Food inspiration

[Sally81]

Hi all...happy new year to everyone!

Just wondering if anyone wants to share any quick, easy food ideas for little ones.

My 11 month old has become a pain to feed lately. He went off the spoon so has been having mostly finger food stuff , though in the last couple of days he seems slightly more up for the spoon again. However, he has only been taking bits and bobs at each meal before refusing anymore (except breakfast which he eats well.) I'm worried he isn't eating enough and feel I've lost the ability to make his meals fun and interesting.

Any tips, anyone, for tasty healthy little meals for him? I've got a couple of books but just thought I'd see if the family room has any fail safe baby dishes?

[Yak]

There are some useful threads with tips and recipes around - I think it's quite a common problem! I can't do multiple searches from my phone but if you type "lunch" or "dinner" into the search box you'll find them. Here's a good one

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,770930,770930#msg-770930

My baby is younger, but my failsafe recipe is quick pizza - basically toast smeared with tom puree then flashed under the grill with cheese.

[hellosailor]

I could have written this post myself about my almost 10.5 month old - looking forward to reading any replies!

I think there was a similar thread on this recently, will have a search...

[hellosailor]

Ah, yak, we crossed in the ether! That is indeed the thread!

Am going to try 'pizza' tonight!

x

[Mathilda]

I have the Little Dish book which is great, fail safe meals from it are the spag bol and the chicken pie. Most of the recipes are for spoon feeding though, I agree its difficult to think of interesting finger food meals. Can he pick up bits of pasta? Macaroni cheese is working well for us lately.

[Yak]

Yep, chick and leek pie also a good one - the yaklet picks and feeds himself the pastry crust and lumps of chick while I spoon in the sauce. Macaroni or carbonara also good with nice grabbable pasta shapes like radiatore (sp?). You can also get frozen broccoli florets which are good smeared with soft cheese, hummus, peanut butter etc.

Hellosailor, great minds or fools!? Hope "pizza" works well. Someday I think my boy will actually turn into toast - he would eat it all day long if he could! X

[Fuschia]

Frittata/omelette

Hummous and crudit?s

Cheesy mash or sweet potato mash

[Sally81]

Great ideas everyone. I'm getting A bit stressed about how much he eats. We make most of the above to be honest. The problem doesn't seem to be the taste, he appears to like most things but he has one or two tiny bites then refuses anymore. If he does take more he chews a bit then pushes it out again. Everything I make ends up in the bin at the moment. Anyone else the same? I just feel he's eating very little and that it can't be right.

[Fuschia]

It's normal, really

Think of it as him tasting lts of stuff he can't easily chew and swallow

All of mine have been like that and mostly they ended up good eaters so I am trying to be chilled out about the latest who seems to subsist on fruit and cucumber ATM! (plus milk)

[Sally81]

Oh that's good to hear Fuscia, thank you!

We tried mini pizzas tonight. His nursery tells me he eats them

There but same old story with mine tonight. A couple of tastes and nothing nothing more. Ended up having some fruit pur?e and at least he has a full bottle before bed. Will try some Mac and cheese tomorrow I think. Thanks everyone and feel free to share more ideas or let me know your kids are the same!

[Fuschia]

Try to focus on the breadth of things he tastes, rather than the volume ingested! And try not to limit yourself too early to a 'favourites' list becAuse the stage that follows is him doing precisely that, off his own bat.

IME

Eagerly hoovering up all sorts

Is followed by

Spoon refusal but gaily chomps on all sorts (broccoli!)

Is followed by

Seeming to actually swallow very little

Increasing fussiness

Which morphs into

A strict will/won't list

That persists till they are about 3/4 when finally there is a sort of food glasnost