I have few food rules when it comes to feeding my 15-month-old kid. As with all of my parenting, I start with a vague idea of what I want, adapt where necessary, stay flexible, and carve out a groove, developing and solidifying my tenets over time. I have noticed certain things I seem to be veering toward and they are:
* Provide a huge variety. Keep trying. I want her to eat widely and not be afraid of food or trying new things. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen!
* No added unnecessaries as the norm. They are ok as an exception/special occasion. Not super-fanatical about this, but as I’m in the kitchen half my life anyway, it doesn’t hurt to make treats from scratch for her.
* Water or milk to drink. She has either organic cow’s milk, soy milk or formula in her bottles. We rotate so she gets used to it all. (not being pretentious with organic bizzo, I just try to buy organic dairy wherever I can. Or stuff from local dairies). She has formula for the one day a week she’s at day care, and I personally find it can be useful for added iron + things that veg kids might miss out on. Especially the ones who only eat toast and grapes for a month. Anyway, no juice at the moment. I really want to avoid a sweet drink habit for as long as I can.
* No food specifically aimed at gender differences because of my massive personal bias about that. Cheese for girls? Effing ridiculous.
* Food as close to either it’s natural state or what we eat as adults as possible. She’s had whole grain bread (WITH the crusts) and natural yogurt and things like that right from the very start. May as well get her used to it now so I’m not forced to cut wonder bread sandwiches into butterfly shapes into high school.
* Food is good, fun, shared with family and hopefully never to become a battleground. They say pick your battles, and food won’t be one of them for me.
Pretty normal stuff, I guess. Food is just a huge deal for me in my life and I suppose I think about it more than usual. But part of my wanting to keep food fun, and partly because I’m inherently lazy terrifically laid back I’m not obsessive or hypersensitive to it. As long as she eats well most of the time, I’m doing my job.
Anyway, onto the snack stuff she’s been eating lately…
Cheerios, bananas, halved grapes. Ate the lot. Yes, banana. She’s into it now.
A bit of everything to keep it interesting. An apricot, a prune, some dried apple and raisin, a couple of yogurt buttons, sliced pear, grissini, organic puffed rice (from the bulk bins at the health food store) and a kiddo gingerbread man cookie. (Little Bellies brand)
Plain corn cake, string cheese (hated it), blueberries.
Banana chia muffin and kiwi. Loved it all.
Yogurt buttons, flourless orange cake (courtesy of Styling You!) and Nutri Grain. Not overly a fan, but wanted to offer something other than cheerios for once!
So there you have it. What she eats and why she eats it. Hope it provides a little inspiration! And as usual, I’d love to hear what you do, and if you have any food rules.
Absolute Amy says
July 11, 2012 at 12:37 amGreat post, you've given me some great snack ideas for my 16 month old daughter. We just got back from Greece where she was introduced to a whole range of new food and has developed a taste for olives which is fantastic as neither her Dad or I like them. She eats them and then spits out the pip!! My general food philosophy is no added sugar, home made (where possible) only water or milk to drink and as close to fresh and natural as possible. Little Miss just had a breakfast of banana, strawberries and a mandarin. Yep, she loves her food! A x
Zoey @ Good Googs says
July 11, 2012 at 12:39 amLove these ideas!
I think the older Riley gets (even though she's currently in a somewhat fussy period) I realise that more and more as long as things are on offer she will eventually grow out of her sauce must never touch pasta thing (or whatever else it is!) Much better to just let it be and she'll work it out in her own time.
I switched over to whole milk for both when they were 1. For Riley because if I'd continued to give her formula she would never have eaten anything! And for Piper because she eats so much anyway that it wasn't really necessary. Plus I'm cheap. And milk is cheaper than formula.
I do things very differently with Piper and it's hard to tell if she's more adventurous with food as a result or she's just a different character. Either way the fact that she guzzles down curry and broccoli and mushrooms and just about anything you put in front of her is nothing to sneeze at.
Veggie Mama says
July 11, 2012 at 12:48 amI hope Abby likes olives! I love them. Sounds like our philosophies are very, very similar. Love that fruit for breakfast!
Veggie Mama says
July 11, 2012 at 12:52 amI think we'll have more fussy periods too… you just never can tell, can you? Although I do love a kid who eats curry! haha I nerdishly caluculated the cost per bottle of formula vs milk, and because I buy organic milk, the price was .2c difference. Plus neither Matt or I drink cow's milk so we wanted her to drink soy. But I also didn't want her to be that weird kid who only has soy in the fridge when friends come for sleepovers – social suicide! I remember going to friend's houses and dying if they only had skim milk. gross!
Molly says
July 11, 2012 at 1:13 amI am loving your philiosophy on food with your little one…when my husband and I have children one day, this is exactly what I would love to provide for them…home made food, not too much sugar and pleanty of variety! My husband came from a family that only ever had steak, eggs and potato for dinner, and he was always afriad to try new foods….after 7 years though I have managed to turn him on to more veggies, and different cuisines. I'm sure your darling little girl will grow up enjoying her food just as much as her Mama and Papa.
x Molly
Veggie Mama says
July 11, 2012 at 1:45 amOh no! How boring! I have friends like this, and I guess that's what prompted me to not cut her food choices short so early. It's so hard to try new things as an adult, I'm impressed your husband eventually relented! Imagine life without Thai food…
flyingdrunkenmonkey says
July 11, 2012 at 2:19 amLove your approach! We did Baby Led Weaning with Lily and I think it's the best thing we ever did. She's currently going through a defiant age but will normally eat anything we put in front of her – we always get comments when she's eating sushi and she loves chilli and fetta and all things that people don't expect “babies” to eat. As I said she's being defiant now and will only eat noodles or bread or yoghurt but I know she can and will eat other things. It's so damn important to me that she grows up with a love of good, healthy food. She also really loves to help in the kitchen and will probably cook from a really early age – something I didn't do. I suppose it helps that Mr Monkey is a chef 🙂
flyingdrunkenmonkey says
July 11, 2012 at 2:21 amOh and wanted to add that I also don't give Lily juice – she either has milk or water. (except for a Boost when we go shopping but she doesn't know that's juice! :p). My mum gave her juice once when I wasn't with her and now she asks for juice every time she's with Granny.
Veggie Mama says
July 11, 2012 at 2:24 amHa isn't the phase weird?! Abby went from eating everything, to that whole toast and grape phase. Now she eats everything again, except for cheese and pear. I sort of did mostly baby led weaning, especially from about seven months on. I was interested in seeing what she chose and interested in seeing how she developed if she was left to her own devices. I'm so glad I did, because she eats totally independently now and that's going to be awesome when the new baby comes. It's been a messy journey but a productive one! There's not much I won't try on her. And I love when she sits on the bench and “helps” me… I just about die and think I should have 20 more kids 🙂
sar - Accidentallentil says
July 11, 2012 at 4:24 amMy philosophy's pretty similar to you. Though my 16 mo would eat ONLY cheese if she could. So.much.cheese. It was one of her first words. One thing i remember reading about a LOT was that you should sit down and eat with your kids. That happens at breaky for us but who wants dinner at 5pm? so that doesn't happen. So far it doesn't seem to have ruined her.
Veggie Mama says
July 11, 2012 at 10:58 amHaha we're the opposite! I use her breakfast time to get some stuff done, but I do try to sit with her while she eats at night… cos I ain't eating at 5pm! It's easier now she eats at little table and chairs instead of a high chair. It's actually really cute 🙂
Jade says
July 12, 2012 at 3:00 amWe're going through such a tough phase at the moment (literally nothing other than veg risotto, ravioli, toasted cheese sandwiches, weetbix, eggs & peas) and it's doing my head in! It's so hard to deal with as it's all healhty (only use wholegrain bread) but she's not getting enough variety. I'm taking a few idea's from this post and hoping for the best 🙂 xx
Melinda says
July 17, 2012 at 2:09 amMy toddler turns 3 tomorrow and he is still only allowed milk or water. Sometimes on a Sunday morning I'll make fresh juice and water that down a bit for him but that's it.
As for food rules, I have always encouraged him to try different things and have always offered different foods. He loves olives + sushi and has since he could chew! He goes through fussy stages with certain foods but I just keep offering them and he eventually eats them again.
The baby is finally getting the swing of finger foods now which is lots of fun. Love seeing what you're feeding Veggie Baby for some inspiration!
Veggie Mama says
July 17, 2012 at 10:16 amFinger foods are super-fun! but oh so messy. Oh my goodness 🙂
Jess @ myheartisyourhome says
September 15, 2012 at 10:02 amCan I ask where you get your yoghurt buttons from? I have been looking for them in the supermarkets ever since reading this months ago, but I get lost in those places so still havent managed to find them! Do you know what other things they are normally sitting with?
Veggie Mama says
September 16, 2012 at 11:58 amI've not seen them in the supermarkets! Only the yogurt balls in the health food section. I get these from my health food store, out of the bulk bins!
It's a Circus in Here-Jess says
November 14, 2012 at 9:13 pmOur main food rule is that we will not walk down or acknowledge the aisles filled with crap food.No softdrink,bare min juice (special occasions only),organic popcorn (best switch ever) home made ice cream is better cause its really organic yoghurt with berries.And they have to try it once.If they do not like it after that at least they came to that decision on their own andnot because someone does not.
Veggie Mama says
November 16, 2012 at 10:38 amI love that try it once approach! Can’t wait until Abby understands that concept. I never go down the chocolate aisle or anything like that because I don’t like it, but I’ll have to see what the future holds 🙂