5 Tips to Get Your Toddler to Eat

I don't know if you know or not, but Baby Fox is somewhat of a picky eater. He still eats the food I made for him as an infant. No joke. What can I say, I make good infant food. He's never had jarred food, actually not true, we tried once and he hated it, so we never tried again.

Let's start with when Baby Fox was first trying food, this is his reaction:

 He had the defense down!

We decided that he just wasn't ready and we really didn't stress about it. We just went with the flow, and you know what? Eventually he liked food.

We use the same philosophy when he became a toddler and was STILL eating infant purees. We decided you know what? I'd rather him get his veggies  that way then none at all. And heck if I had what I made him, I wouldn't want to eat it either.

We kept trying new foods, but always made sure that he got his pureed veggies with each meal. You know what one of the first things he loved that wasn't in pureed form?

Spaghetti, he might have gotten this every night for a few months cause it's the only thing he would eat that involved carbs.

This boy loves him some ribs, totally random right?

Look Mom no hands!

Okay enough pictures, this is what we did/do:

5 things to get your toddler eating:

1. Don't stress about it. I think this is the most important, don't stress about it. Kids feel that and then it stresses them out. If he doesn't like something then find, leave it aside and eat what you do like. Kids won't let themselves starve! Keep that in mind when they refuse everything. They will not starve themselves!

2.  We give him something new to try and he has to take one bite, and sometimes we bribe him to do that, cause sometimes when he takes that one bite he likes it and will keep eating it, but he just needs to take try it first. But mostly we try to give him the foods that he likes. Kids are creatures of habit, so they don't care about eating the same thing three nights in a row, at least mine doesn't. If he likes zucchini (the only green veggie that he'll eat not pureed) then he's going to get that as often as he likes. We'll try new veggies, but always go back to the ones he likes.

3. We have set times to eat food and we usually don't stray from that. He gets breakfast, lunch, sometimes a snack after he wakes up from nap and dinner. That's pretty much it. No snacking inbetween, if he does want a snack we give him some fruit or something healthy (which is rare that he wants something between meals because he's so used to eating at those set times)

4. Make it their choice, but give them choices that you want. If he wants cookies for dinner and we say no and he starts throwing a fit we tell him, you can either eat your veggies (or whatever you're having) and get a cookie when you're done, or no cookie at all. Or do you want this veggie or this veggie for dinner? We make it seem like he is getting a choice when in reality we are choosing for him.

5. Eat with your kids. I know this seems simple, but sometimes when we're all sitting down to eat, and we'll ask Baby Fox if he wants something, he sees us eating it and asks to try a bite. I know harder said than done. Most nights we eat different meals, but I try to get everything done at the same time.

I know that if we just stopped making the stuff that Baby Fox likes that he would eventually eat what we ate every meal, but I would rather him get some veggies than none at all. You don't see any high schoolers still eating pureed veggies right? When he starts preschool in the fall, they serve him lunch, so he's going to have to start eating what everyone else eats. But for now, this is what works for us.

Currently Baby Fox's favorite meal? Persian Food. I know, he won't eat hamburger, but he'll eat the ground beef skewer like no ones business.

And just this past week, he started eating BREAD! Like honest to goodness toast.

Miracles do happen!

FYI, I don't think we're going to have the same eating issues with Mini Fox, so far she hasn't met a food she doesn't like. Even when we can tell she doesn't really like something, she'll still keep eating it.

This is her, every single time, mouth open ready for food to enter, okay lunging towards the spoon is more like it.

Linking up with One Year and Beyond Link Up and Nicole

Butternut Squash Puree

Back with another baby recipe*. Okay so this one is SUPER easy, so it won't take long. I promise.

What You'll Need:

Butternut Squash
9x13 casserole dish
Water

What To Do:

Tip: Use gloves if you have them, I find that the squash is really hard to wash off your hands, at least for me, so I use gloves.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400°F

Step 2: Cut the squash down the middle

I like to cut it down one side, then flip it around and cut the other side, then bring the knife all the way through to the bottom once I have that initial cut, if that makes sense.

Step 3: Scrape out the seeds

I find a large spoon works best.

Step 4: Place cut side down in pan and add water till it's about an inch or so up the squash

Step 5: Cook for about 45 minutes to a hour. When you poke the squash with a fork it should give easy. This is the tricky part, I find that if you let the squash cool cut side down that it tends to absorb all of the water left in the pan, so I try to flip them as soon as they come out of the oven with some tongs and a fork so prevent a lot of water from seeping in the squash and making it a little more watery.

Step 6: Scrap out the "meat" and put in a bowl

Step 7: Blend

I use an immersion blender to do this

And of course having helpers is always welcome, especially when it comes to using things that make loud noises.

And that's it, butternut squash puree for your family or your baby. You can always put it in a pastry bag and do those fancy swirly things that fancy restaurants do.

Next week: Something yummy that uses this recipe and the butternut squash recipe you just made.

* I got this recipe from the Baby and Toddlers cookbook from William Sonoma

Veggie Stock

I figured that since Baby Fox is hopefully maybe starting to like other foods than pureed foods, I would show you guys what I've been making him for the past 18 months...well, more like 16, since he didn't really start eating food until 8 months old. This was his FAVORITE puree, so we'll start with that. Plus it's the base to most everything else.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.


I know there is a ton of information out there and websites with recipes, but I found them to be sort of boring and nothing that you can't think of yourself. I found a great baby and toddler cookbook from William Sonoma, it really is a great book, I highly reccomend it and is where I get all of my recipes from. So let's get started!

note: In my opinion you really don't need one of this.  I use an immersian blender, they are under $50 but you can use it in daily cooking too, like making soups, so it's not just another kitchen gadget with one purporse and it works just as good. Bottom line, you can use your own steaming basket and pot and water, and mix yourself, you don't need a machine to do that for you. I won't, however, hold it again someone who does want the baby food maker, we just wanted to save some money, since we had gotten the immersian blender as a gift a few years back.

Okay now let's really get started, easiest recipe ever! This is on page 53 of the Baby and Toddler Cookbook, Veggie Stock

Ingredients*:

1 yam, peeled and cut into chunks**
1 carrot, peeled and cut into chunks**
1 leek, cut lengthwise, rinse thoroughly and sliced crosswise**
2 fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley sprigs (I omit this because I would only use it for this recipe and then end up throwing most of it away, so I save money and omit)

* I always double recipe, since the veggie stock can make several other things, and I'm not having to make this every third day.

** I try to always use organic ingredients


Makes about 3 cups of Stock

What to do:

Sometimes I use more than 1 yam per recipe, depending on how big they are and sometimes I just want it to be yam heavy.

Step 1: Peel and cut yams and carrots

Step 2: Cut Leeks length wise

Step 3: Wash Leeks

If you didn't know leeks are really dirty, so you have to separate each leaf from each other to make sure you wash all that dirt out.

Step 4: Cut Leeks

Step 5: Put everything in large stock pot and add 5 cups of cold water

Step 6: Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to low, cover and simmer gently until the veggies are very soft and the cooking liquid is lightly flavored and colored, 35-45 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool

the last picture above is everything all done

Step 7: Drain

After it's done cooking, using a fine mesh sieve, strain stock into a bowl

Step 8: Save

Save the broth that you just pour out for future use, I wouldn't let it sit longer then a few days to a week, depending on your fridge

Step 9: Blend away!

Using your immersian blender, blend to desired consistancy of what your baby likes.

I start freezing these in this, each "puck" is about 1/4 cup, so you know exactly how much your baby/toddler is getting. I only have one and then just wait for the first batch to freeze and then remove and start over.

And that's it, super easy right?