What Do I Feed My 14 Month Old

wholesometoddlerfood.com is a great site!! Lots of meal ideas and recipes. Good luck!

when my daughter was 14 months i fed her whatever i ate just on a smaller level. shes 2 now and i still use this. heres a basic meal plan for what i fed her-
waking up- cup of milk
breakfast- fruit cup or fresh fruit (all kinds) with yogurt or cotage cheese, cereal anything plain, oat meal, eggs (1), pancake/waffel with light syrup, bacon and sausage.
lunch/dinner- 1/2 pb and j(lunch only), 1/2 grilled cheese, plain rice cake with peanut butter (lunch only), quesadilla, chicken nuggets (3), fish sticks (2).
lunch sides- string cheese stick, or a few salt free pretzels, some goldfish, animal crackers, fries, tator tots, etc. i also always give a veggie with lunch and dinner.
my daughter was on milk but then but she also drinks 1 cup of juice (after breakfast), 1 cup low salt v8 (with lunch or dinner) and water. i give her 2 cups of milk a day one when waking then one with a meal. shes not picky because she was never able to be picky because im not a order in cook.
as for the bottle thing try the nuby cups and start with using them at lunch or dinner so he can associate them with eating then move to other times of day. i would also start with the formula in the cup since most kids have a hard time drinking formula/milk out of them because they associate them with water or juice. good luck!

Hi M.,
After baby food, my daughter liked to feed herself. So we gave her canned black beans and no salt added canned vegetables. After a month or so of that, we started her off on foods with more texture - rotisserie chicken (it's soft), macaroni and cheese, scrambled eggs. She's only recently (18 months) liked PB&J sandwiches. Breakfast is either scrambled eggs with sausage and cheese, oatmeal, cereal, or a whole grain waffle (she's never really taken to pancakes); lunch could be yogurt, fruit, a sandwich, or leftovers from last night's dinner; dinner, we try to give her whatever we're having. That's usually a vegetable, a starch, and a protein. She's not big into meats yet, which is why I usually try to give her the scrambled eggs for breakfast. As far as vegetables, she loves broccoli (as long as we steam it well so it's pretty soft), peas, carrots, corn, green beans and lima beans. She loves bananas, so that's usually my "fill her up before bed" snack if she doesn't eat much at dinner. She also loves blueberries, and cut up avocado, both of which are very nutritious. Basically, your son should have breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack and dinner. Snacks can be the puff cereal or Cheerios, or goldfish crackers. My daughter loves it when I have the fish "swim" into her mouth - I figured that out trying to keep her occupied on a plane when we got delayed! Macaroni and cheese, and plain pasta with a little butter are always favorites.

My daughter was very attached to her bottle as well. She really didn't start eating a lot until we took the bottle away at 17 months. She was filling up on milk (30+ oz per day) instead of eating. I noticed an immediate change in the amount she ate once we got rid of the bottles.

Just start with soft foods and work your way up until your son is eating what you are eating. Remember that it sometimes takes 8-10 tries with a new food before they like it. My daughter never liked mashed potatoes because of the texture. One night I put a bite in her mouth, and she cried, wanting me to take it out. It was already starting to dissolve in her mouth, so there was no way I could get it out. Once she swallowed it, she liked it! She had me feed her 3-4 spoonfuls before she was done.

**** I forgot to add, make sure you are trying to feed him solid foods first. Don't make up his bottle until after he has tried eating. Or give him a sippy cup with whole milk along with his meal.

Hi M.!

You are in for some fun! At this age, they can really eat anything! My first suggestion is to let him eat some of what you are eating - whatever he shoes interest in. Just let him grab it and try it!

I have 2 great resources to suggest - www.wholesomebabyfood.com - they have wonderful recipes and ideas for starter foods all the way to toddler foods.

Also, the book Child of Mine, Feeding with Love and Good Sense is one of my favorite books to recommend to parents. It covers a philosophy of eating and feeding that supports a healthy relationship with food and takes the struggle and stress out of feeding our children. I think it's a must!

Also, when my daughter was 14 months, these are some of the things she ate, and she is a vegetarian so I'm sure you could expand on this:

Breakfasts: scrambled egg, blueberry waffle, bagel with cream cheese, pancakes, toast with jelly or sunflower seed butter, always some fruit (apples, bananas, mangos, blueberries, peaches, sliced grapes, kiwi, melon, etc), yogurt, oatmeal, cereal in milk, fruit and bran muffin

Lunches: Hummus and pita, grilled cheese, pasta, green beans, peas, steamed carrots, sweet potatoes (sliced and baked with either garlic salt or cinnamon), fallafel with hummus, grilled or baked zucchini, quesadillas, tofu dogs, med-firm tofu stir fried in terriyaki sauce, homemade chow mein with vegetables, avocado (my daughter still eats a whole avocado every day!)

Dinners: same as lunch - a protein and a vegetable and some fruit for dessert, sometimes a piece of baked cod (they come frozen from trader joes), english muffin pizza, split pea soup, minestrone soup, mac and cheese with veggies mixed in, Dr Praegers Spinach or broccoli cakes.

I hope this helps!

D.
www.inspiredmotherhood.com

Hi M.. I have 2 1/2 year old twins and I remember when they were about your son's age, my pediatrician told me they could be completely on "regular" food and to phase out jar food. A typical day's mesu was something like this...
Breakfast...scrambled eggs, small pieces of soft friut (melon, peaches, banana) or applesauce. Or Oatmeal is good for his age (he can start to learn how to spoon feed himself), toast, yogurt
Lunch...Turkey, rice cake with peanut butter, peas, cooked carrots, Low fat yogurt, cheese (not all of that for one meal, but combinations), toast
Dinner...small pieces of cooked chicken, rice, cooked veggies, mashed potatos, noodles (with or without sauce depending on how much you want to clean up!!)

I always (still) make sure every meal has a protien, a fruit or veggie (or both), and a whole grain. to this day, my boys are VERY GOOD eaters..eat any veggie I give them, love fruit, and eat very few sweets

You will find that he can eat things that you would think are too "big" for him, as long as he can take bites and not try to shove the whole thing in his mouth...my boys also loved corn on the cob because gnawing on the cob felt good for their teeth! We also took the bottles away at about 14 months...at this point, he should probably just be drinking regular whole milk out of a sippy.

Hope this helps!