Daily menu for a one-year-old?

Question

My daughter is almost one and she is not great at eating solid foods yet (mostly eats just mashed/pureed stuff). Now that I am weaning her off of nursing, I am more concerned about what she is eating in terms of solid foods and what she is drinking from her sippy cup. I want to make sure that I am feeding her an appropriately balanced menu. Any websites or suggestions are also welcomed

Answer 1

My daughter is one, and she refuses ANY pureed food, but she loves the Gerber graduates. They have diced fruits and veggies, that are very soft, they also have spaghetti and other pasta's, stews and soups, Gummies that are easy for babies to chew (although I'd wait a little while for those) they have crackers and puffs(kinda like dry cereal, but they dissolve) and they have cereal bars.

Answer 2

Well you could continue breastfeeding, she would probably still get everything she needs from 2-3 breastfeeding sessions a day. (1 before bed, one in the morning and one when you get home from work). Just FYI.

If you are serious about stopping breastfeeding consider offering her goat's milk as it is closer to momma's milk. http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032400.asp
You can also offer her formula or follow up formula. Humans are not really meant to be weaned until 2-3 years (18 months if you are really pushing solids). So why offer her cow's milk which is hard to digest and may cause anemia when there is either breastmilk (best) or goat's milk or regular formula (second best).

Also consider just feeding her real food. I never offered my son baby food. And the odd time I have made cereal (like oatbran) or purreed something for him he wouldn't take it. He prefers real food. His favorites include steak, potato, brocolli, pineapple, strawberries, yogurt, anything with garlic, chili and burrito (filling not usually the tortillia just due to mess). Here is an article about why child-led introduction is safe, reduces allergic reactions, choking, and other problems:
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

The other great thing about just feeding her what you eat is in forces you to eat more fruits, veggies, less salt and unhealthy fat and less processed foods. Which is good for everybody. And if you let her eat off your plate it reduces the watching how much she eats and worrying blues.

Answer 3

Parents Magazine, I believe the October 2006 issue, had a great 2-3 page spread of 25 or so finger foods that baby can feed himself.

At 1 year, the ped told us we could go cold turkey to whole milk or gradually.

By one year, you should be able to feed her what you eat--within reason and if you eat healthy! I'd avoid deep fried foods, variety meat, and chunks big enough to choke on. Some docs will tell you to still hold off on egg whites, peanuts and other nuts and nut butters, shellfish, especially if your family has a history of allergies. I think they say hold off on citris too, but that may be ok after a year old.

My doc said things cut in pea-size pieces are good. Make sure the tougher veggies and other things are well cooked so they are soft, but not necessarily all mashed like babyfood.

I started at 10 months by grinding whatever we were eating and letting her taste some, even enchiladas or lasagna in a baby food mill/grinder. One meal a day was baby food and one meal was partially or all ground table food. By one year, we were phasing out babyfood altogether, using whatever we had left. Before a year, we cooked the devil out of some frozen mixed veggies, cut the green beans and other things as necessary, and let her pick them up and eat with her hands. That's slow, but it's good for them to learn.

Just try a small amount of soft, pea size pieces of fruits and veggies and add babyfood to fill the gap, see how she handles it, then increase the amount, then gradually move on to other foods like cheese and meat.

I fed my one year old the past month: mashed potatoes, potato cubes, small cubes of baked chicken, peas, carrots, pot roast, chicken noodle soup, peaches, cheese, banana, egg noodles cooked with chicken and broth, baked beans, potato salad, lasagna, cheerios, yogurt, cottage cheese, baked sweet potato.

As far as balanced menu goes, I try and give fruits and veggies every time and a some meat or beans at at least one meal. And I try to go for variety. Other than that, I go by the poop. If its too hard, I give more fruit.

Answer 4

Not one to judge on what kids that are one eat, my son got his teeth very late so we kept him off a lot of solids for the fact he didn't have teeth to chew with. We got a lot of comments from family about oh just give him this or that. Our main goal was that he was feeding himself whether he was eating mashed up stuff or not. I would focus on encouraging your child to use silverware, and to pick up things on there own. We found that the Gerber snacks worked nice, especially the little dried cereal bites that melt as soon as they hit your mouth. Also a big help to cut sugar intake is to give a half and half watered down juice, not only does it help cut the sugar but it saves money on how much juice you use!

Answer 5

theres all kinds of food out there..All beef or chicken hot dogs cut into circles then cut into fours you need to make sure everything is cut up very small.My daughter loved ramen noodles messy but she had fun eatting them and playing with them.Also canned fruit with no sugar added also diced up into small picese

Answer 6

this is what i did
a jar of fruit at breakfast and whole milk
a jar of veggies at lunch and whole milk
a jar of meat/veggies at dinner and whole milk