Darmeen Cheung wrote:My almost-1-year-old boy has been eating adult food for a couple of months now. He has 6 teeth (4 top and 2 bottom) so far. All he has been eating are different types of pasta with veggies and/or meat and/or cheese. I would like to expand his food horizon a bit more.

Does anyone have some tried and tested adult recipes for a 1 year old that they would like to share?

Hi Darmeen.

My son Julian just turned 1 March 19th.  He has 4 teeth up top and 4 on the bottom.  Fortunately, Julian loves every kind of food we offer him.  He enjoys his pastas, meats, cheese also.  Other meals you can try, which Julian really enjoys are lentil beans boiled into a soup with carrots, celery and onions; you can try white fish with asparagas or rice; we have also tried salmon (but not very often because of the mercury).  Pizza is a lot of fun watching them eat!  It can get messy however!  At this point, I think you can offer your son everything you eat, but try to avoid the spices (ie: pepper and not too much salt).

 

My daughter has a specialist who is the chief of pediatrics at a hospital and his specialty is nutrition.  He advised that babies should not eat double textured food, ie chunks in puree.  It is can cause them to gag and/or choke.  Things I tried to introduce new textures to my daughter who gagged on some were:

1) boil ground meat.  Lamb is hypo-allergenic, but I have also given her ground turkey, and beef.  Throw it in the blender with some of the water u boiled the meat in.  Make sure there are no chunks.  The next step for increasing texture, is to make meatballs and then break them up into bite sized pieces for baby.  The doctor advised that corn starch mixed with water is a good "binder" to hold the meatballs together.  I also added Braggs--a soy sauce that has two ingredients--soy and water.  It can be found in the organic isle of the grocery store.

2)  Microwave a macintosh apple that you have peeled and cut up into bite sized pieces.  Initially I microwaved it for 1.5 minutes.  Now, (my daughter is a year old), I microwave it for 1 minute.

3) Try offering baby freeze-dried fruit--found in the baby isle at the grocery or drug store or Wal Mart.  Brands include Gerbers and PC Organics or Parent's Choice (Walmart brand).   The ingredients are fruit and water.  The pieces are tiny and melt in baby's mouth. 

Hope that helps!