Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: REQUEST: Irresistible Toddler Recipes
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 03:58:18 -0500

  |> I have a 15 month old that appears to be on some type of hunger strike.
  |> Does anyone out there know of any good dinner type recipes that we
  |> could make for him, where he would have no choice but to eat? (I knew I
  |> shouldn't have let him watch Gandhi :)  )

  JB> I read an article one time that said first, bear with the child and be
  JB> reassured that he won't starve to death before his appetite returns;
  JB> and second, make a plate that includes all finger food and either give
  JB> that to him for his meal OR just set it out on the coffee table or
  JB> something while he's puttering around.  Sometimes they seem more
  JB> willing to eat something that they find just lying around than they
  JB> are to eat the stuff that's put in THEIR bowl on THEIR high chair at
  JB> the specified mealtime.  (I can vouch for this personally; mine would
  JB> eat cat food, old squashed grapes that they found on the kitchen
  JB> floor, even - once - a dead roach, and at the same time refuse to eat
  JB> anything at meal times).

With our 10-month old, we also seem to be running into some issues that boil
down to "who's in charge here." She's going to win.  I'm trying to remind
myself of that, and she does when I forget.  For a while, the novelty of having
us feed her with a spoon was plenty for her -- and then we got into the finger-
foods (private label Cheerios, cheese bits, fruit bits, ...).  Now, she's
really
much happier eating on her own -- but her muscle control just isn't up to
using a spoon yet.  This past evening, I spent a while trying to get pureed
green beans and pureed chicken into her, while she was much more interested in
the chunks of steamed sweet potatoes sitting on the high-chair tray, which she
could feed herself.

The compromise is often that I'll feed her six or eight spoons full of whatever
I feel HAS to be spooned in, but then we'll break that pattern with two or
three
Cheerio-alikes or a couple of low-sodium Goldfish [small cheese-flavored
American crackers shaped like fish, about 2 cm in length, for our overseas
participants].  When the finger-food is gone, she's often willing to let me
get back to work with the spoon.  Although, this past evening, her parries were
faster than my lunges, and we ended up with a lot of food on the splat mat,
on me, on her, and in places-yet-undiscovered.


  JB> Suggestions for the finger foods were like these (and they recommended
  JB> an assortment in case only one of these appealed to the tyke): cheese
  JB> wedges, apple slices, plain, cooked, cold macaroni, tiny carrot
  JB> sticks, whole grain crackers, even little frankfurters or vienna
  JB> sausages.  I'm sure you can think of lots of others.

I was eating a corned beef sandwich with grainy mustard on oatmeal bread toast,
yesterday, and after some thought gave Rachel a few small pieces.  She was
pretty happy.  I think the biggest limits on what she can eat and enjoy are
in her parents' minds.

I have seen one face of the future, and it sure isn't MY future.  I watched a
child of ten months age given an entire plate of refried beans, in a
restaurant,
and allowed to go at it with no utensils and no guidance.  The beans flew in
all directions, the kid ate virtually nothing, and the restaurant was left with
a mess that took someone half an hour to clean up properly.  Huh-uh.