beet and raisin salad

5 Simple Ways to Feed Baby While Feeding Yourself

The following is a guest post by Stacie of One Hungry Mama. Welcome, Stacie!

Hi. I’m Stacie and I’m one hungry mama. I’m also a recipe developer and family food writer who comes via years as a child development expert in children’s television and, more recently, an organic baby food entrepreneur.

It’s a long story.

Though I’ll spare you the details, let’s just say that the winding road that led me here was lined with a ton of writing, hands-on parenting and more research than you can imagine. Also, it was traveled with other child development experts, nutritionists, pediatricians and even a nutritional anthropologist.

Though I’m still on the move (and expect more twists and turns), I’ve learned one of the best ways to help your children develop healthy eating habits: Forget dumbed-down “kids” food and share healthy, delicious “grown-up” meals with your children.

It’s that easy. No, wait. It’s not always easy. Far from it. But it is that simple. And important.

Food and Children’s Development

We parents know that everyday activities shape our children’s development. That’s why we carefully consider their toys, classes and media exposure. All too often, the demands of everyday life keep us from giving the same kind of attention to mealtime. But just like playtime, reading time, TV time and quiet time, mealtime offers constant opportunities to support our children’s physical, social and emotional development.

Growing up healthily depends on developing a hunger for foods that can sustain a healthy body, introduce us to new cultures and bring us closer to nature as well as each other. And simple acts like sharing meals, trying new foods together and collaborative cooking promote healthy development, whether physical (hand-mouth coordination!), social (manners!) or emotional (demonstrating independence!).

When we treat our children’s food as a separate entity from our own, we miss the chance to make good on these opportunities.

Tips for Easy Sharing

It sounds heavy, but it’s not. Just like choosing good books, classes or toys, it takes some time to figure out what you’re looking for. Once you do, it becomes second nature. Oh, and have I mentioned how much time you’ll save not making separate meals?

Here are some tips to help get you started on feeding baby while feeding yourself:

1. Stay the Course

When I said it wasn’t easy, I really meant that it can feel downright impossible. The ugly truth is that it’s easier to serve up kid faves like hot dogs night after night than to work on a delicious, healthy meal and have your child refuse it. But that’s what I’m asking you to do, because it will pay off in the long run.

And, in the short? Well, comfort yourself with the knowledge that your child is absolutely not at risk for starvation. Kids will eat when they are hungry.

2. Plan Ahead

Nothing will make you want to grab a box of mac-n-cheese like realizing it’s 5:30 pm and you have no idea what to make for dinner. A little planning goes a long way. If you can, make a menu plan on the weekend for the week ahead. If that’s not possible, set 5 minutes in your day to plan for dinner.

It’s too hard to make smart decisions when you’re rushing. Knowing what you’re going to make—even if you only have 20 minutes to make it—is half the battle.

3. Keep It Simple

The idea is to expose your child to fresh, dynamic flavors, not necessarily haute cuisine. Stick with whole, natural and (ideally) seasonal ingredients, and develop a small repertoire of tricks.

  • Roast veggies instead of boiling them.
  • Finish with citrus zest or shaved Parmesan.
  • Get to know your spice rack.

These are a few fast, easy ways to bring out big flavour without compromising health.

4. Cook with Baby- and Kid-Friendly Ingredients

Research conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics indicates a lack of convincing evidence that delaying high allergen foods beyond 4 to 6 months helps prevent allergies. If your child has no personal or family history of food allergies, you can consider a wide variety of foods—even whole eggs, fish and nuts—from the get-go. (Always speak to your pediatrician about what’s best for your child.)

Once you determine which foods your child can eat, plan meals around those ingredients. Think about it the same way you would cooking from a CSA box. Kids can either share in the final meal or, if you’d rather, set aside kid portions of appropriate ingredients as you cook.

5. Stock your Freezer and Pantry

This brings us full circle. Having a well-stocked pantry and freezer helps ensure that you can stay the course and plan ahead.

Pick two Sundays a month for big batch cooking. Chilis, stews, soups and hand-held pies (that can be made with pizza dough) are just a few kid and grown-up friendly meals that freeze well.

And your pantry? Always have fresh dried spices, eggs, cheese, frozen veg and fruit, canned beans, pasta, rice, broth and packaged (or jarred!) tomatoes. Here are suggestions for three meals to keep in your pantry.

Share your favorite grownup meals that your kids love, too. And visit One Hungry Mama for family recipes that can be shared with eaters 6+ months. Or start with one of my favorites, Beet and Quick-Pickled Raisin Salad.

If you roast the beets and make the quick-pickled raisins ahead of time, this salad comes together in 5 minutes. It’s a great meal on its own for kids under 12 months. Pair with simply prepared fish, chicken or pasta for the rest of the family.

beet and raisin salad

Beet & Quick-Pickled Golden Raisin Salad

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Course: Salads
Servings: 6
Calories: 399kcal

Ingredients

  • 10 large beets roasted and cut into quarters or smaller, depending on how large they are
  • 4 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar or, if you can get it, Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Vinegar
  • 2/3 cup slivered almonds lightly toasted until golden brown
  • 1/2 cup quick-pickled raisins
  • salt
  • 4 Tablespoons creme fraiche or you could substitue whole milk yogurt
  • dill for garnish

Instructions

  • Toss beets with oil, vinegar, almonds, raisins and salt to taste
  • Whip crème fraiche until soft and spoon into the cnetre of a serving platter (or small amounts into the centre of individual plates). Spread into a tidy circle using the back of your spoon.
  • Neatly plate salad on top, showing an edge of crème fraiche. Garnish with dill

Notes

Skip ingredients that your child does not eat yet in their portion (e.g., plate their salad before you add almonds if they do not yet eat nuts). Pulse baby portions (my baby ate dressed beets and pureed with yogurt, a few raisins, almonds and dill at 8 months) and cut older kid portions into age-appropriate-sized bites.

Nutrition

Calories: 399kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 364mg | Potassium: 1669mg | Fiber: 15g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 199IU | Vitamin C: 23mg | Calcium: 116mg | Iron: 4mg

What’s your favourite thing to feed baby and yourself? Any tips to share?

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34 Comments

  1. Staying the course may be the hardest piece of advice to give, take, and actually enforce. But I agree, it is the most important one. Of course in parenting this applies to so much more than just food.

    We took this approach with our kids from day one. They got purees I made at the beginning, but by 11 months they ate what we ate entirely. Even earlier for our second. Even at a good restaurant they simple share a plate of better food as opposed to a kids meal.

  2. Yea, Cheryl, I totally agree that staying the course is hardest… in all areas of parenting! And, truth be told, none of us can be perfectly consistent across all aspects of raising our children. But, when I hear complaints that kids won’t eat veggies or have other bad eating habits, it can usually be traced to a lack of consistency in encouraging better habits. The same way that children acting out often reflects a lack of consistency in enforcing better behavior. (Just watch Super Nanny! 🙂 I’m not perfect and never expect others to be but, like you, I hope to raise awareness of the importance of consistent, deliberate parenting around food the same way it’s been raised around other aspects of raising children.

  3. It’s so encouraging to see baby food advice going away from strictly baby food. When my oldest was 6 months old and I finally started trying to feed him solids (purees, cereals, etc.), I was flabbergasted that he wanted nothing to do with it, whatsoever. I finally figured out that he didn’t want ME to spoon feed him, he wanted to pick up the food and feed himself. That completely changed my whole outlook on what is required to feed a baby. People have been feeding babies for thousands of years, without purees, cereals and detailed lists of what foods to eat when. When we feed our babies the same real, good and wholesome foods that WE should be eating, they’ll be all right. Feeding babies shouldn’t be rocket science! It’s fun, simple and, if we do it right, absolutely delicious.

    And as a side note, one of my favorite baby food books is Real Food for Mother and Baby, by Nina Planck. Totally goes against “traditional” baby food advice, but it makes perfect sense to me after the feeding experiences I’ve had with my four boys.

    1. If you’re interested in setting your child up with a healthy lifelong relationship with food, check out the wonderful book Baby-Led Weaning, by UK health advocate and educator Gill Rapley. It explains in detail how to introduce your child to solids in a healthy, appropriate way that avoids setting up bad food habits and sets up good eating patterns for the whole of childhood. She also explains where the traditional approach to feeding young children came from, and why it’s so inappropriate. Basically it recommends total avoidance of spoon-feeding (if you want to give them mushy stuff, give them the spoon) and letting the baby figure it out for itself. We did baby-led weaning with our daughter (now 17 months) and she is an incredibly healthy, omnivorous child, who doesn’t view food as a source of power struggles but eats what she wants when she wants – the rules are simple: your job is to provide your child with healthy food options, but it’s up to her/him to decide how much and what to eat. What could be easier? My only ‘complaint’ is that it means we have to be more vigilant about our own eating habits – but of course that’s actually a good thing.

  4. Thanks, Julia. And I totally know what it’s like to have a child who only wants to feed himself. My first wasn’t like that. He’d eat anything, in any form (still pretty much the same). Now I’m figuring out how to make everything we eat a finger food. Sometimes I just form hand-held bites with my fingers. Other times, I stuff what we’re eating between fresh bread or in a quesadilla. We’re making our way… and sharing our food!

  5. Great post! We fed our daughter the same foods that we ate from the beginning – I did make some purees for those times I couldn’t figure out how to make our food translate into food that was appropriate for her, but very quickly I transitioned her into all of the same foods we ate. We make a lot of spicy food so I often took out a portion for her, after it was cooked, before it was too seasoned. I also made liberal use of a baby food mill, where I could simply put our food through the mill in order to make it safer and easier for her.

    1. Good point about the food mill, Katie. Mine was invaluable for turning our dinners into ‘baby food’. I frequently give one away as a baby shower gift.

  6. “When we treat our children’s food as a separate entity from our own, we miss the chance to make good on these opportunities.”

    Love this!

    One thing I do- dish up the kids’ stuff a bit before I spice it up for the adults. That way, it is not a lot of extra work for me

    1. Great tip–thanks! I do the same with “spicier” spices and salt, too. I’ve learned that beginner eaters’ still-developing taste buds are more sensitive than ours. A small dash of curry, for example, will do the trick for them.

  7. Great post! I was an extremely picky eater as a child. It wasn’t until my 20s that I realized how exciting and delicious food can be! As a result it was very important to me to not have a “chicken nugget” child. We took our daughter to all sorts of ethnic restaurants and fed her whatever we were eating (within reason – chicken vindaloo isn’t a great idea for a one year old though chicken tikka masala was a hit). She’s a fantastic eater though she has likes and dislikes like the rest of us. Just starting foods with our little guy and planning to do the same thing.

    One side note…I was convicted shortly before my daughter turned one of the tremendous responsibility I have as her mom to model healthy eating habits…that means that I don’t diet, I don’t talk about diets, and I don’t talk about my weight/wanting to lose weight/lamenting that I’m not as small as I was in college, etc. It’s amazing how quickly little ones pick up on those unhealthy obsessions.

    1. Aimee, you bring up such an important point about what kids pick up. Thank you! It’s true. As much as I try to encourage parents to feed their children a certain way, at the end of the day, the most important thing (other than making sure children are eating healthy, whole foods) is making sure that food and mealtime are joyous. Stress, restriction, treating food like it’s bad… kids pick up on all of these things and they become big influencers on their attitudes about and habits around food.

      It’s hard, though. I grew up with a very restrictive mother (who, strangely, taught me tons about nutrition that is core to my philosophy) who was obsessed with weight. I’ve spent a lifetime understanding moderation as important to my health and enjoyment (as opposed to as a restrictive requirement). I’m working on a piece now about coming to terms with all of these issues as the mother of two boys, which–for one fleeting second–tricked me into thinking that I didn’t have to worry as much about these issues. (They are “girl” issues, after all, right? HA! No way!)

  8. Hi Stacie,

    Great points! I feel like it’s a rough battle, though, between a child’s strong-will and what parent’s are willing to give into. My daughter, for example, won’t really eat anything green, but if I put something like a salad dressing on it, she will. Is it ok to give in or accept that sometimes you have to compromise?

    1. I think it’s okay to compromise if the compromises are healthy. For example, I won’t put Velveeta on my kids’ broccoli, but I will make a quick cheese sauce if that’ll help. And, to be honest, my older child loves ketchup with his broccoli. So, I buy organic ketchup without HFCS and I’m planning on starting to make homemade ketchup. Now, of course, you don’t have to (maybe even can’t!) go this far. I cook for a living! But, compromise is a key part of any relationship, even the parent-child relationship. That said, you’re the parent and you get to draw the parameters. Mine? There is always fruit at breakfast, and always veg and fruit at lunch and dinner. I will always ask to try one bite (and, of course, know when to grant exceptions–like, Aimee said, our kids are allowed to have tastes, too!). I will only ever offer whole foods made without chemicals, preservatives, etc. Within those guidelines, I’m willing to talk!

      1. Stacie, I have a 2 year old son with a similar distaste for plain green veggies. One thing that’s been a hit for us is blanched green beans or roasted zucchini strips with a tzatziki dipping sauce, hummus or white bean spread. My kids LOVE dipping food into anything! Maybe it would be more “grown-up” to eat the green beans and zucchini plain, but if putting a spoonful of hummus on their plate gets them to eat it then that’s a compromise I can live with!

  9. Fabulous points here. We’ve tried hard from the get-go to feed my son real food, i never bought baby food in jars but instead made my own. He took a while to transition from puree to proper food because of gagging issues, but I had the same issues when I was a baby (and still do with some textures). At 3 years old he is willing to try any food and eats such a wide variety, I often have trouble cooking for guests when they bring their children because I am not used to cooking “kid food”.

    As a side note, the town we live in in Germany doesn’t serve kid food at most restaurants, if you want food for your child you order a smaller portion of the adult meal. It has been wonderfully refreshing for us (we moved here from the US 2 years ago) and my son loves to eat what his parents are eating, he will have his own and try things from our plates too.

    1. Oh Satakieli, I’m SO jealous of your restaurants! When I was brainstorming names for my blog I had the idea of calling it “Off the Kids Menu” as in the way the mafia “offs” people. 🙂 Anyway, it’s obvious why I didn’t go in that direction, but I hate that I’m forced to either order my 3-year-old a huge, expensive adult portion or hot dogs. Grrr!

  10. Great post! I wish I knew these things back when we started feeding my son. He’s almost 2 now, and is a chicken nugget/hot dog/PB & J kind of kid :(. I hate it but I didn’t really know what I was doing, and when he would reject “our” food I just resorted to something else…I didn’t know what else to do. Which drove me crazy because we’re all about wholesome organic foods…at least I found some healthy versions of the above-mentioned kid foods! But still…

    Anyway, that leads to my question…what do I do now? 🙂 What advice can you give parents of toddlers who are used to eating the kid foods?

    Thanks in advance!

    1. Hi Christie. Thank you for sharing and for your question. First off, don’t be so hard on yourself. We all do the best that we can. And, just like I pointed out in the first place, I’ve had the opportunity to give this a lot of thought and do a lot of thinking around it. It’s what I do and certainly not every parent can give the same kind of energy to thinking about food as I do. That said, it’s awesome that you’re ready to take this on. Don’t despair. There is hope!!

      I won’t lie: it gets harder as kids get older. A lot of taste bud development is in place by 3 years old–but not all! A lot of the advice I give to parents of beginner eaters still holds. Share your own healthy foods, stay the course–these are of particular importance with toddlers whose job it is to be obstinate! 🙂 Making mealtime an experience that they can share with you is emotionally powerful to a 2-year-old. Use that for eating good. You should also start involving your child in the kitchen.

      Take him shopping (and stick to the perimeter, where the fresh foods are, as much as possible), identify ingredients, allow him to touch, smell and feel them. Bring a crayon and paper and encourage him to draw the fruits and veggies he sees or “write” out a list. When you get home, narrate as you unpack your groceries. Take him to a farm or farmer’s market. Allow him to watch or help you cook. Measure, stir, etc. Since he’s young, give him his own bowl with extra this and that–he doesn’t need to have his little hands in the final product as much as be part of the process. Maybe you can even grow a little something. Window sill herbs. The research shows that getting children to participate in making and, even better, growing food has a measurably positive impact on what they are willing to eat/their eating habits.

      Just like with discipline, you’ll have to be consistent and patient. (The HARDEST part!!!) Don’t expect results right away, especially when you’re trying to convert a toddler. I know this sounds harsh, but remember that you won’t starve your child. Have a few healthy options that you’re willing to offer if they don’t eat their dinner (yogurt with granola, a cheese stick and slice of turkey breast) and use that as a last resort if you’re having a major problem or feeling bad about sending them to bed without food. But, otherwise, feel free to insist that what you’re offering is dinner and, if they don’t like it, breakfast is the next meal. It can take upwards of 13 times for a child to develop the taste for something new. If you aren’t persistent or you always give them an out, they are not likely to have the chance to learn to like new, healthy foods.

      And, of course, back to Aimee’s point, model good eating habits. It’s not the most directly measurable technique, but it’s one of the most powerful. If you don’t eat your broccoli, your son will always wonder why he has to.

      Your son is lucky, Christie. Good luck!!

      1. Christie, I have twin 2 year olds who love PB&J, nuggets and hot dogs too. Some of it comes from me (I LOVE PB&J!) and some of it is because they like fun finger food. I have found some compromises that work well:
        Chicken sausages are fun and I can get organic ones with veggies mixed in. Yummy for them and for the grown ups.
        I eat other kinds of sandwiches with them at lunch (hummus, turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, grilled veggies) and offer them bites. They’re starting to realize these other sammies are delicious too!
        As for nuggets, they absolutely LOVE Bocca brand imitation chicken nuggets and also cut up veggie burgers with cheese. I’ll admit I don’t eat these with them so it goes against the whole feed them what you eat idea, but nobodies perfect, right 😉

        I have also found that when they “help” me grocery shop and cook (not all that easy with littles, I know) the kids are much more likely to try new foods.

        Good luck and I’m right there with ya!

        1. Another vote for the picky 3 year old! Ours is a PB&J/nugget-lover even though we’ve been exposing him to adult stuff from the beginning. Some kids are naturally more adventurous and voracious eaters than others. (My nearly 1 year old pretty much rejects ALL foods, but that’s a whole different story!)

          My method is to go with PB&J for lunches (with fruit, yogurt, cheese, etc on the side) and then we share “real meals” at dinner. He doesn’t always eat the dinners, but at least he’s getting exposure to other foods and I only have to cook one evening meal!

  11. I really enjoyed this article. We carry this advice over into eating out as well. It is so frustrating to find the same ole nuggets and pizza on the kids menu. We encourage adventurous eating with my daughter. She recently tried oysters and scallops, and little brother did too! They loved them. I think she’s going to have a well developed pallet.

  12. You are so smart, my kids are older now in their late teens, and it took a lot of work to get them to eat like adults. I did everything wrong with my oldest child at the beginning and all he would eat was fish fingers after a while. I finally stopped offering him a choice (duh) and just put dinner in front of him and plugged my ears to the wailing. AT age 17 he is now a very adventurous eater. The turning point for us was when he was about 8 years old. We were at a restaurant and he tried Vichysoisse (leek and potato soup) . He loved it and after that he loved ALL soups. I think now there are very few foods he won’t eat. Except for fish…ironic after all of those fish sticks isn’t it?

    1. Isn’t it amazing what a powerful thing a food experience can be? I love your vichysoisse story. Sometimes, if you can manage to give kids a new, unexpected (and delicious) perspective on food, it changes everything. Thanks for sharing!

  13. I really enjoyed reading this article. That is pretty much how I raise my kids and they usually taste everything, but don’t always eat much of it! I’ve had to learn that even a little is often enough for their small tummies (in other words, they aren’t really going to bed hungry!) and that they go through phases. My son spent a week with his grandmother (she is all for kid-food and will cook entirely different kid and adult meals when we are there!) when he was two and it took the better part of six months to then work our way out of a hot dog phase! He would beg for them, and although I felt like I wasn’t being consistent with my parameters, I also didn’t want to say no every time he requested them. Slowly, but surely they disappeared from the repertoire. I don’t think I have bought hot dogs in over a year! Hooray!

    1. Victory! 😉 Yea. The grandparent thing can be hard. I love your approach. Because, as long as the grandparents aren’t being disrespectful or totally overdoing definitively horrible-for-you foods, well, they deserve the occasional opportunity to indulge their grandchildren. They love it, the kids love it and, if you stay the course, things (pretty much) remain in order!

  14. Pingback: 5 Simple Ways to Feed Baby While Feeding Yourself | feedbaby
  15. I agree completely with everything you’ve said here but I am feeling so disheartened. I love to cook and love to eat. There are very few things I don’t like. My husband is a very picky eater and hardly eats any vegetables. I’ve really changed the way I cook and eat. Truly, he is an amazing man, the best husband and father you can imagine, so I don’t mean to throw him under the bus here. His eating habits are really my only complaint about him. But I do sort of feel like I’m on my own trying to be an eating role model for my 21 month old daughter. She is SO picky and I am so sad that she is where she is with her eating. She loves cheese and yogurt and pretty much every fruit she is given. She eats fruit at every single meal. She also loves carrots and will eat them whenever I give them to her (which is often). She’ll eat wheat breads, bagels, pancakes, french toast. She’ll very occasionally accept sliced turkey. Interestingly, she loves chicken chili. It’s the only “regular adult food” she’ll eat. I’ve tried to make other things in that vein, but she won’t touch them. I ALWAYS and have always from the start given her a small portion of whatever I’m eating but she rarely will touch it and will often take it off her plate and put it on the edge of her placemat. I feel like I have failed her because her palate is so limited and I can’t get her to try new things. I’ve tried to give her dips and exciting new veggies. She will not touch them. I’ve tried to involve her in the cooking. I REALLY want her to have a more healthy and varied diet and I am concerned about the path she is on. I would SO appreciate any advice you have for me.

    1. Elysha: Thanks for sharing. There are so many of us parents who feel your frustration–you are an inspiration! My first piece of advice is to celebrate yourself and give yourself a break. You are very clearly doing an amazing job and being beyond thoughtful about your daughter’s diet. That’s more important than any specific feeding techniques.

      A love of food and healthy eating comes, first and foremost, from exposure to parents who love food and healthy eating. (Just like with everything our kids learn: we are the most influential force in their lives.) Your daughter may not have that in your husband, but she most definitely DOES in you. And you’re clearly taking a leading role in educating her about food. That’s wonderful–I hope your husband is supportive of that (I get the impression that he is).

      Even when kids come from a home with two healthy-eating, food-loving parents, they don’t always come around right away. Some don’t come around until they are adults! But, if they’ve been exposed, the knowledge and emotional impulse is there. You’re providing that info and knowledge. And, by the way, just because your daughter is unwilling to try new things now does not necessarily mean that she has a limited palate. It is totally developmentally appropriate for young kids to exercise control–something they have so little of!–at mealtime.

      You’re doing everything you can. You are staying the course. Even in the face of your daughter’s pickiness, you are sharing your food, teaching her about new foods and modeling great eating. That is serious work, lady. Amazing. Stick with it and know that you’re doing all you can to give your daughter the gift of a love for food.

      1. Thank you SO much for your kind words. I get so frustrated when she rejects my food time and again. I think I was really hoping (and am still hoping) that she’ll be my companion in yummy and healthy eating, since my husband really isn’t. I also worry about her overall attitude toward food. She has a life threatening peanut allergy and I am trying so hard to find the balance between making sure she is safe (mainly when we are eating away from home) and trying to help her experience a variety of different things (that she mostly won’t sample) without being too stressed and fearful. I’ll keep at it. I read above that it takes about 13 tries so I’ll keep giving her different veggies and meats, etc, and hopefully one of these days she’ll be more willing to try. I had a victory the other night when she ate some chicken soup and then requested “poop” the next day! She didn’t eat it as heartily as she did the night before but at least she had some.
        I’m so glad to have found your blog and am looking forward to reading through your archives. Thank you so much and I’ll really look forward to any ideas you have in the future about promoting healthy eating with the stubborn and reluctant set!

  16. It is so important to eat well. it is the best legacy we can give to our children.
    Our body is very important to live well, to learn, to create, to think …..

  17. I couldn’t agree more. You’re making yourself food, make it for your kids and baby too! My 3-yr old son’s favorite food is broccoli, probably because I’ve been feeding it to him since he was just a few months old.