Any organic/healthy foods and snacks out there that a toddler will eat?

Question

My 19 month old daughter loves stuff like Chef Boyardee's Ravioli, Kraft Mac & Cheese, but will not hardly touch anything healthy/"home-made". She does love peas, but spits out any other vegetable. I have tried giving her healthy, home cooked foods & snacks with no success. Does anyone have any recommendations that your toddler has actually liked? I'm looking for things in the store and recipes. Please, only answers from people who have tried the foods on toddlers and have had success. Thanks!!

Answer 1

It is important to remember that most toddlers go through a stage where they refuse to eat more than one or two foods. Many go through several stages like this, through out childhood!

Also remember that when offering a new food, you may have to get the child to taste it up to 15 times before they develop a desire to actually consume it.

The important thing with a child this young is to offer CHOICES!!

My son is 17 months old, and will eat mostly anything....the main reason being that we offer plenty of healthy choices and keep unhealthy foods out of the house. Fill the bottom shelf of your fridge, at her eye level, with yogurt, fruit cups, applesauce, etc. Buy the yogurt with cartoon characters if you must. And applesauce doesn't have to be bland! We just bought the Berry mixture, with rasberry, strawberry, etc in it. They also make Strawberry Banana, Green Apple, Fruit Punch, tons of different flavors, and there are atleast 10 varieties of fruit cups out there. Try the ones with pears/pineapple/peaches in jello. Jello has no fat or calories, and if it gets her to eat some fruit, who cares!

At breakfast, lunch, and dinner, offer plenty of choices and just let her eat what she wants. Don't argue with her, or make a big deal about it, or it will become a power struggle, and believe me, she'll win.

Make her a plate, on it, put some ravioli, a couple of veggies, and a dinner roll. Put whatever you're having for dinner on there, and THEN add something you know she'll eat, like the ravioli or mac and cheese. Then just give her a spoon and let her have at it. Eventually, she'll eat. A tip though....if she eats all the ravioli/mac and cheese/etc, she needs to eat ONE bite of everything else before she gets more of that favorite food.

Also, give her a multi-vitamin, to be sure she's getting all her nutrients. Equate (Wal-mart's Brand) makes the only one with calcium and iron!!

In addition, remove sodas and such from the fridge, and in the front, where she can see, put Juice, Milk, and Decaffeinated Tea. Let her pick which one she wants. To solve the chocolate milk crisis that most parents have, use Ovaltine. It has lots of vitamins and minerals and most kids love it.

I know this may not be exactly what you were looking for, but I taught day care for 3 years and this is what works.

Also, please remember that most kid friendly foods are made these days with added vitamins. Spaghettios offer a full serving of vegetables and are fortified with Calcium. Kraft Mac and Cheese has lots of calcium, too. Just because it's "Kid" food doesn't mean it isn't healthy. Just try to look for the things she likes, but with added vitamins and minerals, you may have to buy different brands, but she probably won't even notice.

Also, Nutripals are great. The little milk shakes and cereal bars taste GREAT, even from an adult perspective, and they're good for your daughter.

I promise, this, like all other crisis, will pass.

Answer 2

Try soy milk, flavored chocolate if your child loves chocolate. In the baby food section, there are healthy cookies, crackers and fruit snacks that my grandson still loves. He's 4 yrs old. Use whole wheat bread for peanutbutter sandwiches which can be homemade or bought organic. Make cookies from the good stuff but don't tell her they are good for her. There is something in Italian food children love, especially the tomato sauces, so use that to make healthy low sodium ravioli. Ravioli comes premade in the grocery store for convenience. It is just a matter of presenting a lot of different things at different times so she thinks she is in control of her tummy. Daycare helps with some of that exposure. I am a grandmother and my grandchild thinks he is entitled to an afternoon snack after daycare of Wendy's chicken nuggets, no salt french fries and a Hi-C chocolate milk. His words. The best thing you can do is offer choices and make them healthy. A child will eat if they get hungry enough and will eat whatever is available if there is not another choice if that thought helps.

Answer 3

My daughters love Yogurt (organic foods section). They eat it for breakfast every day. They also love green beans....they would live on just those if they could! To get them started on the vegetables, I started by mixing them in with their mac and cheese, and now they like to eat them on their own.

I'm afraid that I don't have any other really good recipies that a picky eater would like. My kids usually eat almost anything now, because with me it was either eat this, or eat nothing...I know it sounds bad, but when you're on a tight budget, you can't always afford to make 2 different meals for the toddlers. It actually worked to my advantage, though, because it helped them to learn to try new things.

I hope this helps....Good Luck!

Answer 4

Yes that is a bit much for a snack. The mixed fruit and crackers would be good(depending on the bowl, a toddler bowl is ok), and give water with fruit. so if you child eats fruit as a snack don't give them apple juice, OJ etc as a drink. Water is the best with snacks. hope this helps.

Answer 5

One suggestion is give her a smoothie. I just made one for my hubby who has a sore throat, and we all had some, I bought a bag of frozen fruit ( honeydew, cantaloupe, peaches and grapes) added some froz strawberries, a banana, an orange, some yogurt, and a carnation instant breakfast mixed with milk. This made enough for all of us and my son couldn't get enough of it!
I also buy fruit juice boxes, not sure if you have them where u are, they are called Sunrype and have 2 servings of fruit and veggies in every box. You could try V8 if you don't have Sunrype in your area. As long as they are getting the nutrients I don't think it matters if they eat it or drink it!

Answer 6

If your daughte rlikes Chef Boyardee, try making spaghetti with whole wheat pasta(or not) and make a nice sauce with tons of veggies in it, broccolli, carrots, mushrooms just about anything and cook it well so the veggies are not to hard. Some of the vitamins are probably cooked out but my daughter loves this, you don't have to put meat in it either, i don't. Something else is yoghurt. Whole wheat pitas are good too my daughter will eat almost anything if it is in a pita I tell her to" look inside and see what treat is in the pocket" and it works every time! try fruit too, even though it has sugar in it is still good for them. Oh yeah, you can also cut sweet potatoes up like french fries and bake them in the oven like fries, if i do that and give my daughter a bit of ketchup to dip them in she loves it. Try veggies and dip as well alot of kids will eat stuff if they can dip it.

Answer 7

Switch to Annie's ravioli in a can and organic kraft mac and cheese. Compare the labels. Peas are fantastic to eat...they have twice the protein then other veggies.

Answer 8

All of the Gerber Graduate foods are lower in sodium and sugar than adult foods--that's what I use. Good luck!

Answer 9

My son likes dried fruit, raisins, he also like these broccoli bite things they might be hard to find but they are breaded and have cheddar cheese and broccoli in them I found them in the vegetarian section at my grocery store.