Veg baby needs help w repertoire

[oatmeal]

We're veg, not vegan. She's 11 months - we're not on soy yet. She does not want to be fed anymore, only wants finger foods she can eat with her hands. Had to leave her with a sitter last night and made what used to be her favorite. mashed sweet potatoes, brown rice and an egg yolk - she wouldn't eat any of it and the babysitter put her to bed without dinner!

I make her a fresh veg every lunch/din - she happily eats broc, green beans, carrots, peas, corn - plus a grain, whole wheat corkscrews or macaroni with some tomatoes or sauce. She likes whatever I am having - pasta, pizza, one of her favorites is quesadilla with diced avocado. Just wondering if there is anything interesting I can make her that she can eat herself. If any veg mamas have special things they make that kids like to eat with their hands.
As of yet I do not believe she has any allergies. The 1st birthday extravaganza is in two weeks. Anything I need to keep in mind when ordering her birthday cake? I want her to be able to eat it!

Also wondering, if she's still not taking the sippy cup, I try every other day or so, do I need to be giving her a beverage with every meal, in a bottle?

Thanks.

[vegmama]

I can't believe the sitter sent your child to bed with no dinner! Was she super fussy? I know sometimes my 11 mo. dd doesn't want what I give her either, but did she try to find something else for her to eat?! As for food I feed her...

My dd mostly wants to feed herself, but is starting to let me feed her again if she also has her own food on the tray. I give her green beans, refried beans, noodles out of my stroganoff (veggie), a little cheese, graham crackers (she LOVES these and they have lots of fiber!), avocado chunks, wheat tortilla pieces, many of the things you mentioned, applesauce (but I feed her this), banana, small pieces of apples. Have you tried having finger foods and a spoon for her to hold and then spoon feeding her soft food. MY dd changes from day to day with her feeding habits, but this is working at the time.

As for the sippy cup, I usually have one with water available at her meals as well as throughout the day. She never finishes even half a cup, but she is getting much better about taking it. (She mostly likes drinking from my cup!) DD never really took a bottle, so I am really trying to get her to accept the cup for times I'm away. Also, as for having something with her meals, sometimes, just like me she likes water to wash it down, but I don't think it's a necessity?! Not sure about this one.

Hope there is something useful in my rambling here!

[teachma]

Dipping the veggies/tortilla pieces in hummus or another veggie-based dip would be a fun idea to try. We're not vegetarian, but ds was also big on black beans and garbonzo beans at that age (and still loves all beans).

[gretasmommy]

Vegmama, have our DD's been talking with one another? My 10 month old has the same eating habits! It seems every day brings with it a new eating challenge. Greta currently loves cheerios and gnawing on baby carrots (always supervise eating!), and now only allows me to sneak in bites of pureed foods between bites of finger foods. I have been hesitant to give her many finger foods, as she only has two bottom teeth and is just cutting her two top teeth, no molars yet. She seems to do well with chewing the cheerios . . .
We are also vegetarian, not vegan. I have pureed chickpeas, which she doesn't yet seem to like, as well as brown rice and lentils, which she tolerated a few times. I will try some of your suggestions for finger foods. Perhaps even tofu chunks!

Andrea
mommy to Greta 3/14/02

[Sahara]

DS loves red kidney beans, those are a good finger food and easy to chew.

[melissaworld]

I second the hummus, try regular and black bean. Dd loved dipping pita bread, in fact she adored anything she could dip. You could also make up some healthy "cheesy" sauce using nutritional yeast (pm me for the recipe) to dip steamed veggies. Dd loved asparagus, broccoli, baby corns, water chestnuts, tofu, squash, and zucchini. Cucumber and tomatoes dipped in tahini dressing, mmmmm! Celery or sliced apple dipped in almond butter. Baby sized muffins, all flavors, though her favorite was carrot raisin.

It all depends on how many teeth the baby has though, mine had most of hers at that age so we could experiment a bit more than most. There are quite a few books out there about raising vegetarian and vegan babies, sorry I can't remember off the top of my head, just do a search.

BTW, children under 1 (or 2 IMO) should NOT be given dairy, even if you're not vegan. Check out notmilk.com for more information on why you consider not giving dairy at all. There are better alternatives. Good luck!

[oceanmommy]

Oatmeal, have you searched for this over in the toddler forum ? There have been many food threads with some excellent ideas on them. Also maybe in Good Eating. Just a thought to help you get more info.

At that age I had just started giving dd soy, so when you do start soy tofu will probably be a big hit. My thing at that age (11mos) is everything in a safe size, small enough to not choke on. Carrots and zucchini cut into mathstick shapes (or a little bigger) steamed until they can be gummed... can be used for any veggie and is good for dipping. Dd loved pasta, spaghetti, corkscrew shapes, elbows, etc. Use a little olive oil or butter and maybe a little parmesean cheese dependng on how you feel about it.

Fully steamed broccoli trees were good too, and sweet potato "fries" baked in the oven. Just PM me if you want any recipes.

Also you can make a soup with small chunks of veggies, pasta, etc. Cook until everything is very tender and cool very well before giving it in a bowl with a spoon. If you want to leave some broth in, rip up little pieces of bread, and toss them in to sop up the broth. Then let her take spoonfuls, yum

[oatmeal]

I knew I'd get some great idea from you guys! Thanks!

How do you make oven sweet potato fries? Steam them a little first then bake?

[Sahara]

I just cut them into 'fry' sized sticks, place them in a bowl and toss them in a little canola oil. Then you just spread them on a pan and bake them at 425 until they are done. If you like, you can sprinkle a little salt and fresh ground pepper on them before you bake them. We like ours with the skins on.

[Curious]

Dd prefers to feed herself. We're veg, organic. I follow a mostly macrobiotic diet but I'm giving Dd dairy because I never had a full milk supply so it was yogurt and cheese or formula.

cubes of tofu, sharp cheddar, pulling apart cheese slices (rice slice, organic cheese), cubes of seitan (I boil it to get out most of the salty seasoning), angel fluffs (the closest we come to junk food, when we're in need of something easy to travel with and minimall messy).

Small pieces of bread, manna (nature's path breads), baked beans (I crush them a little - they look chokeable).

Oh yes, Quorn cutlets (non meat that tastes like chicken) - breading removed and cut into cubes

[HollyBearsMom]

I second the dipping idea. My son will eat anything he can dip and it has been a great way to get hm to try new things. Also I think they actually eat more when they are having fun. We are not veg but my son eats a mostly veg diet when really think about it.
Here are a few of his favorite dippers:

*steamed asparagus dipped in creamy minted yogurt sauce
*pinapple,watermelon, mango etc dipped in a vanilla sweeted yogurt
*anything dipped in hummus or guacamole especially WW tortillas.
* he loves ketchup. I found this organic "unketchup" at the health food store. He will dip anything into that.

I saw you eat eggs yolks, do you eat fish? I make my own fishsticks and he loves to dip them into ketchup that I spice up by adding hot sauce to it.

Lastly when I am short on time a just need a quick meal I will make him the frozen veggie burgers (he loves the spicy black bean ones) or the Annie's "Bernie O's" w/ soy meatballs. I know your babies not eating soy yet but these are good options for later on.

[jkwatkins]

We're veggies, mostly vegetarian. Your dd sounds like how mine was. She learned to eat with a spoon very early since she was so insistent on feeding herself. She absolutely loved hummus spread on bread pieces, small crackers, or pita bread. (We like the spinach hummus made by Fantastic brands.) I also made her crackers or bread with raw cashew or almond butter. I would give her lightly smashed garbanzo beans also. She loved anything frozen. I would peel bananas and then freeze them. She would suck on the banana and it felt great on her teeth too. It was a little messy but she loved it. I would lightly defrost frozen blueberries. They are messy too but oh she still loves them. My dd also loved unflavored tofu. When she's a little older you can make your own tofu chicken, that's what we call it. My dd loves it and it's very light and easy for them to eat. You soak drained and cut tofu overnight in a mason jar with a couple tablespoons of Braggs liquid aminos and water. You lightly bread it with whole wheat flour after draining it again and then stir fry it with a little olive oil. It's great finger food. Good luck with your dd. Seems like you've already gotten some great tips.

[blueberrymamma]

Dipping foods seem to be a hit w/ most kids. Something mine enjoy is dipping fruit in yogurt. There's many great organic soy yogurts to choose from.. Dipping animal crackers in yogurt is yummy too.

[oatmeal]

I have gotten great tips. We tried the hummus the other night and I haven't given it again (though she loved it) because it seemed ot make her get diarrea (I know I spelled that wrong)

Is that the common thing for hummus to do?

[reesa]

We're veggies but have held off on soy/quorn so far because I've read in a number of places that it shouldn't be given until 2 years of age as the protein in it is quite hard to break down. Tofu is an exception - I think the fermentation breaks some of the protein down for you.

Anyway, dd has refused to be fed with a spoon since about 9 months. Some of her faves are vegetable chili or black bean and eggplant chili (you can mash the beans up a bit to make them easier to eat), vegetable soup (just leave out the liquid and give the vegetables), the grissini breadsticks (they're thinner than the standard ones not as hard) which she dips in cream cheese, humous, guacamole etc), pasta shapes with just about anything mixed in. Vegtable fries are also a hit, I coat them in olive oil and bake them in the oven for about 45 minutes. I try to watch the frozen veggie burgers as a lot of them are really high in salt, even the 'healthy' ones. Rice cakes with spreads are good, sanwiches, oatmeal and yogurt she manages to eat with her hands somehow. I find she can get pretty much any meal in using just her hands.

[Curious]

oatmeal, Dd used to love hummous (her fickle tastes have moved on.) One time she ate a large amount, and the next day we had hummous in the diaper. I've been told that garbanzos can be hard to digest. Maybe it's a matter of quantity, or the brand us give (how they prepare it.)

I read above that some of the foods Dd loves are hard to digest for 2 and under. If diapers tell anything, Dd digests beans and soy and qworn, but not carrots, peas, or seaweed. I guess every baby is different (so what else is new), and the diaper can serve as a guide.

[jkwatkins]

Hummus can give your baby diarrhea. Hummus is made from garbanzo beans also know as chickpeas. You may just want to start with lightly smashing garbanzo beans and see if your daughter has a reaction to them. Her body may not be ready to digest them. Garbanzo beans seems to clean my two year old dd out whenever she eats to much of them.
Hope this helps. You may just need to stick with fruits and veggies. My dd was different than my ds. I started her later on things than I did my ds.