Need Meal/snack Ideas for 17 Month Old

If you don't mind preparing something, "First Meals" has great tasty, nutritious recipes for picky eaters. It includes meal as well as snack ideas. I love everything I've ever made out of it!

Hi H.,
My son has a dairy allergy so we don't do dairy . here is what he eats. His meals are basicly the same everyday( until he gives me a hard time) & I play with the snacks. I try to be healthy as possible.
Bfast- rice cereal w/ banana, wheat germ & iron- Hemp milk
Lunch- s. pot w/ yogurt, pear, broc/ peas, carrots( I know gross) & hemp milk
2nd lunch- rice cer., wheat germ, avocado, cantaloupe- hemp milk
dinner- turkey & apple sause( mixed together) & alphabet pasta
Snacks- "just the fruit" ( freeze dried) strawberries, bananas, mango,( he didn't like slimy things so this was great). Annies bunny grahams, sweet pot. puffs, raisins, pancakes, strawberries. I have found woth my son that if i wait a little while he gets over what ever issue I was worried about.. Just keep trying new things good. luck, it looks like you got some great ideas.

My 19 mo old is newly picky. It's driving me crazy. Any combo of bread and cheese works for her-brie and baguette, grilled cheese, pizza, quesadillas made with ww tortillas-and you can sneak veggies in there too. Leftover oatmeal is her favorite right now as she can pick it up in big chunks. I make it with apples, pears and raisins. Oyster crackers are good for a travel snack; not healthy but good in a pinch and they don't get crushed in your bag. Any sort of muffin is good (especially if they are mini). I use ww flour, honey, add fruit or veg purees. You can pack a lot into them. I do the same with pancakes. You can make a bunch of little pancakes and freeze them so you always have some on hand. Sweet potato "fries" are still a favorite of DD, grape or cherry tomatoes, cucumber spears, frozen blueberries, apple chuncks, orange sections, bananas. HTH.

I have 3 children, 2 girls ages 5 and 3 and a son William
10 months and here are some of the following snacks that my children seem to enjoy. Pirates Booty, which you can buy in the health food section at the grocery store, homemade snack mixes with any kind of cereal, like Mighty Bites, then add pretzels or raisins, chocolate chips, goldfish, etc. Cut up fruit is a big hit, cheese slices, homemade banana bread, muffins made with Fiber One cereal and then add things like chocolate chips or blueberries or raisins. Veggies with ranch dip, cheese quesadillas, apple slices and peanut butter, waffles and ravioli or tortellini. I hope these ideas help.

What are the things that you are making over and over? Do you have the same problem with your 4 year old? Does she like finger foods, like dry cereal, popsicles, etc? With a bit more info, I might be able to help..

Go to www.kraftfoods.com. They have a 'lunchbox builder' & ideas for picky eaters. There are some really cool ideas there.

Hi H.,

I have a girl the same age. She's on a special diet of no wheat, soy, or dairy so finding snacks and meals or her is a challenge, but I'll tell you what she really likes....
She loves eggs. We make omelets with cut up grape tomatoes, or zucchini, or really any other veggie.
Avocado is a big staple in her diet. She could eat that every day.
Brown rice, rice pasta, hummus, kidney beans, peas, etc.
My husband makes a delicious vegetarian meatloaf with lentils, black beans, chick peas, and kidney beans. I don't know the whole recipe, but it's full of protein. She's a big fan of that.
I like to make her blueberry pancakes too.
For snacks, we keep it simple. She has toasted oat hoops (organic, wheat-free version of cheerios), raisins, wheat-free cereal bars, and fruitabu snacks.
Let her try anything you're eating, but keep it healthy. This is the time to instill good eating habits so don't get frustrated and give her something that's not good for her just because she'll eat it.
Good luck and remember that kids need to try things multiple times before they realize they like it.

hiya.
my daughter (20 mths) loves edamame for a snack or part of lunch or dinner. she'll also eat cottage cheese and apple sauce when she won't eat anything else. trader joes has some good chicken nuggets that she'll eat too. after about 14 months she pretty much stopped eating, so from some trial and error we ended up with chicken nuggets. healthy pancakes with fruit are good too.
and raisins. lots of raisins.
good luck.

Have you tried cutting up apples slices and dipping them in peanut butter, Kids love this. Peanut butter also works with bananas. Just cutting up apples and bananas with colorful berries in a small cream sause is easy to pick at with little fingers too.Stuff celery with cream cheese and fruit, like berries makes a nice snack too. Even Waffles can have berries smiles. This was the only way to sneak in fruits and veggies once my son got older. He liked to hold things in his hands to eat better then with a spoon for a while. Baby carrots were loved better then the usual largers ones and anything he could "dip" them with made it fun for him.

Hi H.,
I have a very picky 16 m.o. and definitely get tired of feeding her the same 5 items. I have been making her banana bread or zucchini bread in little muffin tins and they're a huge hit! My recipe is sort of made up...but I use whole wheat flour instead of white and 1/4 c wheat germ in place of 1/4c flour. I typically add applesauce in place of some of the sugar, and recently used pureed squash in with the zucchini bread batter...it has been a huge hit and she loves them! I found a basic simple banana bread recipe online and adjusted it to me needs. If you replace zucchini for bananas, add a little extra applesauce or something to keep it moist. Good luck!

Yogurt and raisins, toast and jelly, cut up apples, grapes, for dinner pasta, all different kinds?

Hey, i didn't even look at the name on the post! ha ha ha! Then I saw someones response to ":H." adn i lloked back and it was you! Get any good ideas????

My little ones love garden burgers cut up into little bites (yuk in my own opinion), scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, soup, english muffin pizzas, yogurt, hmmm... last night I made elbow pasta, threw peas in the water for the last 4 min, drained it, added a little butter, a little milk, and some shredded cheese and mixed it all together. Then I added chopped chicken (often Ill get a rotisserie chicken from stop n shop and dice up the meat and add it to stuff) - anyway - it was a hit. I never know what theyll like... great question - I need some ideas myself! Good luck! J.