Hi Moms,
My 10 month old son seems to be getting tired of baby food and yogurt that I give him every day. He likes picking up food and feeding himself... I give him the Gerber puffs, Cheerios, and the Gerber cheese puffs. He only has two teeth on the bottom - his top two are just starting to come in. I'd love to be able to give him something else he could pick up and eat but not sure what he can handle with just two teeth. I have tried small cut up pieces of pasta but he didn't seem to like it. I also tried some peeled grapes but he didn't seem thrilled with that either. Just wondering what you moms feed your kiddos at this stage? My daugther at this age was very picky but did eat pasta. thanks for any ideas!
Awesome suggestions everyone - thanks so much! I never would have thought about beans, tofu, pears, peaches, veggie burgers, etc. Even grilled cheese, why didn't I think of that? I guess I had a mental block. Thanks so much for the great ideas - much appreciated!
Cook some yams (peel, slice, and steam) and cut them into small chunks. They are extremely soft for finger foods (my 6 month old eats them). Also, chunks of tofu, banana, cooked apple, canned peaches, ripe pear, green beans, cooked carrot - pretty much anything that you can cut up in small pieces. The 2 teeth thing shouldn't matter - he can gum anything soft. My friend's 2 girls didn't get ANY teeth until 14 months and they ate everything!
At around that age my kids just ate whatever we were eating, it was either cut real small or put into the blender. You'd be really surprised at what they can eat with their gums. A cute snack idea is to slice bananas and roll them in some rice crispies (makes it easier to grab).
My son absolutely loved steamed butternut squash (Trader Joe's, Costco and sometimes Safeway have it already cut up into cubes) as well as carrots. You can also roast the squash/carrots/parsnips with a little olive oil, little salt and some Herb de Provence and roast for 20 min @ 375 degree oven (make sure a fork easily goes through, then they are done). Also, he loved eating frozen blueberries (Trader Joe's has an organic brand of very small blueberries, so you don't have to cut them) as well as frozen raspberries. Of course, there is banana (we would cut it in quarters) as well as tofu, again Trader Joe's and Safeway both have a brand that is Teriyaki flavored (a little sweet), so they really, really like it. Also, cheese. My son wasn't a big fan of cheese, but my daughter was.
Hope this helps!
L.
When my kids were around this age, I would make them grilled cheese and cut it up into cheerio sized bites...they loved it! The lack of teeth doesn't really matter at this age because they just gum everything. I would make scrambled eggs, bananas, avocado, pasta with sauce, rice. We don't have any allergies so I wasn't afraid to try eggs or peanut butter early on (of course, I didn't do the peanut butter until sometime after their first birthdays because of how sticky it is). I love the site weelicious.com. It has a ton of healthy recipes on. Check it out to see if there might be anything on there for your daughter.
I make Fench Toast with just the egg yolk, cinammon and whole wheat bread, cut up into little bites. Any kind of soft fruit (bananas, kiwis, oranges, berries) cut up into little pieces. Pasta, small bites of chicken. A lot of times when you first give them something, they don't like it, but keeping putting it on their tray and they'll eventually start eating it. They can chew pretty well with just their gums!
Blueberries! Cut the big ones in half. My DD loves them, even now. Cheerios can also be nommed with few teeth and they come in many flavors. Cut up banana into slices and then those into quarters. Consider a food sock (I never used one, but other people do) and putting in apples, pears, pineapple.... Keep trying the pasta. Try different shapes. And remember, these foods are all new, so give him a chance to eyeball them a few times before he really loves/hates them.
My kids ate frozen peas!! Loved them and they helped with teething pain.
food is one of the most controversial subjects among parents...this is what I fed BOTH my kids, BOTH are healthy, active, happy...
I followed the "feed them what you are eating" crowd...I nursed both until just over a year old, but they ate their share of table food.
some ideas:
avocado, cheese, veggie stuff (we don't eat meat, and I limit the say that they get, but they do like it), tofu, really boiled chicken (which my kids did not eat), quesadillas, pasta, ravioli, soft fruits (pears, peaches...), a company called Dr. Praegers makes vegetable nuggets (broccoli and spinach, not soy based), veggie burgers, steamed vegetables (broccoli, peas, cubed butternut squash, potato, carrots...I could go on!
Basically, with two teeth, he can still gum things. Just cut things up small and give it a go! Stay away from skin (which you are already doing). By daughter actually had a harder time with cheerios - which don't dissolve easily, than with table food. If it is not crunchy (i.e. potato chips) and can be cut into small pieces, I think that you could try it!
My kid fell in love with banana rounds. Just slice up a banana and let him eat the little circles. They are solid, but mushy enough to be gummed. Now that she's five she loves peanut butter and banana sandwiches on wheat bread.
My daughters loved peas (whole, intact peas...not strained/pureed ones) and blueberries at that age. I didn't think my younger daughter would be able to eat the blueberries because she didn't start getting teeth until she was 12 months old, but she somehow managed to eat them without a problem.
My daughter has the 2 bottom teeth with 4 coming in on the top right now and is 10 months. I give her cooked beans, avocado (she loves this), frozen blueberries, strawberries, bananas, shredded cheese, or cut cheese, grilled cheese sandwich, pears, tofu, rice, scrambled eggs. I feed her whatever we are eating and break into small pieces and always test first to make sure whatever I give her is soft enough.
