what can a 15 month old eat?

[lyndsey66]

I apologise in advance as this has probably been covered in a previous thread (there are so many)
What foods can my 15 month old eat? At the moment his diet is a bit bland - meat and two veg, toast, fruit. It is the varity I have problems with and knowing what normal convenience food he can eat (it is costing me a small fortune buying 'baby' foods) for instance is it appropriate to give him fish fingers? adult cereals like rice krispies (he has the baby ones at the mo and they are expensive).
Any ideas would be so helpful

DD is 16 months old and she has whatever we eat.
She loves fish fingers, sausages, alphabites, mini potato waffles.
She also loves rice krispies, weetabix and shreddies.
I keep some jars in for when we have something that I don't want her to have such as pizza but mostly she eats the same as us

HTH

Hi Lyndsey, dd is 15 months and eats no baby food any more really.

Breakfast, shreddies or weetabix or ready brek plus toast or pikelets (scotch pancakes) or fruit.

Then lunch/dinner she has all sorts of things, I often cook a stew or something for us and she just has some of that, I leave out the salt and strong seasoning until after I have taken hers out and then freeze 2 or 3 portions for her too.

Her favorites

Tuna and tomatoes and peas and sweetcorn all stirred into a white sauce.

Beef Goulash

Pizza

Toasted or untoasted sandwiches

Pasta with all sorts of sauce (I sometimes use waitrose ones, she particularly likes spinach and ricotta)

Sausages/fish fingers and beans and mash

Chile con carne with not much chile

Veggie fritters, eg grated potato and courgette with the water squeezed out, then grate cheese and chop some mushrooms into it, stir in an egg, pat into cakes and fry.

Try all sorts of things, even spicy, you never know what will be successful!

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My ds is 14 months and tonight he had scampi, tweenie spaghetti shapes and potato latkas followed by tweenie yogurt (tweenies is popular in our house).

My DS2, 18 months mostly eats whatever we are having. He has been eating fish fingers since about six months. He has either Weatabix or porridge for breakfast (again since about six months). His favourite meals are spag bol, lasagne, chilli, macaroni cheese, fish pie and he loves pasta with either a tomato sauce or even just on its own. Something along the lines of cheese one toast and beans or eggy things like french toast (eggy bread), scrambled or boiled eggs go down well too. I agree with Stressyhead that it is just a case of experimenting although we have had no option as DS2 refused jars from about 8 months and at that time turned his nose up at many foods and seemed to think he could get through the day on b/feeds and bananas !

When my DD was about 3yo she was offered fish fingers at a friends house. She went all confused and asked me it it was that the same as the fish she ate at home, (as she normally has plaice, haddock, tilapia, or trout - NO!probably not - we don't eat Cod) and if so how the fish got fingers.
She has always had what ever we were having but a lower salt (or less spicey) version. Saying that she loved garlic bread at 14 months (just sucked the bready bit left the crusts)

My 14m dd eats weetabix or ready brek for breakfast. Lunch is either fruit and yoghurt or baked beans or tinned spaghetti. Dinner is usually what we eat curries, spag bol, fish pie, shepherds pie, chilli. With ds now nearly 5 we were a lot more precious about what he ate and made him his own dinners for ages. With dd she has had to fit in with what we eat as there just isn't enough time in the day to start making separate meals for her. She doesn't seem to mind Just wolfs it all up. She does have the appetite of a horse though.

A typical day for my 16mo DD is generally..

BREAKFAST - 1 and a half weetabix with warm milk or ready brek.

LUNCH - A soft boiled egg and toast soldiers, folled by a muller fruit jelly.

DINNER - Cod fish fingers, potato waffle and baked beans, followed by a petit filous.

Like most of the babies on here she'll eat pretty much anything, she ADORES garlic bread. She still has the occassional jar (once/twice a week at most), but she is at the stage now ehere she'll eat whatever we're having (within reason!).

Like most people on here dd2 (14 months) eats whatever we or her big sister are eating. She insists on feeding herself too so everything has to be pick-up-able. Yesterday she had a bowl of bite-size shreddies, a piece of toast, a clementine and a banana for breakfast, roast lamb with roast potatoes, carrots, cabbage and peas and bread and butter pudding for lunch and chicken risotto and a yogurt for tea. She also had an apple and some raisins at various points in the day. Did I mention she eats a LOT?

I haven't given her special 'baby' foods for months and I hate jars anyway (expensive, full of water and filler) although she did like the ones we had on holiday (they put salt in the French ones, yummy).

Bite sized shreddies are great as they dont have too much rubbish in them. As far as 'convenience foods' go, she has chips, potato smiley faces, baked beans, fish fingers, and the snowman shaped chicken things from M&S - basically what dd1 has every now and again. I don't think you should rely on these as a staple diet as they have way too much salt in and why ruin their tastebuds if you don't have too?

Eggs are the ultimate convenience food, do you give those for quick teas? Also baked potatoes are the easiest thing in the world, pasta, rice with veggies in, stir fries, all as quick as convenience food.

Wheat keeps getting listed for

Breakfast: wheatabix, shreaddies, Readybrek
Lunch: Sphaghetti, batter on fish fingers, pasta, toast, sandwiches, pizza, pie crust
Tea: (some of) waffles, garlic bread -- and wheat flour is often used as a filler in sauces or the baked beans.

I'm really pretty relaxed about allergies or acid/alkaline foods, but I have the principle of trying to limit wheat to just once a day. Am I the only one? Just think it's way too easy to overdo (as these lists show). You wouldn't regularly give anything else 3x/day to your child.

We have no history of food allergies in our family on either side so I tend not to think about allergens in food. Obviously I prefer to give DD healthy stuff but sometimes 'convenience food' is the only real option available to me as I also have 2 other older children and am really not an angel in the kitchen !

ds is 16 months and pretty much eats anything
he as always had home cooked food - avoided jars but did pay the price in the time things took!!!
he will nw eat anything and has a big appetite
favourites are - shepherds pie, spag bol, risotto, stir fries, pasta with whatever is in the freeze or freezer thrown in
i am quite slck about his lunches though and would love some good suggestions for packed lunches...he sometimes takes 'left overs' from previous evenings dinner, but i always feel a bit guilty due to the faff fpr the childminder...thats what we pay her for i suppose!

Thanks all for the suggestions. This has really been so helpful - you cant imagine. Up until this post I have been fussing and fathing about with dd's food like you wouldnt believe. I didnt realise he could eat 'grown up' food - as silly as that sounds!
Funny really - feel quite liberated! Normally if we go out to mil I take a jar (cause of not being sure what she has in her cupboard) but today I didnt and we rustled him up a lunch of cheesy beans and toast- which he loved (he is used to meat and 2 veg all the time!)
So - For the first time today he has baked beans - will be cursing you lot tomorrow when if he has wind!!! (sorry had to say!)

lyndsey - i may be paranoid but i tend to buy weightwatcher beans....not because of weight watching for ds but for lower salt and sugar content......

popsycal - WW beans do have lower salt and sugar but artifical sweeters which IMO are not all that much better.

katierocket....hmmm.hadnt thought of that!!!
hmmm
ds doesnt have many beans.....but you do have a point!

Ds eats our leftovers a lot (chicken casserole, mashed potato and peas tonight). Has toast or Readybrek with honey and a pear or banana or any combination of above for dinner. Nursery lunch 3x per week - maybe pasta and sauce or lentil bake plus pudding and often custard, which he adores. Scrambled egg is easy. Or a picnic of ham, cheese, bread and butter etc. Loves Rachels yoghurt with honey and anything sweet.

I know popsycal - I'd never really thought of it either but friend of mine is qualified nutritionist and she warned me to be really careful with any low sugar products (adults or children) as often they are stuffed with sweeteners.

right - that sorts it then!
normal baked beans when he has them!!!

Catfood, the dried bits of food left on the table, stale crumbs from down the side of the sofa, playdoh... they eat virtually anything.

Are you sure weightwatchers products aren't full of artificial sweetners? I definitely try to avoid those for DS2 (aged 16 months).

Otherwise he eats variations of what we eat:
Pasta
Chicken & rice
Sunday Roast
Eggs
Homemade pizza
Sausage casserole etc etc

whoops - sorry - came back to the thread after putting him to bed, and didn't see that the point about artificial sweetners had already been made...

i give ww baked beans rarely....he rarely has beans!!!
lynsdey - ignore my post about ww beans
ds 16 mths has only had them about 4 times in his life so i bow down to more educated judgment!!!