Feeding Toddlers...

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ps8

Senior Cook
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Anyone have toddlers? What do you fix them for lunch? And out of what you fix, what and how much do they eat? Some days I get so frustrated trying to figure out what to fix for my dd! Our standards are pasta, cheese, green beans or peas. Just curious about other parents...
 
We feed our daughter anything that we are eating. Of course we need backups because she does not always want what we have to give her. She loved her veggies and fruits so those are always on the menu. Things like beans, corn, melon, pear, banana. We have found that she likes heavily flavored things (spicy too). We thought she was not crazy about ground beef until I gave her some that had a lot of spices in it. She gobbled it up and wanted more. Last night I made burgers on the grill (with a lot of spices). She loved eating pieces of that.

We also give her some less healthy things like pizza when we get that. We also give her chicken fingers and fish sticks, but we feel guilty when we do that. They are always accompanied by fruits and veggies though.

The other night I made chicken with couscous and she loved the couscous. Of course she needed a bath after as a lot of it was in her hair, but she loved it. Pasta it also a big one. It is so cute watching her slurp up strands of spaghetti or lo mein.

Basically though we just give her whatever we are having. She is 15 months old now and no longer has any restrictions on what she can eat (aside from whole nuts because of the choking hazard).
 
I feed them fairly soft foods. I used ground meats to make

meatloaf or meatballs. Chicken, turkey and beef all work well. I put a lot of different vegetables, cut very small, in chicken or beef broth to make a very toddler friendly stew/soup. I never worried about quantity. Like my pediatrician said - they will eat when they are hungry! They are supposed to NEED 1 tablespoon of every type of food (meat, veg, fruit, starch) for every year of age. 1 tablespoon is not very much and if the food is nutritious it will meet their minimum needs. Sometimes they will eat more and sometimes less. I just made sure that over the course of a week they got a variety of foods. Both green and yellow vegetables, rice, pasta, bread, fresh and canned fruit, meat and fish. Fish is especially easy for a toddler to eat.
If he doesn't like a vegetable on his plate he will usually eat it in his stew.
 
I agree about not worrying about amounts, unless the doctor thinks there is a problem. My daughter eats very well usually, but sometimes she does not eat a lot at all. Usually that is when she has teeth coming in and it hurts her to eat. If she is hungry though, she will eat. For now we let her dicatate how much she will have. She is growing well and getting plenty of nutrition so far :)
 
Great! I feel better. We also offer the same as we are having. Sometimes she eats it and others she doesn't. I was surprised one night when we were having taco salad, I didn't give her any of the meat becasue I figured it was too spicy. But she really wanted some, so we gave her a small bite and then she went to town on it! But she won't do that every time, so there are times when she hardly eats anything at all. Then there are those times when she needs to eat, but not the rest of us. I forgot to list oranges as one of our standards. She's a fruit eater for sure! Thanks for your input!
 
Yep our loves oragnes too. Grapes are one of her vavorite. She loves prunes, but we are careful not to give her too many :LOL:

As far as spicy things go, she really surprised us at Passover this year. We had some VERY hot freshly grated horseradish. I was nervous, but wanted to see how she would like it so I gave her a very little piece. She made a funny face and then DEMANDED more. This stuff could bring a grown man to his knees it is so hot, but she gobbled it down like it was candy.

Oh I almost forgot she also loves pickles and olives. My girl has good taste in food so far :)
 
Here's a good article on raising adventurous eaters. http://www.parenting.com/parenting/article/0,19840,1181768,00.html
I thought it had some good tips. We generally fix Aidan a little plate of food for dinner but more recently he eats what we do. I try to give him balanced meals with meat, fruit, milk, and complex carbos. He's not very interested with veggies but I'd like him to eat more of them, any tips? He loves berries, blue being his fave. Sometimes I feel like he doesn't eat well enough but those are the days we don't either. We're all switching to a healthier diet, as of 2 weeks ago, and not snacking on the bad stuff.
 
Same here. We have twin 3 y.o. boys, and a 20 m.o. daughter. I just fix them the same things we are having. Usually, Ellie, my daughter, will clean her plate, but not all of it makes it into her little mouth. Some goes in her hair, some on the walls, some on the floor, etc......
 
That brings back a fond memory of my oldest daughter...she was sitting in her high chair eating macaroni tubes while I was busy at the kitchen sink. They were little short ones...don't know what they're called.
I heard her say, "Look mommy...rins!" I turned to see that she had slipped a tube onto each of her little fingers, like rings. She also loved okra, which she called wheels.
Things my kids liked when they were toddlers were: any kind of potato or pasta; green beans, which they ate with fingers; broccoli, because it looked like trees; chicken fixed any way; meatloaf; burgers; fish sticks; eggs (fried, scrambled or soft-boiled); bananas; grapes; cheese; cottage cheese; ice cream; puddings; jello (plain); applesauce; cream of wheat; and fruit loops (shame on me).
We didn't have much to spend on groceries back then, so I didn't have to worry about introducing them to the more exotic things.
 
You guys all are so lucky! My 13 year old ate everything we ate, never a problem. My son, 20 months, won't even taste anything! He started out eating everything we ate -all fruits and veggies, meats potatoes, etc. Now -- we are down to waffles, english muffins, bananas, pears, yogurt, maybe cheese and his absolutely favorite - crackers. I can sometimes squeeze a jar of carrots or sweet potatoes but that is it. He wants to eat all the time but only those foods. He is on vitamins, needless to say!
 
my wife has dedicated every second of her life to making sure our son is ok, and well fed. unfortunately, that leaves just about all of the other house and yard work and daily responsibilities up to me. :(

i must say tho, everyone who said mom's don't get a sick day or a day off weren't kidding. dw has sacrificed everything, all day long. because of it, we have a very happy, affectionate, and healthy boy (that's a good eater :) ). i may joke around about her, but dw is a great mom, and i couldn't have asked for a better mother for my son.

so, since she knows that i will make or pick up dinner everyday, and often lunch for she and i, dw is then free to cook just for our boy.

pasta with tomato sauce and grated parm cheese, or pasta with butter and either parm or cottage cheese is almost a daily thing. often it is served as a side with meatballs, sweet italian sausages, or veal and peppers, cut into small chunks or minced. and everything has to have extra sauce on it.
he even love spinach and cheese raviolis, or potato and cheese pierogies, of course with melted butter.

when he gets tired of pasta, we usually feed him mashed potatoes. with mashed are ham steaks, hamburgers or hot dogs, chicken nuggets, or fish sticks.

recently, we've discovered he likes eggs almost any way, like over easy, hard boiled, or in a cheese omellette.

if we're out somewhere, we'll get him pizza. pork ribs and pulled pork sandwiches are good too. just don't let him see french fries. he won't eat anything else if he sees fries.

the one thing we've never had a problem feeding him are fruits and veggies. he loves grapes, oranges, bananas, and apples. a small bowl of halved grapes, citrus supremes, and banana or apple slices are usually served as an appy before dinner.

then, he'll eat a cored whole tomato, or raw red bell pepper, or boiled corn sliced from the cob, or steamed carrots, or even blanched broccoli in italian dressing.

finally, he gets the aforementioned meats and starches.
 
What an affecionate thing to say of your wife, Bucky! Your son has two very loving parents.
I can't get Aidan to eat eggs, I think it was his dad's influence. He hates eggs and brainwashed Aidan to hate them too.:rolleyes: He loves rice though! I found that he is too smart for me now, last week, we had pizza and tried to sneak some veggies under the cheese. He wouldn't even try it, he knew I had tampered ith his pizza. Soon, Callum will be thrown into the mix and maybe I'll be able to get Aidan eating new things so he can show his brother how it's done.
 
That would be a good way to handle it, Corazon. He'll be proud to be the big brother.
My mother taught kindergarten for 30 years. She always made a point of paying special attention to the older child when there was a new baby in the house. Often the older child feels kind of forgotten with all the attention that gets paid to the little one, but if he feels like he has an important part in taking care of the baby or helping mom because she's so busy, it helps his feeling of self-worth.
 
Anything you can possibly get them to eat (except nuts, honey, and of course alchohol) feed them. I know a two-year-old who is so picky she pretty much lives off of pediasure at this point, which I think is sad, because she isn't developing any sense of taste preference. I remember when I was about that age I loved shrimp, despised red meat (I still do half the time) and hated vegitables. But they're all really different, even when compared to their own siblings. Just get your youngster to step out of the box as much as their willing too and avoid forcing them to eat anything, ever. The reason you don't want to make it like a punishment to eat something is because they'll develope a dislike for that food that could last they're entire life.
 
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