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!