HELP! what do i feed my baby?

[Nickinha]

Hi all, please can someone advise me. My Nikki is 15mths, only has two top and two bottom teeth. She is sick of pureed food and likes to nibble on sausages. What food can I feed her for dinner? I dont want to mush it all together anymore, but scared she won´t eat chopped chicken etc. Tried it once and it all went to the floor. At the moment she does not want to eat anything! I am at my witts end. Scared she is hungry...

Nickinha - have you tried pasta - dd loved spaghetti with tomato and veg or bolognese sauce (bolognese pureed) or macaroni cheese (macaroni chopped very fine) or you can buy baby pasta in small hoops or stars.

Grommit - no, have not tried pasta yet, do you have a recipie for the tomato + veg sauce? I would love to give that a go tonight, or for the macaroni cheese? Thank you for responding.

Babies don't actually need teeth to chew. That said, both of mine rejected anything slithery (like pasta!) or grainy (like rice) until they had their first pre-molars, so I presume they didn't like trying to chew those textures without teeth.

What about finger-food? Fishfingers, baked and then allowed to go almost cold, and oven chips have always been a great favourite with mine. Ditto florets of broccoli and cauliflower cooked rather more than I would do for dh and myself, ie not mushy, but not still crunchy. A very ripe, peeled pear with the top and bottom trimmed off used to send my toothless ones into raptures. A lot of stickiness to clear up afterwards though !

Tomato and veg - tinned tomatoes pureed (or Passata better), tomatoe puree, chopped or pureed veg - brocolli, courgette, carrots, a little sugar to sweeten the sauce:

just heat the pureed tomatoes/ pasata (1 tin/jar), a few tablesp of tomatoe puree with a tablespoon sugar and some Orgegano or basil for flavour. Add the cooked chopped veg and serve with finely chopped Spaghetti or baby pasta. You can grate a little cheese on top or add some cream to the tomatoe sauce for a sweeter taste

For the macarroni cheese - just a make a simple white sauce, add some mild cheddar grated and mix with cooked chopped macarroni. You can also add veg or meat to this dish- I sometimes add sweetcorn and a little tinned tuna chopped up

Good luck

Thanks Candles!!! Thats a great idea! I am printing this page all the time so that I will remember all these brilliant suggestions. You guys are great. Have no relatives to ask for help on the little one, so I do appreciate your advice!

Hi Nickinha - you can buy very small rice shaped grains of pasta from delis which have rounded ends and slip down very easily even if they can't be chewed. If you can't find these then tiny Filini (in Tescos) are also good or failing that fine chopped ordinary spaghetti. A good 'sauce' is pureed butternut squash with a little hot butter. Also good is a tomato sauce (olive oil, tinned toms, sugar) served with grated cheese. These are both winners with my ds, also 15 months. Successful puddings - rice pudding or cake and custard mushed up.

FWIW - I found that what ds would eat followed his tooth development and it wasn't until he had some molars that he progressed from pureed or mashed to chopped (though I kept trying, I only realised this in retrospect IYSWIM). Maybe your dd is off her food because she is teething?! If she likes nibbling on sausages what about trying some more finger foods maybe - breadsticks with dips, pieces of cheese, toast. I found these were manageable for him when he had front teeth only.

HTH

Hiya Phatcat, sadly we dont have a tesco´s here in Portugal, but I will do my best to find a subsitute here... thanks! I do think my dd is pushing out a few teeth too. Two days ago she had a temperature of 40ºC! Has a really bad cough and very very blocked nose. That could all be contributed. Hospital here just gave her antibiotics. Lets hope it works!

nickinha, as pretty candles says, you don't need teeth to chew! Any frui should go down well, bits of ripe peach, banana, satsuma; carrot sticks well cooked, courgette, brocolli; meat, pasta, make sure it is well cooked not al dente but should be fine. Worth trying anyway. At 15mo she can really eat whatever you eat (in terms of what she can stomach); why not just give her a plate of mixed bits and see what goes down well? My DS2 is 15mo and LOVES olives, all fruit, fish (eg salmon flakes, check for bones), ham, bread rolls, lasagne, cherry tomatoes (cut in half), grapes etc etc. He has got more teeth coming now but until a month ago only had four top and four bottom and managed fine. BTW if yr DD throws the food on the floor first time, just leave it a few days and try it again, rather than dismissing it. Could just be a new thing she wasn't sure about. HTH

Tonight will be the second try then, thanks Clary. Lets hope it goes better this time...

Rice, like a risotto?

Mine used to love sucking on a hunk of bread as well.

what would i do with the rice? Serve it with what - must agree Nicole does love to eat piece of bread too...

ds is 14 months and lacking in the teeth department too...but loves
pasta with veg
steamed veggies
cheese (lumps of, in sandwiches etc)
cuscus and sweet potato
baked sweet potato
banana
bread sticks
noodles and veg
banana
falafal
rice pudding
risotto
did I mention banana?

Thanks Blackduck... till this day I never thought to give her BANANA!! Tonight it will happen - I am all excited to start trying out these new things for my baby! This site is great!

Could somebody explain the abbreviations dd ds dh etc to me please.... (blush) ha ha ha

nicki DH = dear/darlign husband, DD dear daughter, DS dear son; IMO in my opinion; hth hope this helps; tia thanks in advance; mil mother in law...errr...iyswim if you see what i mean...
i think there may be a list on the intro board actually...

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LOL - now reading these makes more sense, cheers thanx

Good luck with the meals - does dd like yoghurt? - could try a 'bio' variety to help get back the good bacteria after antibiotics.

My little one is also about the same age - here are some dd favourites -
toast, cheese pieces, any pasta shapes, pasta tomato sauces, cottage cheese, cucumber slices, couscous grains (v. messy!!), banana, natural bio yoghurt - often mixed with oat cereal. Also I find that if it's on my plate dd will want to try it! all the best

Hi Nickina

Can't advise as i haven't got a weaned baby yet but thought i'd help on the abbreviations. DD- Dear Daughter
DS- Dear son
DP- Dear partner
DH- Dear Husband
Also at ther top of the page is an acronym list, which will explain the rest of them
HTH!-(hope this helps)
x

If you look at the top of the page, next to where it says "useful stuff", and click on "acronym list" you should find most abbreviations there.

Fairy Thank you for the tips on the bio yoghurt. Will start her on that cause dd has a yoghurt and fruit (bought mushed ones - about to change) everyday

Morning All, just want to say thank you! I cooked Grommit´s Tomato & Veg Pasta last night, my dd ate it all up and today was her old self again - when i took her to school she just ran off to play with the other kids - usually tears. You guys were all a great help.

I recently brought Cooking for Coco by Sian Blunos (£8.40 from amazon) and highly recommend it. It has loads of easy, quick and freezable receipes. Lots of finger food receipes too e.g. sweetcorn fritters, sweet potato scones.

Ahhh, you see Blossom, thats exactly what I need, but here the only english bookstore is about 60km away and the chances of finding THAT book are scarce. Even my Day by Day pregnancy diary i had to have shipped in from America and they charged me a fortune - ended up paying about €200 for it! If you get a good recipie, please share it...