Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Do not feed the baby. . .

It seems like every week we approach another big milestone or transition. Lately there's a big transition looming over us. . . moving from baby food to table food.

For several months we've been feeding our little bottomless pit 4 times a day. Every feeding is about 4 hours from the last starting with breakfast at 7am. Every feeding consists of a jar of baby food and a bottle of formula. We're chicken and still waiting for next weeks greenlight from the pediatrician to start him on milk instead of formula, but we are working on altering his feedings so we eliminate a bottle and start feeding him a full meal of table food.

And that is where the problem starts. What full meal of table food should we feed him? We've been feeding him bits of our food for months now. We feed him anything we think he can chew or will dissolve in his mouth. He'll eat anything. He loves mushrooms, green beans, black olives, bread, potatoes (anything from mashed to french fries), cheese puffs (I'm a bad influence), and lots of other things but still to this point it's just been bits of food more for novelty than sustenance.

So far the only full meal I've discovered is ham and cheese. I put slices of ham and cheese on a slice of whole grain white bread and toasted it in the toaster oven to melt the cheese (as glue for the bread and ham). Cut it into bite sized pieces and he ate it like it was the best food ever. . . however, the boy can't live on ham and cheese every day.

What full meals do you feed a new toddler who only has 3 full teeth?

5 comments:

Sarah said...

Hmm... toddler foods. Try cottage cheese, shredded cheese, slightly smashed peas, chicken cooked in a crock pot and then shredded is really tender and easy to eat, any kind of pasta noodles, you can buy a can of soup and drain off the broth (chicken or beef and veggies work well), scrambled eggs, baked sweet potato, baked squash, baked apples, peeled and quartered grapes, clementine orange segments cut in half. That's all I can think of right now. Hope that helps!

Amy Anderson said...

Good question! I'm eager to read the responses.

Anonymous said...

Well lets see. We feed Peyton breakfast, lunch and dinner and he gets a sippy of milk with each meal. The rest of the day he gets water. He is a picky eater so I will try to think back when Carter was little. He ate about anything. We have given him grilled cheese, waffles, mac and cheese, shredded meats, toast, pancakes, french toast, soup drained, spaghetti, lasagna, mahsed pototoes,yogurt, veggie nuggets, veggie burger, cut up fruits, and veggies and cheese. He pretty much gets whatever we eat. Sometimes he will eat it, other times he won't. I would just continue giving him a bit more of what you eat. If Peyton cleans his tray I give him more or sign to see if he wants more. Usually he will turn his nose up if he is done. It is tough knowing if they are getting enough, but just remember their tummies are still very small so they don't need a lot. Just follow their lead and when he seems not interested anymore he is probably full. Hope that helps you some.

Amy

~Joe said...

Savannah has 8 teeth and I feed her what we eat for dinner(shes eaten everything from salmon to steak), she will usually have toast and fruit for breakfast (soft fruits like bananas oranges grapes even I've never tried apples) and milk and for lunch a pb and j sometimes just pb sandwich with a baby snack (they have baby finger foods)and more milk, she drinks milk and apple juice throughout the day im pretty amazed at what she can scarf down without any back chompers, from what I heard babies saliva is pretty powerful so I'm guessing that helps

caramama said...

We've been feeding the Pumpkin whatever we're having for dinner since before she was 1. Some things she likes, some she doesn't. We almost always finish the meal with fruit for her, so if she doesn't eat much of our food, she fills up on that. But really, she usually eats what we eat. Especially rice and pasta dishes.