Toddler Food

Even after getting through the introduction of solids, the challenges with food continue. There was a long time with Z (maybe a year?) when I could feed him almost anything. His biggest turn-off was always texture. If I could get the right texture or disguise it enough, he would eat it. I would cook and chop up kale and blend it into other things and he would eat it. Kale. Really. I also fed him plain yogurt with wheat germ and tahini mixed in for his lunch every day. Wow, those were the days! :)

I based Z's first year of food on the book Super Baby Food. There are a lot of things I really liked about this book, but let me say it is not for the faint of heart. If you are overwhelmed by solids, don't start here. If you feel like you want lots of information and want a PLAN for the nutrition of your child, pick it up. I found the book extremely helpful for coming up with ideas of what to try and when. It has a chapter for each month and charts that show the different kinds of food to give for a balanced diet (one leafy green veggie, one orange veggie, one citrus/vitamin C, etc.). It has an appendix listing fruits and vegetables and how to pick them, cook them, store them. It's premise is that you are making most of the food for your baby, but it has lots of helpful information besides that.

Much of the good nutrition Z had in his first couple years of life is due to Super Baby Food. I am a picky eater. It is hard to make your child eat stuff you would never eat. But having the lists of things to try and some good recipes in the back helped me overcome myself. The kale, tahini, wheat germ? Papaya, avocado, kiwi? I would have never thought to give those things to Z. Like I said, I'm a picky eater.

So, anyway, after conquering that first year or so, just when I started to feel good about myself because my kid ate kale (did I mention Z ate kale?), Z started to get more discriminating in his tastes. And there was no rhyme or reason to it that I could tell. One day pasta was the best thing ever. The next day he wouldn't even put pasta in his mouth. The cornucopia of vegetables dwindled to store-bought baby food peas. It started to be a real challenge just to figure out what to feed Z every day. And by this point he was wanting to feed himself, so I was looking for healthy finger foods also (it takes A LOT of puffs to fill up a toddler, dang it).

Then one day I found...

Gotcha. I have no answer. I found no book that solved it all. It was just trial and error. It took a lot of try and try again. I kept lists of snack ideas and, even if Z refused something once, I would try it again another time. So here are some tips on feeding a toddler:

1. Try & Try Again. Don't just offer something once. Try it several days in a row; then, if still no luck, try it in a week or so.
2. Get Them Excited to Eat With You. Give your child one thing they like and then have them try something new that you are eating. We made a big deal that Z was eating the same thing we were eating. Sometimes this worked.
3. Avoid a Battle of Wills. This was a big one for Z. If I showed a strong desire for him to try something his spidey senses would take over and his mouth would snap shut. If I nonchalantly offered something, he would try it and sometimes even keep eating it.
4. Keep them Hungry. Keep snacks between meals to a minimum. This is easier said than done. It was hard for me to not feed him when he said he wanted something. But it's amazing how a cracker here, some apple there can really add up. Of course he's not going to eat broccoli at dinner when he's really not that hungry to start with.
5. Limit Where (not just when) Snack are Eaten. One of the best rules I ever made for my own sanity was that snacks are only eaten at the dining table. Sometime when I was exhausted and pregnant I started to let Z eat in front of the TV. It's true what they say about mindless eating in front of the television. And besides that, the mess was infuriating. The last thing a pregnant woman wants to do is bend down to pick up munched cereal off the floor. Besides the mess, however, limiting where Z could eat snacks meant he was less interested in eating. If eating a snack meant he had to sit at the table, he managed to do without the snack.
6. Keep A List. I mentioned this above: keep a list of snacks and foods to try. Keep the list even of the things he didn't like. So many times I gave in to crackers for lack of inspiration. Having a list helped me keep a variety of things and cut down on the brainpower required at each meal. So, here is my list- perhaps it will help you. Remember to try the same thing presented differently: cooked carrot, raw carrot, carrot mixed with peas, etc.

SNACKS/FOODS to try for a toddler:
> tortilla with beans and cheese (like a quesadilla), beans and cheese with a tortilla on the side (the wheat ones are good), tortilla with turkey meat and cheese
> pasta (orzo is a good start, then move on to more interesting shapes like fusilli) with tomato sauce, ground turkey and zucchini (cut up very small so less detectable). Substitute other types of meat and veggies. Gnocchi was a big hit with Z. And I get the multigrain pasta (only Barilla is edible in my opinion).
> -balls: meat balls, sweet potato balls, pea balls, peanut butter balls. You can make just about anything into a fun finger food with a little bread crumb and egg white. The back of Super Baby Food has a lot of recipes for those.
> Toast with turkey and cheese (I had to chop up the turkey so that Z wouldn't peel the entire turkey layer off and eat just the cheese). Pita with turkey and cheese. English muffin with turkey and cheese.
> Healthy raisin bread (like the Ezekiel brand) with cream cheese
> Mashed potatoes with roasted or baked chicken and broccoli or peas. Mix it all together and they might just eat it all.
> Mild chili- black beans, corn, petite cut diced tomato, ground turkey. Make it very thick and hearty and it's easy for them to spoon in.
> Yogurt with stuff mixed in: fruit, wheat germ, tahini. Yogurt and wheat germ make a complete protein. Tahini is a great healthy fat.

I'll try to think of some more... but I actually lost my list. :) I would love to hear ideas from other Mom's too!