Child Care Feeding Question

Leftovers from last night's dinner-- intetionally take out a portion for his lunch so it is kinda premade homemade.

I love to go to new seasons and they have lots of organic crackers that my one year old twins love. They also have in the very back organic chicken nuggets that have whole grain breading (made by earths best) that my kids really enjoy. If you shop at safeway, there is an (O organics brand) chicken sausage that I often chop up cold and feed to them and they really like it. Their favorite flavor of this sausage is chicken apple (the spinach and feta is too spicy). I cut it into slices and then quarter the slices so it's not a choking hazard. these are my favorites - good luck!

I used to fry up cubes of tofu - my child liked them cold just fine. I also mixed baked squash with peanut butter (any nut butter would do)which made the peanut butter not sticky, more nutritious, sweeter and made a very nice sandwich, which I then cut into little bite size pieces.

Hope that's helpful.

Best,
Sarah

If you are buying organic and natural foods, then pbj is pretty nutricious when made on whole wheat bread with whole peanut butter, no added sugar or hydrogenated oil, and when the preserves don't have added sugar. I get the fruit juice sweetened preserves. It is easy to make, store and eat. Peanut butter and banana is good too. mmmm

Grilled cheese on whole wheat bread with veggie sticks.

Left overs from dinner.

Dry cereal is a hit with kids. Be careful, the organic ones mostly have a lot of sugar. I eat plain cheerios.

Ak Mak, here is s a pic http://www.amazon.com/Ak-Mak-Sesame-Crackers-4-15-Ounce-B...

Ak-mak is good with cheese and veggies. Or you can make tuna salad and he can dip his crackers in that. If you pre make that the cracker will get soggy, so he has to dip or the day care provider can spread the tuna.

If he likes to dip, make him some bean dip and good corn chips, like Guiltless Gourmet, and let him dip his chips. It isn't much different than a tosada. Give him the veggies on the side to ballance it out.

My parents are totally into healthy eating. They used to make us a sandwich with whole wheat bread, cream cheese and black olives. You can put sprouts on that too. Make your own sprouts and let your little one watch them grow, then eat them.

I like a sandwich with toasted whole wheat bread, mayo and tomatoes.

Get a whole grain tortilla or wrap, spread cream cheese, layer thinly sliced strips of bell pepper, tomato, cucumber and green olives in a pile down the tortilla just off center. Roll it up, folding in the bottom. I wrap that in plastic wrap, because it doesn't fit in a bag. It holds together well after sitting a couple of hours. Very tasty. You can do one dessert style with cream cheese and preserves. Cherry preserves with the cream cheese reminds me of cheese cake.

Cut the tofu into slices and fry them in a small amount of oil. Season them with soy sauce, parsley, time, rosemary sage and nutritional yeast while you are cooking them. He can eat them as finger food or you can make it into a sandwich and cut the sandwiches, any of the sandwiches, into smaller pieces he can handle. You can also make a tofu pate that he can dip his ak mak crackers in. I would mash the tofu, add some lemon juice, garlic, spike or salt or soy sauce maybe some nutritional yeast. Never made it, just guessing some stuff.

I hope this helps. Happy eating!

Breakfast items seem to be a hit anytime of the day...scrambled eggs, pancakes, muffins, french toast, ceral, oatmeal and so on. They are easy to tear into small pieces and you can pack them full of all kinds of nutrious stuff and they are still tasty.Also things like yogurt, pasta, and soup (slightly mashed up so it is not sooo soupy) all pack lots of tactile experience, texture and nutrition in a small amount.

cheese quesidillas (sp?), jelly sandwiches (no peanut butter yet), tuna sandwich, slices of turkey, any pasta with sauce, just to name a few. Hope it helps.

I agree that jarred foods are a great quick healthy addition to a kid's menu--when I was pregnant and tired I sometimes ate them myself!

With my first I was way worried about choking and didn't feed her carrots or even apples for just about ever (this backfired when low jaw-muscle strength was implicated in late speech--oops!). In any case, though, at age one leftovers of casseroles and stews are nice because they are soft but they have textures, and usually they are tasty ;). We also eat all-organic. If you don't cook from scratch (or need a break) , the organic box mixes are good; I add frozen vegetables besides whatall they direct.

For small containers I use fruit-cups (like the Dole type that they make for school lunches) with the lids that come with some yogurts, which happened to fit and seal. It's a bit of a trick to find the right match. (I had to buy the fruit-cups, which were not organic, for an 'emergency preparedness kit' for a school ... somehow I acquired about 8, so I must've bought them twice ... anyhow, they are crazy-durable and a very useful size for kid-snacks and baby-servings.) I tried the Gladware of that size and it was utterly impossible to open. Some friends are switching out of plastic and using the small flat canning jars for wet-food transportation.

I hope some of that was useful :).

L.-

Check out the website called wholesomebabyfood.com. It has great advice, and a lot of ideas for healthy meals. I find myself referring to it all the time. It even has daily meal plans, and information about how much food vs. breast milk babies at each age range should be consuming.

Enjoy!

I am not really sure what you are asking - I think you want some food suggestions...so here are a few!
Quesadilla cut into small pieces (scissors cuts really well!)
yogurt
fruits and veggies, like you said
tofu cut (we did it straight from the box)
pasta
leftovers from last nights dinners (a one year old can eat nearly everything)
salmon, meat (if you eat it) cut up small
Hummus to dip things in (pita or veggies, or to eat from a spoon)
canned veggie/noodle soups, rinsed well (a lot of salt usually) perfect sizes for veggies if you are in a hurry

hope this helps...again, not really sure what you are looking for - kids can eat anything that you want to give them (almost!)

I did not completely follow your question but I think you are asking what to send with him to the sitter's. You don't have to feel pressure to have complete meals like you have at home -- "quality" finger foods are fine! Soft flatbread, hummus, cream cheese sandwiches, almond butter sandwiches, bananas. All of these are, of course, available organic. There is even Horizon organic American Cheese (just like Kraft, in single wrapped slices) available at Whole Foods.

Also don't think that b/c your child is 1 year old, you have to stop the jar stuff. My children are 3 1/2 and 2, and when I don't have fresh veggies available or I need something healthy and quick to accompany something like Mac N Cheese, I give them jarred baby food ("Earth Baby" and other organic brands) and they practically lick the jar clean.

Check out this website, it is my new favorite. :)

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

They have homemade baby food ideas for 4 months through toddler years, recipes, and advise about trasitioning between types of food.

My kids love garden burger the orginal kind.. also when they were a little bit older I bought those organic rice bowls/veggie bowls made by Amy's.
lenc

I agree with the wholesomebaby food website others have suggested. My son is also a year old and pretty much eats what we do (minus a lot of salt and/or hot spices).

He loves safeway organic mushroom ravioli and turkey meatloaf. We do a lot of frozen veggies and just cook them longer so they're soft.

He eats what we do (which makes it easy since I'm not making a separate meal for him) we just make sure it's mushy enough and diced for him. A side benefit is that I'm now only eating what we'll feed him so I'm eating much better!

Have you looked at Trader Joes and PCC for ideas? Trader joes has whole milk yougurt I loved to feed to my kids, its thick so I felt like it was eaiser for them to feed themselves with out making a huge mess. You could also send leftovers from your meals, what he would eat at home.

Have you tried the Super Baby Food book? It has some great recipes for making finger foods for toddlers. It is written by Ruth Yaron. Another good one is the Baby Bistro (not positive of name at the moment), you can also look up some information about baby food cookbooks on-line and find one that fits your needs. I just picked up the two I have at Borders in their parenting section.

L.,

PB&J cut into bite size squares
Spaghetti (they don't care if it's hot or not)
Gerber pasta pick-ups (think mini ravioli stuffed)
cooked chicken cut into bite sizes
rice
ravioli
penne pasta (my 18 month old daughter loves the Applebees Chicken Penne Pasta with cheese)
Macaroni and Cheese (both my kids are Kraft kids)

He can eat anything we can, it just needs to be softer and in bite sizes for little ones. These are a few of the ideas I could come up with off the top of my head. Alter them as you so choose. :)

Hope this helps,
Melissa

Hi L. - I'm W.. From reading your message, it sounds like you understand the importance of nutrition. So I am recommending the best that is available to our kids.

You can give this to your son as a snack knowing that he is getting something delicious and packed with nutrition! The company that makes them uses natural sweeteners and are created in a pectin base. The reason this is so important is that citric pectin is known to support immune function and it can help with healthy illimation, very important for my children.

2 to 4 is what is recommended a day. Contains the phytonutrients from the fruits and vegatable that are sometimes difficult to get my kids to eat. They look similar to other gummy bears but these contain pomegrantes which are know for their antioxidant and phytochemical power!

I understand there are a LOT of choices. If this sounds good for your son, let me know if you are interested as I'm sure you would want to read up on it - W.

Are you saying your sitter doesn't provide food? Then I think that sending cut veggies, fruit and cheese is a good idea. If you sent leftovers would your sitter heat them up for him and then help him eat them? I don't think you would need to send commercial premade meals.

You can buy all sorts of safe dishes with covers to put his food in.

Hi,

I didn't see anyone mention cottage cheese. Also rice cakes and pretzels are great fiber. Fruits and veggies can go a long way if you mix it up a lot (go beyond peas and bananas). Mandarin oranges, mango, kiwi, apples, grapes, pineapple and pear are some other options. Dried fruits are also a great. For vegetables, avocado, zucchini, cooked carrots, spinach, etc.

Hope this helps!

Hi--I dont know if anyone has made this suggestion yet, but if you want ideas for healthy, homemade snacks and finger foods, check out the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron, if you havent already...some things are really simple, some a little more labor intensive, but if you make a big batch of something, you can freeze it into portions and use them when you need them...i have relaxed a little with food for my daughter now that she is over 2, but when she was that young, i was really into making sure there was not a lot of sodium and sugar in her food, so i made most of it, and i still make sure that the majority of what she eats is organic...one of the things she really liked were these veggie burgers I made from lentils, oat flour, veggies, etc. they were a good snack or meal and traveled well...good luck!

Here are some things my kids enjoyed at that stage:
- Toast squares, with melted cheese or sesame seed/soybean butter
- Meatballs (I got the frozen ones at TJs) with tom. sauce
- Cheese/spinach filled ravioli (we like the frozen kind in the big bag from Costco)
- Cooked whole wheat pasta spirals (I would cook a whole bag at once, then freeze it in a ziploc freezer back and break off a chunk to defrost for a meal)
- tofu squares
- mild chili, with or without meat
- cheese quesadillas
- pancakes/french toast - make a big batch once a week and store them in the fridge, we like banana chunks or blueberries in our pancakes and that boosts the nutrition. I also like the NutriRich whole grain pancake mix (Snoqualmie Lodge brand)
- toaster waffles - they have lots of healthy varieties now that are whole grain or with omega-3s or flax seed in them
- cereal bars - love the TJs brand
- small pieces of nitrate-free deli meat
- whole milk yogurt
- soy-based hot dogs (my kids like the Smart Dog brand)

For each meal think in terms of offering him a starch, a protein and a fruit or veg. Make lists for yourself of everything you can think of in each category, then when you draw a blank, go back to your lists. There is really very little he can't eat once he gets going on self feeding and table foods, so just try lots of variety and see what he likes!

beans are a good option. there is a can of organic beans that have kidney,black and pinto beans. there is also garbonzo beans.

Is your childcare provider licensed? If so, licensed providers do have the option of requiring the parents to provide their children's meals and snacks, but they are supposed to encourage them to follow the guidelines of the child nutrition program that other childcare providers have to follow. Are you happy with your childcare otherwise? As a licensed childcare provider myself, I consider it my responsibility to do my best to take as good of care of the children as their parents would if they were there. That doesn't mean that I will do everything the same, but I will do the best I can to accomodate the wishes of the parents. Licensed childcare providers are required to include their policy on meals and snacks, as well as typical examples, in their parent handbook. If you would like to see my parent handbook as an example, go to www.myfathersgardenpreschool.com I just want you to understand your options. It may be less expensive to find a childcare provider who will meet your needs than it would be to provide all of the meals and snacks for your son.

Hi,

My daughter is turning a year and in the infant room at her daycare I needed to provide the food. My doctor had advised me that by 9 months she should be eating what we eat. Some of the meals I had to make slight adjustments if it was a spicy pasta or something like that, so she had her own version. But I sent leftovers from dinner for her lunches. It took a lot of stress off of me to not have to plan an extra meal. Sometimes she liked it and ate it up other times not as well, but I think she makes up for the calories in her snack times, breakfast, or dinner.

Cooked peas, chopped carrots, blueberries (watch the change in bm.s) Cherrios, noodles, chopped zucchini, home made french fries, All cooked but not cooked to the point of softness.