Monday, May 24, 2010

Feeding a Toddler

I have had some requests to do a post about what I feed Easton so I thought I'd share. Although I have degree in Nutrition, I wouldn't say Easton ALWAYS eats the healthiest, but I can tell you what we try to do and keep working on. I am not as picky as some moms that I know, but I do have my limits and I feel like we do okay.

Easton doesn't care for baby food anymore. He will eat baby cereal and some baby food fruits, but that is all. He hated any of the combo jars we tried and frankly I wasn't impressed with them anyways. Once he stopped eating baby food, I found myself scrambling to find things for him to eat. He had a few days of mostly Cheerios and crackers. But I wanted him to learn to eat other foods so I started looking.

To start with, I found a list of the best suggested foods for a toddler online. It agreed with what I know, so I wrote it down and posted it on the fridge. I added a few other things, but it is a great place to start. Now if I don't have anything planned, I can glance at the list and pick some things off of it that I know I have. If its on the list, its fair game pretty much anytime.

Here is our list:
  • chicken
  • avocado
  • banana
  • cooked carrots
  • sweet potato
  • yogurt ( I just try to buy what is on sale and stay away from artificial sweeteners. I don't spend extra money on baby yogurt.)
  • baby cereal (mixed with juice, milk, yogurt, baby food, sometimes peanut butter or jam)
  • oatmeal
  • cheese (Easton like string cheese a lot or just chunks)
  • eggs (he likes scrambled)
  • citrus fruit (he loves the Cuties)
  • red meat (ground beef alone or in left-overs)
  • fish (healthier fish sticks are what we have tried so far)
  • squash
  • tomatoes (any tomato based soup goes down well with Easton)
  • peas
  • broccoli
  • pasta
  • peanut butter (depends on the kid, but Easton does fine with pb.)
  • toast
  • apples (knaws on the whole thing), applesauce
  • bluberries, strawberries, peaches, etc.
  • grapes (cut up)
  • rice and beans (Easton loves this! I just cook rice and open a can of beans and drain them.)
Breakfast: Lots of time we do cold cereal for breakfast and Easton loves it too. He just eats plain Cheerios and milk. He also likes yogurt mixed in like his Dad and loves to drink the milk at the end. We also give him fruits with it or raisins.

Lunch: Left overs from dinner. If I can't feed it to him I try not to make it for dinner (such as things that are too processed or have too much sour cream and things like that). He also likes toast okay, more fruits, cheese, frozen peas or anything on the list above.

Dinner: Usually what we eat plus somthing else if he can't eat it. (We do salads for dinner a lot and besides sucking the dressing off of the vegetable, we have to find him something else.)

So that is what I am trying right now. If anyone has suggestions of other foods or meals I'd love to hear them.

Someone asked what foods we take on the go and really most of the ones on my list are easy to take with. We still do cheerios or crackers. Easton drinks a lot of whole milk.

If I think of more I will add it, but this is just a quick summary. I'd love to hear thoughts!

6 comments:

Keilah Palmer said...

Carson loves most of the things on your list. He also loves:
--tacos (with shredded chicken, tomato, cheese, avocado, lettuce, rice/beans)
--rice and chicken, usually with corn

Great post!

daddy dale said...

That is a great list. Our boys love the blueberries too and anything with apple butter on it as well. The youngest loves chopped pork with apple sauce.

There is a meal we make that the whole family loves that is super simple to make. Sweet Potato-Apple Compote With Pork Loin (Recipe credit to Robb Wolf). Chunk cut apples and sweet potatoes and throw in a 13X9, bake for around 45 min at 350. In a second 13X9 we put the pork loin and it cooks in about the same time. When the apple/ potato mix comes out, loosely cover for 5 min with foil. Thats it, super easy dinner.

~ daddy dale
Toddler Nutrition

Rob and Marseille said...

thank you for the ideas!

Mike and Kris said...

What a great thing to share!! Looks like our list too!! One thing I love to do is make pancakes w strawberries in them. They are easy to grab one for a snack later on too!!

Laura said...

Frozen peas were my daughter's favorite when she was younger. She still likes them, I just keep forgetting to give them to her. I LOVE your idea to keep a list of easy foods on the fridge for your kids. I might start doing that! Thanks.

GordonandChrissy said...

That is a great list! I love to get new ideas for snacks, too.

One thing that I always keep in my diaper bag for "on the go" is a little jar of lite diced fruit or peaches. At Sam's or Cosco you can get a big pack of the small cans of fruit. They're canned in their own juice, so they don't have a lot of extra sugar. I always have a plastic spoon in my bag so that it can all get tossed when he's done.

Thanks for the new ideas!