Need Healthy Recipes for Picky 11 Month Old

Hi T.,

I know exactly how you feel. I have a very cute but very picky eater in my house too. I like the book First Meals by Annabel Karmel. It offers some creative ideas and breaks them down for different ages. I would not really push the peanut butter option at this age. Most pediatricians would suggest not starting it until after 2 years of age due to the thick, sticky consistancy which may be difficult for young children to swallow. Also due to allergy concern, peanut butter should typically be avoided until 2, or until 3 years old if there is a family history of nut allergy. Good luck.
A.

Hi T.,
I remember going through the same thing with my now 10year old! First, does she have any teeth? Maybe I am "old school" but by the time my boys were 10mths they had already gone through all the baby food (without any allergies) and had moved on to real food.They just did NOT like the texture of of third stage food! Something I did a lot of is when we sat down to dinner I would serve them from my plate. For example if we had chicken, peas and rice--I would cut the chicken into appropriate sized pieces and put it on his plate along with a few peas and a little rice.Of course, we all ate pretty bland food for a while but it seemed to work. Both my boys loved stacking peas on cheerios and then eating them, what can I say we are a little strange, but in a good way:) Finger food, things she can eat by herself, frozen mixed veggies was anouther favorite, not even cooked just cold. Very healthy without anything added plus it isnt mush.That was our biggest problem-the mushy food! That and everytime he ate a bite, he would wait until we all clapped and said
"Hooray!" I hope this helps and remember that it is all trial and error, if something doesnt work this week it might work the next. Each child is different, you just have to go with it. My oldest, who is now 10, would only eat pancakes for about 6 mths---he turned out absolutly fine and will eat just about anything! And my 7 year old had Taco bell tacos ( I know, bad choice on my part)when he was 11 mths and now his favorite meal is salad! Whatever works.
Good luck and Welcome to Texas!
J.

My oldest is a very picky eater and sometimes his variations don't make sense (like a turkey and cheese on a cracker but not a turkey and cheese sandwhich...even thought he would eat peanut butter on bread.. or loved chocolate milk but wouldn't eat chocolate ice cream or will eat a brownie but not chocolate cake.) I think it is texture for him. He has always been picky, so you maybe facing that as well. Maybe it is textures for her...dr always has told me he wouldn't starve himself and as long as he is thriving not to worry. Maybe she just isn't ready. I wouldn't worry or go out of my way much...I would just offer her everything I have at the time. Hats off to you with twins!

Hi, this can be so frustrating! My daughter never did like chicken with rice and veggies. I made mashed sweet potatos for her and froze them in the icecube method (I made them just like regular mashed potatos but added soy milk for her and cinnamon). I could add a little organic applesauce to it and then some of the stage 2 chicken--she usually went for it! She ate this a lot for about 2 months and then moved on to real pieces of chicken, which went a lot smoother.

Hi T. ,
I used to have the same problem with my son when he was a Baby. But then.I found this great book written by Annabel Karmel named "First Meals "It gives you a variety of healthy recipes , good pointers, ideas to decorate and tempt our picky little eaters and above all it's fast ,healthy and tepmts infants and adults. We have shared numerous meals with recipes that came from this book. SO you can see it was a great investment for the whole family. Good luck

my son went through the same thing at that age...i thought he'd never eat "big people" food.
his favorite thing to eat was the gerber "apples and chicken" in the stage 2 jars. i know it sounds gross, but i started mixing in a little grean beans, or other foods with it, and slowly built up the ratios, till he was eating the foods separately.
he was almost 13 months before he started "really" eating.
now, i can't feed him enough! so don't worry! she'll catch on!
- good luck

Are there any babyfood flavors she seems to prefer? Flavors you know she likes that she may be willing to try with the new textures of more solid food recipes?

Like maybe the butternut squash? If she likes something like that, you may try roasting fresh butternut squash, by cutting it in half to bake cut side up, putting a little cinnamon and brown sugar on it, which may not even be necessary for little ones. It has a nice sweet flavor naturally. You can mash it up, or, try cutting in small soft chunks for a new texture from that of purees. There are also great soup recipes with butternut squash. An ingredient search on good recipe sites, like foodtv.com can produce some ideas you may be able to modify for milder flavor palates and such.

A list of what she likes in the pureed version may help stimulate some ideas here, too, for recipes with those flavors. She may just be resistant to the different textures or more complex palates of recipes vs. single food items. It's funny (yeah, I know you're really amused!) that the two are twins yet have such different tastes... maybe it's more evidence for the idea we each come into the world with a certain degree of personality already established!

Anyway... DK (Dorling Kindersley) put out a great cookbook called "First Meals" by Annabel Karmel, that I fell in love with when trying new foods with my son, now 4. It's a resource for recipes by age ranges, like 3-6mos, 6-9mos, 9-12mos, 12-18mos, and up till age 5. It also includes a lot of easy (and fun, I thought) to read nutritional info and food transition info between the various age stages. DK books have fabulous photo images and reader-friendly page layouts. I thought she had some really inventive ideas for new foods one might not think of offhand but that babies could respond really well to, like couscous (tiny grain sized pasta) recipes. If you look at Amazon for this, I noticed that depending on which listing you choose, some have views inside the book and others don't, so poke around to find the listing with images available. One of the pages displayed was actually about moving on to the next step after pureed foods, so you may get some tips just from browsing the book online! :)

I also noticed she has some other related books, like a baby and toddler meal planner, which I haven't seen, but may be good. Watch out for reading reviews about the UK version, where some items she used were not as recognizeable to US readers. There's a US version, so look for that one instead, unless of course, you're British!

At that age, in addition to the usual babyfoods, my son enjoyed Ezekial sprouted cinnamon raisin bread as a snack we carried around on the road instead of more refined carb foods like crackers and cereals. He did also have stuff like whole grain graham crackers, and other health food versions of baby crackers. If her issues is one with textures, maybe stuff like that could help her broaden her interests.

Eventually she'll try new flavor palates and textures, but for now, I'm sure it won't hurt anything for her to stick to single food flavors and purees till she has more interest in exploring other foods. Good luck with it, have fun with those babies!

B.

T.-
I, too, have an 11 mo old and he's having a hard time with anything more than 2nd foods (jarred baby food). We've gradually gotten him to eat some 3rd foods, but he won't touch table food - he spits it out. Our pediatrician says that he may not eat "real" food until he gets his first set of molars...and that that is perfectly normal.
Hope this helps!

Ketchup was always the saving grace for my daughter, as long as I put it on her plate, she ate whatever I gave her. I don't know if she liked the taste more, or if she had fun dipping it, but she dipped everything from meat to vegetables in ketchup.

Also, she loved cheese, although I waited until she was a year to give it to her, and that was something else she put on everything to eat.

Children tend to get turned off, too, if you put too much food on the plate. Cut it small and let her play with it, feel it, etc., so it can be somewhat instead of a finger food. Toddlers tend to lean more towards finger foods so they can explore. Also, if you decorate the plate (say, make a smiley face with ketchup, etc.) they tend to favor it more. Don't be scared to experiment with different things even though you may think it doesn't taste good...my daughter came up with some weird combinations, but hey, if she eats healthier, I'm all for it! Be sure not to give into the temptation of giving them sweets, junk, etc., just for the sake of getting them to eat. I know many who have made that mistake, and it's a one way road. Good luck!!

Hi T.,
Sometime little ones don't like the texture of table food. Try adding some liquid. Try putting "table foods" in the same bowl as cereal. Kids are smarter than we think. She just may not be ready for change, but keep trying, she will come around.

M.

My 13 month old twins wouldn't eat a lot of baby foods but started eating a lot better when I offered them regular food. Not smashed up or anything, just cut into small enough pieces so they wouldn't choke. One of them only has 4 teeth and he has no trouble eating anything now at 13 months. They like to eat ravioli, canned vegetables and fruit, cheese, turkey(the deli sliced lunchmeat type), even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The only baby-type food they'll eat is yogurt and applesauce. They also seem to prefer more seasoned food, like whatever I'm eating as oppossed to the Gerber Graduates style that is very bland.

Hello! I am mother of a 3 year old daughter and she is a picky eater as well. She has been since she started on solid food. She never would eat the jarred baby food. I had to get really creative!! My daughter loved avocadoes. Mashed ripe avocado is an excellent first food for babies. Avocadoes are so nutritious that some claim humans can live on them exclusively. Avocadoes are also an excellent source of unsaturated fatty acids that your baby needs for brain development. Cooked sweet potato is another favorite first food. I used to cook them in the microwave, mash and add a little water to make it a smooth consistency like the jarred baby food. Sweet potatoes are highy nutritious and rich in beta-carotene (vitamin A). Mashed ripe banana is good too. Bananas are very easy to digest. Many other cultures use banana exclusively as their first baby food. I highly recommend that you purchase the book, SUPER BABY FOOD, by Ruth Yaron. It is full of great ideas like the ones I just mentioned. Good luck!

This is a new concept and for some children it takes a while for them to make the change from liquid to solids- alot of it has to do with texture more than taste. Some children are graziers too-

Peanut butter on small pieces of bread or crackers (small bites) is good (theres alot of protein in peanut butter) Scrambled eggs, small pieces of lunch meat. These approaches are softer once they get use to them then you can add ruffer textures. Macaroni and cheese is another good soft food or spaghetti. I am not thinking of jarred food here just regular home cooking.

Work with your pediatritian they may have recommendations too. If you're concerned your child isn't getting the nutrients they need I am sure there is a link online somewhere that can help with that. Sometimes you can eat different foods to get your protein. As far as chicken- maybe if you had a creme sauce with it and dark meat instead of white- because dark meat is moist and easier to chew.
Smoothies is a great way to introduce fruit.

Hope this helps, C.

Good A.M. T.!

Oatmeal is loaded with vitamins and fruit and veggies is probably more than most kids eat. Sounds like she has a healthy appetite! As long as she is eating, let it alone. In time she will try other foods.

Good luck!

This is really common. My two boys (3 and 1) would eat dirt and rocks if I fed it to them and my daughter (5) gags on different textures and new smells a lot. My experience is that age 2-4 is the worst for picky eating, then it tapers off if not endulged.

My first piece of advice would be to keep trying new foods and those same old foods over and over again. There are foods that my children turned their noses up at for a full year and now they are some of their favorites. There are others that they used to love and now don't like anymore. Don't assume that because they do or don't like it once (or a hundred times) that it can't change. Also avoid sweet, salty and highly processed foods. They are highly addictive and it doesn't take children long to prefer, then demand them.

My second piece of advice is not to give into fixing them the meal that they want because they refuse the one you fix. This is hard because mothers are sure that their children are not getting enough and that they will starve. They will not starve themselves to death. There have been millions of children for thousands of years who ate whatever their parents had available and none of them demanded McDonalds or convenience foods or anything else because it wasn't there to demand. (I can't think of a single time that the media reported even one case of a child dying from starvation because the mother wouldn't give into food demands.) I have worked with hundreds of children in both the public school system and private preschools and talked to more parents than I can remember who told me that if they don't feed their children exactly what they want they won't eat. That is true for about a week. Then, when they see that no one is going to bring them a different meal, they give in and eat what you offer. Maybe not all of it, but enough to sustain life until the next meal.

My next piece of advice is to simply offer them a balanced diet of different healthy foods at mealtimes only and know that your job is done. Many parents feel the urge to make their child eat something or micromanage the eating process. They worry that their children aren't getting enough when the truth is children can live on shockingly little and still be fine. (I have seen my children eat what could fit in an 8 oz cup one day and outeat both my husband and I together another day. They are fine.) Parents are horrible at keeping a poker face and children are far more perceptive than (I think) any of us know. The outcome is a power struggle that can get way out of hand very quickly. No one wants to perform a Broadway production or fight a battle everytime food is served. The best thing to do is just offer at designated eating times (3 meals and maybe 1-2 snacks a day) and when they're done, they're done. Just put the food away and don't say a word about it. If they are constantly hungry despite eating full meals, increase the snacks. If they won't eat meals, drop the snacks. Don't give out snacks later to compensate for missed meals. Even the youngest children catch on to that and come to expect it. If nutrition is an issue or if the child is underweight, there are supplements out there, both vitamins and drinks, but they are generally not necessary.

Best of luck with settling into your new home and raising twins.
S.