What to Feed a One Year Old

My child loves to pick up peas or beans (we like pinto) and eat them. You can also try other things cut up really tiny. I would stear clear of hot dogs though. Not only are they bad for you, but the outside skin makes them more of a choking hazard.

A one-year old should be eating whatever the rest of the family eats. And he should be 100% self-feeding with his fingers with a little help for a spoon. My older 2 kids were 100% self-feeding what the rest of the family was eating by 10-11 months. My 9 month old is almost there, too. My older 2 kids didn't have a single tooth until after their 1st birthday and the 9 month old is currently toothless, too. There's really nothing a 1-year old shouldn't eat except maybe peanuts because of the choking hazzard. If he doesn't have front teeth yet, which are used for biting things off, then just cut everything into pea-size bits. Babies can gum pretty much anything. Most babies don't get the back teeth for chewing until well into their 2nd year anyways.

So anyways... A typical day would be dry cereal with a sippy cup of milk and fruit slices/chunks (banana, pear, peach, grapes cut in half, melon, apple, etc). Lunch can be thin-sliced deli meat like turkey or ham finger-shredded into small bits, fruit, steamed carrots and shredded cheese. At about 1.5, my kids were eating real sandwiches cut into small pieces. Dinner, again, is whatever the family is eating -- pasta, chicken, casseroles, salmon, any veggies, any fruits, rolls, biscuits, toasts, pizza (we makes our at home so it's healthy), etc.

My toothless 9 month old eats all of the above. I just make sure the meat is slow-cooked until it's fork-tender and easy to fork-shred. I don't believe in making special "kid meals" becuase then the kids get into the habit of being 'waited on' and, to quote my mom "I'm not a restaurant!". :-) Becuase the rest of the family eats healthy, there's no reason my baby can't eat that too. I guess it would be different if we ate junk, but we don't.

my one year old eats just about everything. he has had 7 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom) since he was about 7 or 8 months. Now that he is 1 he has 2 of his molars so chewing is no problem at all!
I have always been open to new things for him to try and letting him explore different tastes and spices. I mix up his breakfast between waffles, pancakes, eggs, toast with butter and ground cinnamon (it is good for baby to learn new tastes like cinnamon) the doughy part of a bagel, even Lean Pockets with bacon egg and cheese, and usually a cut up banana or whole milk yogurt.
for lunch i give him pb & j, grilled cheese, turkey hot dogs, or some jelly toast.
for dinner i do chicken nuggets (or morningstar veggie 'chik 'n nuggets', spagetthi, broccoli, some kind of potato or starch, ravioli, mac n cheese (boxed or whole wheat pasta with melted 2% velveeta)

snacks in between i do graham crackers, nutri grain bars, yogos, ritz crackers, captains crackers with cheese, etc.

parents...there are so many options! do not be afraid to let your children explore new tastes! keep it healthy! even a simple mac n cheese and hot dog meal can be less fat if you take the time to make it yourself and pair it with a chicken or turkey hot dog! :)

he can eat anythng you eat as long as it's cut up into quarter inch cubes/pieces and is soft/mushy. i would hold off on sweet potatoes & squash or only give a very little amount, it can cause diarreah or upset stomach. with my son i didn't give him hotdogs because i had heard about so many kids choking on them, so i gave him the vienna sausages instead, they're in the canned meats section atthe grocery store and are very mushy. she still eats them like crazy today and he'll be six years old next month.

I also have a one year old and I rack my brain trying to come up with new things. So thank you for putting this question out there. I am curious to see what others suggest. I am beginning to think that maybe he doesn't care if he gets new things....as long as the old things cover a wide enough variety! I don't know the answer but here are some things I have come up with. Oh and also, my 1 year old does feed himself on some things, but as far as letting him spoon feed himself at one year.....I'm not willing to clean up that much mess! He will learn a spoon soon enough. If whatever we are eating works with his abilities then I just feed him that, but if not hear are some of the things we try.

He loves cut up fruit, especially bananas, strawberries, and pears. Sometimes I will melt cheese on a slice of bread and cut it into squares and he seems to like that okay. Cans of soup are an great option when you just need something quick. Althought the salt can be high on some soups they usually have a good chunk of protein in them, which I think is the hardest nutrient to get into a baby without being able to eat meat. Every time I try small pieces of meat, we have choking and/or chewing issues so I don't do that yet...even though we have plenty of teeth! He also loves yogurt. I found the Dora and Diego Yoplait yogurt doesn't have any artificial anything it and it does have less sugar than regular yogurt. It is also cheaper per ounce than buying the regualr yoplait yogurt. It is also packaged in 4 ounce cups rather than 6 so there is less waste. He also loves toast with butter and jam. I just cut it up into little squares and he can feed himself with that. It does get messy with the jam, but he loves it. Dry cereal can also be a good option. After I feed him he almost always wants more off my plate and I just give him small bites of that as well, but it usually isn't enough for him to get full on.

Good Luck.

Beth

my lil girl is one i feed her of my plate i let her feed her self( she doesnt like to get messy so she is good with finger foods and she likes thing that i dont like, like sqush and what not so i still give her step three jars of all the helth things she like say if am not eat i know she still wants her food she is not a big eater but i let her try things that i dont like mostly heathly foods if she likes i will keep getting for her she also eats yobaby yogort in the moring she like that and toodler anmial crakers there whole grain from gerber as snaks through the day

These moms are right, he can eat just about anything! Both of my kids were eating the same meals hubby and I fixed. Since we don't hide our food with preservatives and salt and eat a very healthy diet, we felt good about it.

One of my favorites things to make:

1 tortilla (small)
spread on a thin layer of refried beans
add cooked carrots(chopped)...if you already have some in a jar, use them
sprinkle with mild cheddar cheese

Roll up and let him chow down! You can also cut this into small bite size pieces if he prefers.

Have a blessed and abundant week!
D.

PS. Do you still get those baby magazines?...they should be loaded with recipes for your little one.

He can eat almost anything. Just make sure you cut it up small. That way, if he does swallow it whole, it will slide down and not get lodged in his throat. Stay away from whole peanut, large amounts of peanut butter and popcorn. Those things get lodged in the throat very easily and are hard to get out. Other than that, your little guy can eat whatever mom and dad eat. You'd be amazed at what they can chew up with their gums. And he's old enough that if he can't swallow it, he can cough it back up. Choking is so very scary, but as long as you cut things up smaller, he'll be fine. My dd is 15 mos old, only has 6 teeth (3 on top, 3 on bottom) and eats anything we eat.

Hi, A.. Maybe, I am the exception here, but I didn't feed my one-year old everything we ate. I was too worried about choking! She loved blueberries, cut in half, and strawberries, cut. She ate a lot of noodles and small pieces of lunchmeat. I tried to buy the healthier stuff. I'd say fruits and breads, in small pieces, and chewable meats. Don't worry. You'll gain confidence!

I encourage you to buy a book called "Feed Me I'm Yours". I used this with my kids (now teens and older) and recently saw it updated/revised at half price books for $1.00! I bought several to give to new moms! I love that they also have foods categorized by what the baby/child can eat age-wise.

Acquire a copy of FEED ME I'M YOURS by Lansky. This should help tremendously

There's nothing you eat that a one-year-old can't unless your family has a history of allergies (and this is even up for debate now). As long as you cut things into small-ish pieces and cut things with skins like grapes and cherries and cherry tomatoes, he should be fine. I suppose it's always good to learn infant and child CPR and how to stop choking, but as long as you aren't giving him huge bites of hard things, you really don't need to worry too much.

Not sure where that person heard that squash and sweet potatoes cause upset stomach...both are very starchy and easy on the stomach and are among the best choices for first foods at 6 months!!

I guess my question is how much mess do you want to have?
I started my last two (one now 26 and one is 10) on whatever food we were having ground down or blended down with the blender after trying each of the vegetables, fruits, etc., to make sure they didn't have a reaction to them.
I made sure bath time was right after dinner so I could get the food out of the hair, etc., and we put him in the high chair with a plastic spoon and just let him sort of go for it. Naturally we had the long plastic bibs with the sleeves in them! The high chair was on a plastic mat to save the carpet in the dining area.
I never used Gerber teething bisquits with the last two since my daughter almost choked to death on them twice which scared me to death! I let them gum a leg bone from a chicken or a teething ring (one of the freezer ones) instead.
Good luck.
P. R

My second son was eatting from the table at 6 months. I had a lot less fussing and better sleeping through the night with him verses my first son. I started feeding him the same things I would eat in small bites. I would steam his veggies a bit longer than mine, but other than that he ate the same things.

My son is the same way...he wants to feed himself also. I have had to get pretty creative. I even made a fresh baked beet to have him try. he loves food that is red so I was trying to think of something esle red to give him...and he loves them. They are sweet to him. and after they bake they are very soft.

He also loves grapes (cut in half of course).

and oranges (you cut off the peel to expose the orange without any of the peel or white at all left on it; and then cut between the membrane lines and pop out each choke free triangle. Like the restaurants do with red grape fruit on salads).

I will also boil and then cut up real small potatoes (I keep the peel on but in tiny little squares. so he gets the fiber but no choking). And I add a tiny little bit of season salt to those.

My son also liked mangos. I have to wait til they are nice and ripe, but then they just kinda melt in his mouth...yummy.

We feed/fed our daughter (18mths) anything & everything that we ate. She also loves hotdogs, bologna, so far all veggies, fruit. I know that people will tell you about not having few or no teeth, but Claire only had 3 (2 top & 1 bottom). After she got a taste of "big people" food, I couldn't feed her anymore. She loved raw baby carrots & apples. With the carrots, she used the top 2 teeth to scrape on the carrot until it was too small. I would always supervise anything new just to see how she would do, then just let her go.
ETA-I almost forgot, mac & cheese & any pasta.

i see you got a lot of responses already but i want to add that you should not feed him any lunch meat or hot dogs. they contain nitrites and aren't good for them. they really aren't that good for us. like when pregnant my dr's suggested that i shouldn't eat them either. (i worked at my dr's office actually for 5 years-ob-gyn). also don't give too much milk, even over 1 yr b/c too much can deplete iron levels.
my son loves those crumbles cheeses by kraft, perfect size not to choke on, also i buy frozen ravioli both cheese and/or meat cook them and cut them in tiny pieces, or the stuffed shells b/c he loves the riccota cheese. ooooh and i almost forgot the most important... giant eagle has noodles in the speghetti isle called alphabet noodles (they are perfect size for baby) you don't have to cut them or anything. but i melt the crumbles cheese on them and make tiny pieces for my son. i'm just trying to think of real ideas that we do. b/c it's really hard to figure out new ideas. just make sure everything you give is mushy enough. no raw veggies of course. no choking.
i hope i helped a little. i know how nerve racking it is. i wish you lots of luck.

Hi - my daughter also just turned a year in April and I struggle with coming up with a variety of menu ideas. I feel like I feed her the same stuff every week, but here are some of the things she eats:

bean burritos
spaghetti
salmon, grilled fish
mac and cheese
chicken nuggets
turkey breast lunch meat
ball park white ff turkey dogs
grilled cheese
eggs
natural applesauce
yogurt (dora kind)
graham crackers
cheerios and honeycomb
granola bars
ceral bars
all fruit and veggies (frozen - less salt)
toast/bagels
pancakes/waffles
unsalted pretzels
chex mix/cheerios mix
goldfish
yogo's (yogurt bites)
fruit snacks
jello
pudding
mashed potatoes

Hope this helps!