Meals for 9 Month Old

Hi M., I worked full time until my little one was 10 months and then quit. We sacrifice A LOT!!- But it is so worth it. Anyway... I used to pack oatmeal,muffins,beans,cut up cheese, cooked and mashed sweet potato, carrots, peas, soup, and apple. I would make it and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then every night just throw some cubes in a container to bring the next day. they thaw and or the teachers can zap them quickly. Good luck- hang in there.

I highly recommend the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. It gives you month-by-month advice on what your child can/should be eating and shows you how to easily make your own baby food. As working parents, we found this to be an invaluable resource because we learned how to make our babies' food ahead of time and freeze it, etc. Now both boys (2 and 4) are great eaters that try a variety of foods - and I attribute this to their start with Super Baby Food.

I just used a stick blender and pureed our dinner for our son. His favorite was veggie lasagna! Some of his snacks were bananna, avocado, toast strips with blueberry (I nuked the blueberries and spread it on the toast), scrambled egg yolks and hummus. Keep in mind it sometimes takes 10-20 time to introduce a food before it is eaten. My son was pretty consistant with third time was the charm. Also when looking at a baby/toddler's food intake you should look at the range of food eatten within a 2 week period. P.S. I loved Super Baby Food, it was my baby food bible!

I had the exact same issue of trying to figure out what to feed my 10 month old. Luckily, he's not fussy so will eat what we give him. I gave him some cottage cheese, either by itself or with fruit or bits of chicken mixed in. I've also started to just give him the same food that me and my husband ate the night before. Last night it was chicken in a spinach curry sauce (sauce from trader joe's) with rice. THe night before ground beef cooked with onion and mushroom with a 3 cheese tomato pasta sauce jar added and served with pasta. My baby seemed to like both these meals a lot even though I was concerned about the strong flavors. Yoghurt is another good alternative that's easy. I hope this helps.

Hi M.,

Have you ever tried those little bananas? They're just right for kids size and they're packed with energy.
I think the cheerios should be ok to send him to daycare with. Canned pears are soft and easy to chew; just make sure it's in natural juice or rinse some of the sugar off at home and pack in a little container.

Rice steamed with a broth cube can be packed in a little container for him to have at daycare too. Actually, just about anything he can eat at home and isn't too messy for the daycare providers to clean up should be ok.

Sincerely,
-M

Whatever you decide to pack, be sure to discuss it with your daycare provider. This will help you understand any needs she has in order to be able to best care for and feed him in a group setting. The choices you mention are good, and you can begin to add more items to the variety every day or so... just keep some of the old and add one new at a time. Think about a good well rounded variety that will provide him all the nutrients he needs.

I provide the infants in my care cereal, fruit, and formula for breakfast, cereal/meat, veggie, and formula for lunch, and a afternoon snack of cheerios, toast, fruit, and formula. After stage 1, I make my own baby food with my brawny mixer. Whatever veggies I cook for the kids, I just take some out and blend them. As the infant gets older I just don't blend it as much and then later just cut it up in small pieces for finger foods. Gradually they eat more from the kids' menu and around their first birthday they are pretty much eating all of the kids' menu. As a licened facility, we are required to meet the guidlines of the USDA Food Program which partly reimburses all licensed family child care homes and non profit centers. We are not required to buy organic and we are not required to make our own baby food but we can. Another idea is when you cook for yourself, cook extra and freeze in little containers to take to day care. Why doesn't your child care provide food for your infant? If they are on the food program, they must serve babies too and not just the children over 1 year of age.
F.

I work full time. My big guy is 10 months as of last friday. He is really independent and does not like being fed baby food anymore. If I try to feed him, he wants the spoon. So, I do not feed him baby food anymore and he feeds himself. He is on a good schedule with sleep and eating. At 6:30am For Breakfast he usually eats some sort of fruit: blueberries, banana chunks, melon, mango and heated raisins, he also eats pancake or bread.
At 9am he drinks 8oz of formula and takes a nap.
He has a snack when he wakes up of cheerios/cheese/other finger food.
At 12 he has lunch, he loves frozen veggies: carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, sometimes red peppers. We get the stir fry veggies too, warm them up and tear them in smaller pieces.
He drinks 8oz of formula after lunch and goes down for a nap at 2pm.
He eats another snack when he wakes up, and at 4pm he drinks 4oz of formula.

He feeds himself. Sometimes for breakfast I make him smoothies with yogurt and banana and formula.

Hope this helps.

I work full-time and my daughter is in daycare. I have to say there is not much variety in what I pack, but there are certain foods she will always eat, so I try to give her those. Although, I think in the group setting kids will eat better.
Breakfast - applesauce (soemtimes mixed with baby food fruit) or a piece of banana and cheerios
Lunch - stage 2 baby food (doesn't like stage 3)
Snack - yogurt, cheerios, crackers (they have snacks for the toddlers that they are introducing to the babies)

I also just got the menu for the toddlers and circled some big kid foods she can try, so they will introduce her to these at daycare to help with transition to the toddler room.

Hi M.,

Have you tried to feed your son pasta or rice yet? They are easy for a baby to gum down and are small enough so they won't choke, you can mix in veggies as well to make it a healthy meal. Also try cut-up soft fruit, like pears, peaches, melons, blueberries, bananas. I have made homemade baby food for my son for a year now and I found this great website with lots of ideas for different age groupd,it is http://wholesomebabyfood.com/

Good luck on finding foods that your son likes, I say try to give him what you feel is right and that website does have some great ideas!

OMG. I am in the same boat- my daughter is the same age. I panic every night trying to make sure I am packing a nutritious variety of food. Some things I have found that work below (some of which I got from Mamasource!)- but I will be watching this for some new ideas. My daughter eats a lot and is starting to refuse daytime bottles which my dr says is ok (and good as it is about time for weaning) as long as she still gets BF at morning and night and other liquid during the day. We also try to get as much breastmilk in her during the day by taking sippy cups to daycare with breastmilk). Breastmilk is offered with meals in a sippy cup or she really likes straws now as trying to get away from needing a bottle for naps.

Breakfast- various combinations of the below, and I usually take rice or Multigrain Earth's Best cereal in addition in case she refuses something and to ensure she gets iron but I am phasing the EB cereal out
cut up kiwi (my daughters favorite- you have to make sure it is sweet) and hard boiled egg yolk (vitamin c and egg yolk should be served together) and a Earth's best waffle or mini bagel or piece of toast(daycare gives her pieces from it to self feed),
or
instead of egg yolk and kiwi-- baked apple with cinnamon cut up (i put it in a pyrex with some water the night before and roast it for about 15 min)or a jar of fruit or fruit/grain baby food or other soft cut up fruit (I get bags of soft frozen fruit (peaches or mangos) and take a few out put in ziploc in fridge the night before),

I alternate the egg yolk days (every other day) with YoBaby Yogurt or cottage cheese

Lunch
I make some sort of grain cereal the night before (barley or millet or brown rice or a mix) or Earth's Best cereal (although she is starting to prefer chunkier stuff- keep trying she needs to get used to chunky stuff :) ) and try to send a orange veggie (cut up steamed carrots, or mashed sweet potato or squash etc) and a green veggie (soft green beans or peas etc) or rotate them. And a fruit (puree or small soft pieces). I put everything in a glass pyrex dish with each item separate (like a pie chart)- sometimes cheese with lunch if snack is not cheese
I also sometimes give her a juice box

Snacks cheerios and one of the small Babybel cheese rounds or other chunks of mild cheese (the day care cuts her off small pieces) or yogurt if she didn't have it for breakfast or lunch, or some toast pieces and cottage cheese, or cottage cheese and fruit

Other ideas
cooked pasta cut up in pieces, I am going to try spaghetti o's soon (they have a lot of salt though even the whole foods brand so you can't give a lot), hummus, chunky pureed leftovers from dinner the night before (I mix in some breastmilk for easy blending), small pea sized chunks of chicken, sweet potato french fries (baked),

I hope this gives you some ideas. Its soo hard to pack for daycare. I use lots of mini plastic Sassy brand containers, pyrex dishes, and zip lock bags. I also try to use foil for stuff like waffles or other things so that I am not wasting so many plastic bags.

www.wholesomebabyfood.com has lots of great ideas