finger-food. My girls are 6.5YO now and they still love these - the banana takes on a slightly pudding-ish texture from the cooking. Apple slices also work.

-save the crumbs from the bottom of your bag of cheerios and roll finger-food size cubes of fruit, cooked veggies (sweet potato, carrots, etc.) or tofu. The "cheerio dust" makes the cubes easier for toddlers to pick up.

-for snacking, the air-puffed grain cereals are good to have on hand. My girls faves are the puffed corn and the puffed rice, the puffed kamut is also nice and these are all good sizes for little fingers to pick up (and these have no added oils, sugars, or preservatives. another bonus is that they 'squish' instead of crumble so when you accidentally step on the ones that fell to the floor, there aren't a ton of crumbs to sweep up). We usually get the arrowhead mills brand at Berkeley Bowl for a little over $1/bag.

-hummus - they'd actually eat it straight out of a bowl or on crackers, rice cakes, or veggie strips

-cooked beans. I get dried beans in bulk at Berkeley Bowl, soak overnight and boil, then freeze in small portions for cooking or for snacking. My kids liked snacking on cooked garbanzo beans best.

- make "sweet potato fries" by slicing sweet potatos into french-fry length strips, coating lightly with cooking oil (dust with a little cinnamon and nutmeg or salt, depending on your preference), and baking (depending on your oven, about 15-30 min at around 400 degrees)

-if you have small cookie cutters, sometimes cutting cheese and bread into fun shapes will make them more appealing to little ones. Experiment with other shapes and textures too - kids who don't care for carrot sticks or cheese squares sometimes find that a mound of shredded carrots or thin strips of "cheese like noodles (my girls' name for cheese run through the shredder attachment of my Cuisinart)" looks irresistible.

1 mom found this helpful

I got in a rut when our first son was this age....ran outa ideas for finger foods. Then a freind gave me this great book,' The Super Baby Food Book.' It's a thick purple paperback chock full of all kindsa ideas: for finger foods, recipes, non-toxic cleaning products, arts & crafts ideas, when fruits/veggies are in season & much more. A couple of things I gave our son at this age, veggie burgers & tofu. I'd cut the tofu in chunks & then saute it in a bit of soy sauce. At this age, kids have control over pretty much just 3 things: peeing, pooping & eating so it may just be that he's trying to take control over this & it could easily turn into a big battle that could go on for years. Give him some choices at meal times of maybe 2 items & then what he chooses is what he eats. Hope this helps & good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

One thing my toddler LOVES is potato-kale pancakes. I just boil quartered potatoes and saute chopped kale, mash them up together with butter and form little flat cakes and then slightly brown them on both sides in a pan with a little olive oil...she loves these and sometimes when she sees I am making them gets so impatient that she likes to eat just the mashed potatoes and kale before they are made into cakes.

Also, someone mentioned mini turkey meat balls, I make little "meatcakes" (a meatball but flattened because I find they cook faster and more consistently throughout and I am always paranoid about poultry not being cooked well enough) with turkey, chopped spinach, egg/milk, breadcrumbs and grated parmesan that my daughter loves...a great thing to make a batch of and freeze, perfect when you need a quick meal.

Thanks for posting this request, I am constantly looking for new ideas for feeding my erratic eater.

1 mom found this helpful

Try Juice Plus gummies or chewables. A great way to ensure your child is getting the nutrients of 17 fruits and veggies in their diet everyday. A. B.

Hi A.,

You might consider making ground Chicken or Turkey mini-meatballs. My son loves them.

Also, we have found that fun foods like string cheese are a huge hit.

Our son is 17 months and around 14 months we definately started seeing a decrease in what he would eat. Often he wants to eat when we eat and have what we are having.

If you can try to sit together for even a quick breakfast he might surprise you. My son loves Honey Bunches of Oats ceral but only will eat it when it comes from my bowl.

We also give him a snack at 5:00 p.m. and then all eat dinner together. He seems to want to eat more when he sees us eating.

Hope this helps and happy dining,

N.