Thursday, September 20, 2012

What Libby Loves -or- Tried and True Toddler Foods

I often see lists of toddler/finger foods for little ones.  I find them less than helpful.  Nearly all of them say "diced pieces of soft fruit."  Duh.  But that doesn't help me when I go to the grocery store and there's 50 different fruits to choose from!  So I thought I'd compile a little list of things that my daughter-nearly 15 months old-likes to eat.  Hopefully it helps you with finger foods too!

Fruits (all of them chunked up to bite sized of course):
-Banana
-Canned mandarin oranges
-Fresh, diced peaches (if the skin comes off easily I'll peel it otherwise I leave it on)
-Kiwi
-Apple sauce (she just discovered those squeezies and I love them too!)

Vegetables:
-Anything that has been cooked in soup-partiularly:
-Potatoes
-Carrots
-Zucchini
-Sweet potatoes
-Mashed potatoes

Dairy and Protein(we avoid a lot of dairy with her because I think she has a sensitivity to it):
-Yogurt
-Meatballs
-Meatloaf
-Peanut butter and nut butter spread very thin on bread (the new recommendation states you can give as young as 6 months and it won't affect allergies.  I gave her a taste one day and waited.  Gave another taste-because sometimes it's the second taste that let's you know about allergies and waited.  No allergic reaction)
-Beans (she LOVES beans!  Esp those slow cooked all day in the crockpot)

Carbs:
-Crackers, Crackers and more crackers! 
-Goldfish crackers
-Club crackers
-Ritz crackers
-The mini PB cracker sandwhiches
-Cooked noodles
-Pizza

So as you can see-there's a decent amount of food your little one can eat!  We've recently started doing away completely with all babyfood-even toddler meals-and giving her all table food.  If there's something she can't have or won't eat enough of, I supplment with this tried and true list of foods I know she will love.  Just an example of the table food she's eaten with us this week:

-Macaroni noodles in red sauce
-Turkey soup with barley, turkey and carrots
-Mashed potatoes
-Pizza (cut in very small pieces given one at a time b/c if she stuffs this one she will choke.)
-Turkey Divan-she will eat the noodles, turkey pieces and broccoli

Hope this helps you out!

1 comment:

Nicole said...

love this list! Libby & Leo have very similar food likes. We haven't tried peanut butter yet though! Maybe soon.