Ideas for daycare meals for a 9 month old

[Anonymous]

My nearly 9 month old is ready to move beyond purees. He's eating 3 solid food meals a day now, and I'd like to start introducing him to more "real" food. Any ideas for easy meals I can send to daycare that will be appropriate for a baby his age? We're vegetarian, BTW.

[Anonymous]

Lentils were one of my son's favorite first foods. We mixed them with a little tomato sauce.

[Anonymous]

DD is 9 mos also. Today she took 1/2 banana and a peach butter sandwich. Scrambled or hardboiled egg is always a hit as well as pretty much any fruit or veg (either stick shaped or tiny cubes. Many times she gets leftovers from our dinners (ie shredded chicken, some braised veg, a handful of rice, etc). She will eat tofu - not sure if you do, but there's nothing wrong with giving it to a baby if your pedi's okay with it. Sometimes slightly squashed beans, cubed avocado - good fats and proteins. Pretty much whatever's around the house.
BTW if your DC is at a center, see if they provide meals for older kids. You might be able to designate certain items off the "big kids menu" they are allowed to have.

[Anonymous]

We're in this same challenge. Do you guys send 'back up' foods if DC doesnt want to eat what you've sent. Some days DD eats lentils like they're candy, some days she wants nothing to do with them! I worry about her not wanting what I"ve sent & being hungry/cranky all day

[Anonymous]

Spreads on soft bread-- cream cheese, almond butter, hummus, guacamole

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're in this same challenge. Do you guys send 'back up' foods if DC doesnt want to eat what you've sent. Some days DD eats lentils like they're candy, some days she wants nothing to do with them! I worry about her not wanting what I"ve sent & being hungry/cranky all day

What you are suggesting here seems to me to be the root of many coming food struggles.

Just provide some interesting tasty food and let the kid eat as much of it as they like. Don't focus so much on what they will prefer to eat from day to day.

[Anonymous]

We're often looking for something easy to through in a jar and send to daycare with our 8 month old. It often ends up being a frozen cube of home made baby food plopped into a jar of plain yogurt. For another meal, its a cooked cereal (like oatmeal) with raisins or other fruit cooked in.

Seeing all these other ideas makes me realize we should be sending more finger foods (table foods) to daycare. We give them at home, but I was worried that the daycare staff would find that challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing all these other ideas makes me realize we should be sending more finger foods (table foods) to daycare. We give them at home, but I was worried that the daycare staff would find that challenging.

Nope, we've been doing BLW for a few mos now and it's actually easier for DCP - think about it, one fewer little bird mouth to spoon something into. They just stick DD in a high chair and give her (whatever it is that day), while they spoon feed the kid next to her. She gets some meal time socialization (and occasionally steals the other kid's food, we've heard) and they feed two kiddoes at the same time.

Luckily she hasn't discovered that it's fun to THROW food... let's hope she never does!

[Anonymous]

We sent tofu cubes, cut up veggies, beans, pasta, etc. and left a few jars on hand of food as back ups. Around that time, we also started marking up food from the daycare breakfast and lunch menu for them to feed to DD. Now we only bring bottles. No more packing up breakfast and lunch. It's great.

[Anonymous]

We send a mix of spoon and finger foods. My DCP likes to keep doing purees b/c she *knows* it's going in him whereas some of the finger food invariably is on the floor. For finger food, we send things like torn up fish, cut-up beans, shredded cheese, diced cooked sweet potatoes, etc. Plus yogurt and fruit puree for breakfast, and cheerios.

[Anonymous]

Until 12mknths nutrition Is from milk or formula so if they Don't eat it's not big deal.

[Anonymous]

Soups are great in the winter.

[Anonymous]

bisically i pack everything that we had or cooked for him the night before because i dont have time to make food in the morning lso rushing to school.i make him noddles with diced vegies n chicken,sweet potatoes butternut,rice with vegies and pap sometimes. my boy eats everything and seem to be enjoying every new thing introduce.

[Anonymous]

Roasted sweet potato

frozen ravioli

baby peas

cooked carrots

Rotini pasta with olive oil and garlic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in this same challenge. Do you guys send 'back up' foods if DC doesnt want to eat what you've sent. Some days DD eats lentils like they're candy, some days she wants nothing to do with them! I worry about her not wanting what I"ve sent & being hungry/cranky all day

What you are suggesting here seems to me to be the root of many coming food struggles.

Just provide some interesting tasty food and let the kid eat as much of it as they like. Don't focus so much on what they will prefer to eat from day to day.

No it doesn't.