# Are there any Toddler-friendly recipes?



## YoursMine&Ours (Feb 18, 2004)

..for picky toddlers. I'm just amazed at how picky my twin toddlers can be. I make kid-friendly meals that the other kids, even DH likes, but the twins just turn away.

Does anyone know of any links to day care websites, or in home care websites with TONS of toddler-friendly recipes listed?

PLMK..I'm desperate here

Blessings,

Angela


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## Marlena (Jul 19, 2002)

I don't know of any such sites, but others might.

What types of food do your children eat? That might help speed recipes along. One toddler's meat is another toddler's poison (and sometimes the same toddler's poison, a day or two later)!


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## moss (Feb 7, 2004)

my suggestion would be to check your library

a while ago i checked out a half dozen brightly illustrated cookbooks geared towards toddlers. they really talk a lot about presentation of the food, etc... A couple of the books had sugar in almost ever recipe though, so i suggest bringing home as many as you can carry so that after weeding out the sugary ones that you'll still have something to look at.

eta i still cant persuade ds to eat anything new though lol, i made some awesome fruit leather overnight last night and this morning after he tried it he spit it out and said blllleeech! it's huge progress that he even *tried* it though!!


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## VikingKvinna (Dec 31, 2003)

Well, "picky" is kind of subjective, isn't it? I mean, by definition it would be hard to compile a list of recipes for picky eaters...









That said, however, there are a lot of recipes for toddlers in Ruth Yaron's "Super Baby Food." www.wholesomebabyfood.com also has some ideas for finger foods and toddler snacks. Googling would produce many more websites.

Since you're the only one who knows what your twins are picky about, your best bet might be to start keeping your own running list of things they like, at the same time as you try different recipes from these and other sources.

Good luck!
~nick


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## cathe (Nov 17, 2002)

Here are some tips for getting your kids to eat more veggies.

As for the rest, I usually suggest to parents that they "beef up" the foods that their children like and eat.

For example:

Smoothies: Add nuts/seeds, tofu, yogurt for protein and good fat, add kale, carrots, sweet potatoes, fresh fruit for vitamins, etc.

Rice: Grind up sea vegetables and cook with rice to add minerals. Then I mix shredded cheese and olive oil into the rice to make a mac and cheese type thing that is much more nutritions.

Oatmeal: stir in ground nuts and seeds for protein, good fats, minerals.

Mince up kale in food processor and mix into rice, eggs, spagetti sauce, pizza, buritos, etc.

Puree soup in blender so there's nothing for them to pick out.


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## YoursMine&Ours (Feb 18, 2004)

"Picky" my subjective definition in relation to the twins-nothing creamy, mashed, steamed, baked, or (for lack of a better term) nourishing. No graham crackers, no cheese cubes, nothing with much of a texture.

There are only three things they will touch as of now: spaghetti, mac-n-cheese, and gummy bears (YIKES). They LOVE their milk, so they are getting nutrition through that, but they would rather drink that all day than eat table foods.

I've tried everything I can imagine. They absolutely refuse to be spoon-fed, and frankly I'm tired of preparing nourishing meals and hearing one of them say, "YUCKIE POO POO!" LOL







:

I'll check out those sites and do a google search. Thank you for the information, Mamas.

Blessings,

Angela


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## moss (Feb 7, 2004)

angela, my ds is exactly like that--texture is EVERYTHING to him. he wont go near soup or smoothies or cooked grains--if he'd eat stuff like that, i'd be laughing.

he eats peanut butter sandwiches--so i get the natural pb without sugar and put it on whole wheat bread, and i've just started sprinkling it with acidophilus (it doesnt have a taste, he doesnt notice it!!)

he eats spag, so i get the whole wheat noodles, but he doesnt eat sauce so trying to hide veggies in the sauce doesnt work

i made cookies today with 1/2 the sweetener that it called for and i added lots of nuts and seeds and dried fruits. ds loves them. next time i might make broccoli cookies LOL!

he wont eat mac'n'cheeze, but if he would i'd try to add nutritional yeast to it and make it with real cheese and ww noodles. i'd probably try shredding some veggies and hope that a couple of veg gratings might make their way inside a noodle where he couldnt find them to pick them off :LOL

hey, i wonder, since they like gummi bears, if your girls would eat something like 'jello' jigglers made out of fruit juice and gelatin, with extra gelatin so that they set up really firm?

it's so hard to get healthy food into my guy, i know exactly how frustrating it is. you have all of my empathy!!


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## YoursMine&Ours (Feb 18, 2004)

I'll have to get that recipe for the cookies from you. The guys won't eat jello at all, but the jigglers is a fantastic idea (I had never thought of that). I'll try that this evening.

Alex will eat more than Kaleb and he doesn't readily refuse to eat like Kaleb does. It's such a fight to get Kaleb to eat anything and it always has been (we started solids at 8 months).

I looked over at the link that one mama sent and have printed up several recipes for finger foods that I'm going to try, as well.

It's so nice knowing that there are tons of mamas out there in the same boat, and who are more than willing to help.

Thanks so much, all of you!

Blessings,

Angela


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## Aura_Kitten (Aug 13, 2002)

michael went through a picky phase where all he would eat was peanut butter. he actually went through a phase where he wouldn't even eat the bread :LOL

so... i grated carrots and mixed them in with peanut butter and cream cheese, spread it on whole wheat bread and made a raisin smily face on top -- and he ate all of it!!!

we also had a "play with your food night" and i set out this huge platter of sliced veggies, whole grain stuff, dips, etc, and just let him have fun with it... you wouldn't believe how much he ate. and the most maddening part was that he finally stopped being picky when i stopped trying to get him to eat. :LOL kids are like that i guess.

one thing his dr told me is not to worry; kids will never let themselves starve or get malnoursished, as long as you provide them with lots of healthy food choices and let them eat what they will. (and if you don't want them eating junk food, don't keep it in the home.)









best of luck.

maybe you could also try veggie juices. michael loves V8 and Odwalla carrot juice now. (unfortunately we don't yet have a juicer.)


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