"1St Birthday Party" Foods!

You can get recipes for eggless chocolate cake on-line. I have made the cake several times, and people, even carnivores, loved it. Tasty and easy to make.

Lynne E

I am a vegetarian too, though my husband is not. I feed my toddler as a vegetarian and have since she was able to eat foods (Will do the same with the baby who is about ready to start eating food). I used The Super Baby Food book which helped me a lot. I also referenced the askdrsears.com website for food and nutrition information. I bought a carrot cake from Whole Food Market bakery for her first birthday. It wasn't vegan, but was a healthier cake than others. Didn't have all the dyes, chemicals, etc. It was really sweat though. Thankfully she wasn't too impressed with sweats at that age. :-)

Hi J.,

First of all, congratulations on surviving the first year! This party is really for you, you know! ;-)

Here's a question for you: is there a history of allergy in your family or in your husband's/SO's/whatever family? If not, the chances of your son developing an allergy to anything is much lower than for children with a family history of allergy and/or asthma.

Keeping that in mind, 90% of all allergies in childhood are to eggs (mostly the white, but some are allergic to the yolk as well, usually because some of the white has been left behind), tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, milk and soy. Corn can also be highly allergenic as a member of the grass family, and fish and seafood are also common culprits, although more frequently in adults than kids.

Other foods also tend to contribute more to allergic sensitization. Most berries and other foods that are high in salicylates can be allergenic. Here's the thing, though -- you have no way of knowing if your child will be allergic to something until he's exposed to it. You can't keep food from him forever, so as one mom said, I wouldn't worry about it too much. The general rule has been to be cautious with the high-allergenic foods until the first birthday and if your child has exhibited no allergic reactions and you have no family history, continue introducing foods without worry. It's always best to introduce only one food at a time for a couple of days, so that if your child DOES have an allergic response, it can make it much easier to figure out what the culprit is. Also, many foods will cause non-allergic reactions. For example, infants might get a rash around the mouth from eating tomatoes because the acid irritates the skin.

NOt having had an allergic reaction thus far doesn't mean that your child is guaranteed to be allergy-free for life. Allergy prevalence has climbed to 25% (that is, 1 out of every 4 people) and continues to rise. Even so, there's still a much greater likelihood (75%) of not having an allergy than having one.

If you still want to be cautious, go with foods that are considered to be unusual allergenic sources: beans not closely related to soy, lentils, rice, bananas, avocados, potatos, and tapioca are a few that come to mind immediately.

Also, vacuum to keep down dust mites and cockroach droppings, and to get rid of pollens, but otherwise don't keep your place too sterile. A predominant theory holds that allergy is on the rise because we keep our environments too sanitary now, and this does not allow the immune system to learn to recognize enough of the molecules that surround us as normal and safe in infancy and toddlerhood, when the "training" of the immune system responsible for allergy takes place. However, dustmites, pollens and cockroach droppings are common allergens (although these allergies tend to develop more in school age kids than babies). If you child does have an allergy to something that's difficult to avoid or give up, often cutting down significantly on exposure to things that your child is also allergic to can reduce or eliminate an allergic reaction to other allergens.

As for books, talk to the pediatrician about getting information on what to feed your child as he develops. If I remember correctly, "What to Expect in the First Year" also has a good infant feeding guide in it.

Have fun and the party!

R.

try the book Super Baby Food

Wow, there are tons of awesome foods for vegaterians. You can google it. Look for healthy snacks. I am sure you will get a million recipes. Your son should be able to eat anything you do. As long as he can chew it. Thats Gods plan, that why babies are not born with teeth, their systems can't digest it. SO, as their teeth come in you can introduce anything to him one at a time, just to be sure he is not allergic to it. Usually it is milk products. But if he is not getting a rash you are fine.
Good Luck
N.

I agree with what a few others have already said. If you don't have any history of allergies, go ahead and give them to your son in small increments over a few days.

As for a good vegetarian idea to replace the tradional birthday cake that is also mostly allergen free, try the Namaste Brand cake mixes and other baked products. They contain way less sugar than regular cakes and you can add your own fruits to them. My kids and hubby love it when I make their muffin mix and add in fresh blueberries. Next I am going to try their cake mix and add in carrot puree. You can get their products at places like Henry's Marketplace, Sprouts, and I think Whole Foods.

As for what to serve for the party. It depends on who will be coming and what age they are. Also if they are vegetarian or not. If you have meat eaters than you will want to have at least one meat dish. If you have young kids, anything that they can eat by hand is usually easier (chips, fruit, veggies, pasta, quesadilla's, etc.)

For my DD's "official" 1st birthday party (she will turn 1 on Sunday) at the end of May we will be having Hawaiian food catered in (my family comes from Hawaii). It will be a big to-do with like 50+ people. So my DD will get small bitefuls of everything I am sure.

Also, we do have a history of food allergies between both DH and myself. So we have been slowly introducing her to foods over the past 6 months. Plus she still doesn't have any teeth so she still can't eat much adult food unless we mush it up for her.

Have fun and take lots of pictures!

check out weelicious.com for recipes, nutrition, lists of what to feed when and more...

Honestly, you're worrying too much. Go with your Mom intincts and have somne food for everyone and have some fun. At my daughters 1st bday, I made her a cake, her friends cupcakes and a cake for the adults. simple foods like jello, cherrios, crackers and fruit for the babies who can eat and regular food for the adults. Just have fun and take lots of pics, they grow up way too fast :)

Hi-
Like you, I'm vegetarian & I still breastfeed my 13 month old son. At this point, I feed my son just about everything I eat (except nuts). Assuming your son hasn't shown any allergies, I think you can start adding more & more foods to his diet. I started giving my son oranges, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc. roughly 2 months ago & he loves them. As far as the party goes, just make whatever foods you & your guests will like, and feed your son what he normally eats, plus a small cake or cupcake for the big event. & Enjoy his first birthday...it's so much work, but it's so fun too.
A.

Have you seen the book Super Baby Foods? It is an awesome guide for the first 3 years of life and advocates a completely vegeterian diet. I believe at age one, your now toddler can start to really eat a lot more foods such as diary, egg whites, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, citrus fruits, tofu, whole grain pasta, sweet peppers, and some finely grated raw vegetables. What about some sort of whole grain pasta salad?

Have fun!

I have been using this website to find out what foods are safe for my 11 month old and have found it very helpful. It only seems to go up to 12 months but you can probably get a nice size list of things that are ok

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

Congrats on your 1st Birthday!
You can find a lot of great info on BabyCenter.com and the "What to Expect" books layout all kinds of food advice.

I just brought my 3 year-old son to the Allergist yesterday because of his constant runny nose and ear infections. And he told me that the "Avoidence" theory for preventing allergies is being questioned because the number of allergic children has actually increased. The thinking today, is that it is good to expose your child to food items early. The idea is the body won't have an allergic reaction to them if it is already used to the food. So you could help by eating the food yourself and introducing through your breast milk. This goes for cats/dogs too - have your child play at a friends house who has animals early on.

My Dr. is Jonathan Corren, M.D. at Allergy Medical Clinic, Inc. 11620 Wilshire Blvd., #200, LA CA 90025 ###-###-####

He didn't give me any published material on this or I would pass that on.

If I were you I would go ahead and make that tofu&peanut salad that sounds awesome! It is nice that you are concerned but just make a couple of things and let the adults decide what they are going to eat or offer their kids.

Good luck on a fantastic celebration!
-E.

hello there!
I am feeling like I am quite the unhealthy mom after hearing this!
:)
I am totally into organic fruits and vegetables and do what I can to keep my family safe (like shop for almost everything that comes into our home from a wellness company) but for my little guys 1st birthday party next week, I am trying to not go overboard (like I did when my daughter turned 1) so we are just having cheese and cracker appetizer type stuff.............fruit, veggies and dip, etc, and then ordering pizza and having cupcakes and cookies and ice cream.
My little guy eats everything at this age even though he still does have breast milk all the time too (probably around 6 or 7 times a day as well). He does NOT like baby food at all anymore so we have to give him "real" people food...........so he eats it all......like fruits, veggies, cheese and crackers, pizza, all that good stuff!
:)
Hope that helps.
And hope I don't sound too unhealthy!
Just so you know, I hate Wal Mart and McDonalds......so I am on the healthy side of the fence, just not all the way over to tofu yet....that'd be a hard one for me with my meat eating man hubby...........but i did eat at the Veggie Grill yesterday and think I could con him into thinking that it was meat, cause it was YUMMO!!! YEAH FOR TOFU!
;)
S.
www.MomsOnAMission.US

If he is 1 year old, pretty much all foods are okay. Just think about choking. Cut foods into small enough pieces. Even creamy peanut butter is okay if you keep it thin.

I would suggest, though, that when you intro some foods, give small amounts and see if your child has reactions before it's completely incorporated in you child's every day diet. Anything with nuts, dairy, citrus and berries can cause allergic reactions. Look for rashes;especially around mouth. With nuts, watch for breathing problems or swelling in and around the mouth. Find out from doctor what the dosage of children's Benedryl your child needs and keep it on-hand in case of allergic reaction. You probably won't need it, but it's always good to be cautious.

As for a birthday party for 1 year olds, keep nuts out. Ask the babies' parents about any known allergies. Mostly, though, cake or cupcakes are more for the older kids and adults anyway. You may want to use 1/2 cup of naturally sweetened apple sauce instead of sugar (lessen liquid in receipe about 1/3. This is not for allergies - just healthier.

You can feed him pretty much anything, as long as he can chew it ok. Stay away from nuts and honey as i believe he has to be at least 3 before he can have honey and they say that holding off on nuts for as long as possible prevents them from developing a nut allergy.

Also, hotdogs, grapes and raw carrots are choking hazards so be extremely cautious with those items.

It's also a good idea to indroduce new foods slowly, for example if you want to introduce something new, do it at a mealtime where you can watch him for 2-3 hours afterwards for any sign of allergies. Also, wait 3 days before trying a second new food.

Happy Birthday to your little one and congrats on making it through the first year mama!

M.
www.sittersnow.com

Super Baby Food Book by Ruth Yaron
It's available on amazon.com

We've made the Bunny Cake and it's always a hit (no sugar or eggs); very moist and tasty and healthy.
Many other great ideas for the party in the book.
good luck and have fun

Try subsisting oranges, apples or pears for your strawberries in your salad. A pasta dish should be fine. Pasta salad, deviled eggs, fruit salad... Just keep it simple and prepared ahead of time so you can have fun at the party as well.

Check out the website "askdrsears.com" they have a good list of foods and when they should be eaten. Also, the cuisinart webpage "www.cuisinart.com/recipes/recipe_group.php?recipe_group_t...; has some great food ideas as well.

J.,
Who is eating the food and what are their ages? Can you substitute another berry for your spinach and berry salad? Try blueberries or cherries! My son loves cherries pureed with banana. They are not allergenic. I would buy organic though as cherries can be high in pesticide residue. I know you are referring to peanuts being allergenic, but in case you didn't know - tofu is not good for babies or adults really, either unless you are menopausal. Un fermented soybeans like tofu have high levels of phytic acid. This acid interferes with iron absorption. (iron is essential for babies and toddlers). Soybeans also are a phyto estrogen. This is why menopausal women take soy products. You don't want to be giving estrogen to a baby boy - or a girl for that matter - they develop breasts and enter puberty too soon. Long term exposure to estrogen also is linked with breast cancer. I wanted to mention this to you.
Good Luck -and good for you for nursing still! :-)
D.

Get the book SuperBabyFood. She tells you all about what food you can start at what age as well as how to make your own baby food. It is a GREAT book.

By one I think we were feeding our kids soft tofu stirred up with other things like pureed veggies. Yogurt (a lot of yogurt) though you should try to limit the sugar. We stirred almond butter into the yogurt and babyfood prunes. I know around 1 year we also introduced them to cheese. REALLY TRY TO TRANSITION TO TABLE FOOD AS SOON AS YOU CAN. The sooner you do this the more likely it will be that you and your child will eat the same foods.

Try the book Super Baby Food it is a great book for pinning down a timeline for food introduction!

Hello,
I have a 18 months old.....he is my first....and I'll tell you that is hard to make everyone happy and not worried about the food, but one year is the age that we introduce a little bit of everything to our little one except sodas and candies off course. he should be abble to eat pieces. What I did was a table with kids food that was shorter, so kids could easly get to it and drive the attention away from the adults table. They all munch on colorful shapped jellos , baby carrots, kids cokies, punch, and a little bit of hot dogs, pop corn....they always love those and is not always that they can eat something different than their diet (It's a PARTY!!!).....you can make some salad.... but in my case the adults just munched all night long on pizzas and hot dogs. If ALL your family and friends are vegetarian than go for vegetables, salads....but if they are mixed....nothing better than a little bite of pizza every once and a while.....just make sure you have enough tall trash cans with lids so kids won't dig up and put them in places that every one can see (this way you won't see much on the floor) and make sure the kids table is very colorfull with baloons around to get their attention. You will see that they will stay aroud there and will forget about adults food unless the parents want them to. They love jello with shapes and you can make faces with pieces of fruit. Another thing to keep them in one place, happy and safe is to designate a play area....can be a room or if outside, separate with baloons, paper straps or anything similar....and you can make a coloring area and put all king of games with little chairs.....I did and they stayed there, leaving only to eat of their special table and going back to the play area.....they feel more independent doing those things them selves and you hae some rest. Well here are some ideas....you can go from there.....You can log on www.partycity.com and get lots of ideas also. Good Luck and put a lot of kids songs and games....they will have fun and get tired.
S.

At that age my daughter was eating just about everything. She was eating hummus and pita bread long before she was a year and a strawberry freak by six months. She also was nursed at that age. She generally ate whatever we ate within reason, all fruits and veggies, meats, and she went right from breast milk to soy and rice milk with no troubles. She also was eating eggs and cheese with a passion. If they are not used to a lot of solids you may want to start off slowly, but most foods should be safe by a year. She was easting peanuts and tofu at that age as well, as for your salad (that sounds yummy) she would pick out all the berries and not touch the spinach, I can not get her to eat spinach in any form!

check out the birthday section on familyfun.com. tons of ideas

Per www.babycenter.com, the foods to avoid for the 4-12 month age is: citrus,egg whites, honey,peanut butter,wheat or wheat products,shellfish,tree nuts, things that you/hubby may be allergic to, cows milk (after 1 yr. old it is highly recommended that they have WHOLE milk),large chunks of food, small hard foods.

From 12 months to 36 months, foods to avoid are: low-fat milk,any foods that pose choking hazards,and highly allergenic foods such as egg whites (until age 2), shellfish/tree nuts/peanut products (until at least 3 yrs. old).

Kiwi fruit is also a highly allergenic food. I know because my girl is allergic to them. It can even cause swelling of the mouth and throat. You can read about kiwi allergy online.

At this age, they aren't really "aware" of the party food... they can only have certain things anyway. So it's mostly for the adults around to feed them. On the side, just make appropriate foods for your son, then the adults can have their own food. If there will be older children around, finger foods are great.

One good dish to do with tofu is to cut it up in cubes, and put "ponzu" sauce on it and/or with a little sesame oil drizzled on it. Ponzu sauce is a great Japanese sauce that comes bottled and can be found in the grocery store. Also good is acorn squash...cut it in half, take out the seeds, sprinkle a tiny little bit of salt & brown sugar on it, put it in the oven and bake it until done. *if you wash the skin of the acorn squash, the skin gets real soft after baking and you can even eat the skin... it's real healthy and lots of fiber too. (but I would not give baby the skin part, he might choke). It's a whole food that you can eat everything not just the inside. It's so good! Also good is bananas... cut it up and put it on sticks to eat or add other fruits on it to make a fruit "shishkabob." Also good is a rice dish of some kind... for mine I cook rice (white or brown and in the amount you need) add edamame soy beans to it (you can find it in frozen bags in the grocery store) and then season it with salt and "nori" (Japanese seaweed) and whatever else you feel like. It tastes great. Also good is hummus and pita. Also good is: couscous (it's so easy to make and good. It just comes in boxes at the grocery store). Also great is "soba" or "somen". This is a Japanese "noodle" dish... it comes "dry" just like spaghetti.. .you cook in it boiling water with a little added salt and oil for about 7 minutes. Take it out of the boiling water & drain, you eat it by dipping it in "soba" sauce which comes in bottled in the Asian section of grocery stores. It's really good and kids like this too. It's made with buckwheat. Maybe not for your son now (use our judgment), but for the adults. There is also a great Japanese cucumber salad called "Namasu." Take out the cucumber seeds, thinly slice the cucumbers, soak it in salted water for an hour, drain, put it in a serving dish, add equal amounts of soy sauce, sugar (or Splenda) and a little bit of Rice vinegar to taste. There is not really a "recipe" for this per say, but just adjust the ingredient amounts to taste. Once it is all mixed, let it sit for about an hour or more for the flavors to "marinate" into the cucumbers. You might want to try Japanese dishes... there are LOTS of vegetarian dishes and they taste great. It's fun too and not the "typical" foods people are used to. Or, how about veggie pizza? Or, veggie spring rolls (Thai style). If you don't know how to make it, just buy it.

Good luck and hope this helps!
~Susan
www.cafepress.com/littlegoogoo

J.,

Unless you have a strong history of food allergies, it is probably safe to introduce just about any food at this point. You may want to talk to your pediatrician if you have specific concerns. The reason most folks recommend that you introduce foods one at a time and space the introductions at least several days apart is so that if there is a reaction, you know what has caused it and can then avoid that food. My 18 month old is allergic to dairy and soy proteins. Which I have to tell you is a real pain in the butt. I nursed him until about a month ago when he self-weaned so we were both dairy and soy free for close to a year and a half but we still eat that way at home because he's dependent upon me cooking for him - there really aren't any convenience foods he can eat. But fortunately he eats pretty much everything other than foods with dairy or soy and has since he could gum and swallow it. We just cut everything into small pieces. My main concern at a year old would be avoiding choking hazards, not necessarily food allergies - unless there is a family history that has got you worried.

Some good party foods - kabobs (can easily be vegetarian), couscous, black beans/rice/corn. Hmmm, depends on what you like...

T.