Sample Menu for 1 Yr Old Including Liquids Need Ideas!!

My daughter is 13 months old and she really only drinks a bottle of whole milk at naptime and bedtime. At this age they should'nt be drinking any more than 24 ounces of milk. Most of the time through out the day my daughter drinks water and sometimes juice in a sippy cup. I have found that because she now can pretty much eat everything that we are eating she doesn't need a bottle through out the day. She does seem to be eating many small meals a day. She loves toast, eggs or oatmeal for breakfast. Sometimes I will spread baby food on whole wheat waffles or toast. For lunch she loves mac and cheese, fruit, cut up sandwiches, ham and cheese, and for dinner she will eat whatever the family is eating.

I dont want this to sound critical so I want to say up front that you should do what is best for you and your baby but this is what worked for us: we stopped giving him a bottle at before bed by 10mnths because babies dont really need it and it can hurt there teeth to have the formula residue on their teeth over night (he didnt really need it anyway) then by 11mnths we started putting half his formula in sippy cups to get him use to it. by 12mnths he gave up the bottle completely. he gets 1/2 cup (4oz) at breakfast ( he likes oatmeal or bananas and yogurt, scrambled eggs with cheese, or pancakes) then with graham cracker as a midmorning snack then another 1/2 cup with lunch and dinner. (chicken nuggets or mac and cheese, spegetti os ect) giving him two cups which was what was recomended by his nutritionist. he gets half a cup of juice mixed with 1/2 a cup water after his nap along with dry cereal for a snack. as a bedtime ritual he gets on his jammies then eats a night time snack (bananas, applesauce, or yogurt) gets his teeth brushed picks out a story and we read to him sing him a song and put him to bed.

It will be easier to stop the bottle earlier rather than later, so start giving him a sippy cup during the day, and continue the bottle in the morning and at night for now. after a few months, really try to discontinue them. he no longer needs them other than for comfort, and it is bad for his teeth, especially at night. remember, that milk is only a drink, not a nutritional food as formula was. he needs to eat 3 meals per day, and a snack or two. kids should not drink more than 6 or so ounces of juice per day. as you said, they start to figure out what is good early, so it may be best to not give him juice at all until he gets used to drinking his milk and water from the sippy cup. when he's older, you could give him a little juice, watered down. make sure it is 100% juice, not a sugary drink like kool aid or hi-c or something.

as for food, all kids prefer to eat "good" foods. just keep serving him a variety of healthy foods. encourage him to try everything and eat more, but don't force him to finish or clear his plate. if he refused to eat, don't give him snacks later. he will learn to eat what he is served. as long as he chews well, he can eat whatever you eat, besides obvious choking hazards: nuts, hot dogs that are not cut into tiny pieces,etc.

i have always tried to serve something that i think my daughter should like. in other words, i don't expect her to eat something super spicy or strange or anything. i give her some to try, but also serve something i know she would like, even if it is not prepared the same or looks the same as usual.

When we switched to milk, we also used sippy cups and ditched the bottles. We give milk on a similar timetable that you described and only give water at mealtimes. Occasionally we give a bit of juice, but that's extremely limited.

As for foods, keep them soft, mashed and small. Right now he's probably learning to chew foods, mash them with his teeth and gums. We always try to give kids bits of what we're having, sitting them in the highchair while we eat, or Gerber foods.

Breakfast ideas - oatmeal (baby or Quaker oats, not packages - too much sugar), bananas, apple sauce, yogurt (Greek is great), blueberries, cut up grapes.

Lunch and dinner - turkey dogs, cooked carrots or any cooked veggies, crackers, etc.

Snacks - freeze dried fruit (Gerber has good ones), biter biscuits, zwieback toasts or regular toast, sunbutter, mandrin oranges, goldfish crackers, Gerber Puffs (melt away, if Goldfish are too hard to chew).

Finally, we have this little feeder bag that screws on to a big handle (got it a Babies R Us). You can put most any fruit or veggie in it, and the baby can chew chew chew. Frozen blueberries are great for teething and there's no choking risk. Plus less food ends up on the floor. We love ours.

Hope these ideas help you!

My daughter has a 14 month old and he eats all sorts of fruits, veggies, he love macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, turkey and chicken. She avoids red meats because of the growth hormones that so many of the farmers feed their cattle...and she is really into using organic and fresh food whenever possible.
Basically he eats whatever the family is eating...because she cooks with him in mind. I would just give him the milk at meal time and stick with water in between.
It also seems to work a lot better to allow toddlers to "graze"...instead of trying to get them to eat 3 meals a day. It keeps their energy levels on a more even keel...and avoids "melt downs".
My daughters will offer fresh fruit ( grapes, apple slices, bananas) for finger food whenever the boys indicate that they are hungry. They also offer fresh veggies ( green peppers, squash, cucumber, endame etc) with hummus to dip it into or a yogurt dip. Fresh berries are a great hit too...my grandsons would stop ANY activity if you say the word....'Blueberry"!!!!
For breakfast they will have shredded wheat, oatmeal, pancakes, yogurt with fresh berries, toast with peanut butter and honey.
You can add things a little bit at a time so you can catch any hidden allergies that you may have to deal with....but basically she can eat about anything that appeals to her.

I would give him the milk in a sippy cup. I gave my son in a sippy cup with a straw during the day started that around 10 months old and then put the milk in a leak proof sippy for bed. So he still got some sucking action before bed. He is three and still takes his milk sippy to bed every night. It is the playtex harder spout one, and is leak proof and they are still good after almost 3 years of daily use. He may or may not protest for a few days, and you can initially put some formula in it to get him used to it. I would tell him he is getting a new big boy bottle for bed and its called a sippy. I know bottles are not good to be used at night after a year. I also suspect it would be better to give it to him before bed, like before brushing of teeth, but my son just never could settle without something in bed. I also have the same sippy cup filled with water in his bed at night if he wakes and is thirsty. I tired to give the milk earlier and the water sippy with bed and sometimes it works but for the most part he wants his milk in bed. As for feeding him, my son ate everything we did at a year old, just cut up smaller if needed. I gave him whatever he wanted with meals, either water, juice or milk. I gave it in a straw sippy. IF he was cranky or tired I would give him milk in a leak proof sippy and he would often fall asleep with that. But I didn't give any regular spacings of milk/formula except at bedtime. Just when he asked for it and with meals. Good luck with the changes.

We switched my son from bottles to sippy cups at 10 months, he also switched to milk at that point because he refused to drink formula and he was eating table foods - whatever we ate he ate - fish, sausage, burgers, beef, venison, pork, chicken......

At 9 mos he started drinking formula with meals and before bed. We removed the bottle from being part of his bedtime routine by giving it to him before his bath, and then eliminated it altogether

My son is 15 months old now. We went from regular formula to stage 2 formula (Good Start Soy stage 2 for ages 12-24 months) because he's mildly allergic to cow milk. I like knowing he's got a great source of nutrients for his age, so this is something we like to give him. We've weaned him off the morning feeding just now at 15 months, but he has a night time bottle with the stage 2 formula right before bed, just kinda soothing him and helping him sleep through the night. All other drinks are in a sippy cup.
Breakfasts here: he will have a yogurt with some cheerios on top; an egg and cheese biscuit; oatmeal; cereal like rice crispies or cheerios just a little soggy with quartered slices of banana; a blueberry muffin and chopped up sausage patty; he had his first french toast with bits of peaches today and loved that. He will have a little sippy cup of milk or watered down juice (1/2 juice, 1/2 water to cut down on sugar, but still have some taste).
Snack in the morning: cottage cheese with bits of mango (or whatever fruit); cheerios; quartered grapes with a cheese stick; occasionally goldfish or a slice of cheese split between 4 crackers (though he eats them separately, I serve them together anyway). Water is his drink.
Lunch: can be anything really. He likes spaghetti o's with meatballs (and I quartered all the meatballs with the spoon at 12 months; now I halve them because he has 3 1/2 molars); those chef boyardee mini raviolis, I make different sandwiches (some he likes, some he doesn't): grilled cheese, cheese and different meats (from the deli, not packaged); if we're having leftovers from the night before for dinner, so does he (especially the mixed vegetables). He gets cut up tomatoes, cooked eggplant, okra & tomatoes, something like that. I try to get him a starch, protein, veg no matter what I serve him. Now sometimes lunch is just thrown together "whatever" though, and can sound pretty perverse, depending on what is in the house or fridge at the time, what we're doing, where we are, how busy the day is. I have served the kid macaroni and cheese with quartered slices of a wiener and some peas all stirred together and he has eaten every bite. And sometimes I'm caught out away from home and he'll have some chicken nuggets from Wendys but we try. He can have some chocolate milk (usually chocolate soy or almond milks), or some cranberry or grape juice (watered down) for lunch (the drink depends on what he's had already for breakfast). If I'm worried his lunch isn't that good, I'll give him a chocolate pediasure to kinda help balance things out.
Afternoon snacks: a cheesestick, or apple wedges (I'll slice the apples, then cut them up more for what is appropriate for how many teeth he has at a time). Right now, he does fine with think sliced apples (not having to cut them up anymore) so I put a very small amount of peanut butter on them because that's what his big brother eats. Fruit salad, carrot "shavings" (ha)--his big brother will eat carrot and celery sticks, some cucumber slices, etc and I'll take a peeler and "shave" off some carrot and halve the cucumber slices for little guy while I'm at it. They love it when I give them homemade popsicles. I got some molds at World Market, but you can get them at Walmart or wherever, I am sure, in the seasonal section. I pour V8 Splash in them and freeze them. I also give the guys gogurts; I freeze them to make them a little less messy (but they will be messy for this age!). Cheese and grapes, whatever. Water is usually the snack drink, but could be watered down lemonade or something, depending on what we're doing.
Dinner is whatever we're eating, within reason. I have not given him Indian food or chinese because I know he does not like ginger, curry, or some other spices. (YET). On a night I serve something like that, the boys can have a pizza I make with pillsbury dough, or a frozen pot pie. I do cook "flavorful" food, but you can fix it to make it more child friendly. For example, my chili is beef, sausage, onion, rotels, a jar of tobasco chili sauce, beer, chili beans, sometimes mushrooms and bellpepper if I have those just sitting around. But with a little cheese and served with brown rice, it is both filling and the rice is healthy and also cuts the spice so he can eat a whole bowl with no issues at all. His favorite meals are tilapia served on a saffron risotto with mango relish (get him in the mood to try this by letting him taste bits of mango as you cut it up), mexican meatloaf with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables, spaghetti & meatballs with a little garlic bread and tomato / cucumber salad (he doesn't like caesar dressing at all, but this is a salad we can compromise on), and chicken fettucini alfredo which I add rotels, chopped spinach, and fresh sliced mushrooms to. He seems to eat anything with rice, which is never white at our home. Any steamed vegetable both boys will eat now, but yeah they go through phases where they will stop liking something, but will pick it back up. Just keep serving it and eating it yourself. For dinner he'll have a little water or real milk. And then right at bedtime, his stage 2 formula.

My oldest son was a lot more picky. He had certain meals he liked but sometimes he was funny about food. If he was in a mood where he was refusing to eat well, I'd serve oatmeal with apple bits for breakfast, a fruit for snack, a grilled cheese sandwich (but would sneak in some chicken and mushrooms or veg into the sandwich then cook it) for lunch, veg sticks (carrot/celery with ranch if you must) for snack, and whatever you can get away with for dinner (fish sticks? tacos? bean/cheese burritos--I started getting sneaky with burritos too: first cheese with a little bean, then a little more bean and some spinach or shredded chicken, whatever you can hide). And pediasure helps you feel a little better b/c they'll be getting some nutrients from that until they get over the annoying food drama stage.

I gradually added small amounts of whole milk to the formula bottles. First I added 2 oz and after a while I added 3 oz (the rest formula). My daughter is 16 months and she still wants her bottle before bedtime/naptime. I give her about 1/3 formula and 2/3 milk. I figure many many babies this age are still nursing whether for comfort or comfort and nutrition and they do so till age 2 or so. I am not in a hurry to wean her off her comfort bottle yet. This is how I handled her older brother and it all worked out fine. When he was almost 2 we went together and gave his two bottles to a baby friend and from then on he only had sippy cups if he wanted them. He was old enough then to understand when I said he was now a big boy and after about 2 days he was over wanting his bottles! This is what we will do with our daughter. In between meals our daughter has water. With breakfast sometimes she has orange juice but not always. She gets 3 meals a day and 3 snacks a day (one before bedtime). Sometimes she will use sign language to ask for a bottle during the day and I will give her milk in a sippy cup. She's pretty unhappy about that but she gets over it. Some people go cold turkey and when their child turns one they get rid of the bottles and use sippy cups only. They also get rid of the formula and only do milk. You just have to decide what you think is best for your child. There is not right or wrong way. As for sample menus, I feed her what we are eating unless it's too spicy or just really not toddler friendly. She loves yogurt and finger foods too though. Her favorite finger foods are blueberries, avocados, cheese, frozen peas, corn, and pasta with marinara sauce. If she is going through a rough patch of teething she is not interested in food. But then once the teething is over she eats well again. Our son did the same thing...maybe the pain makes them not want to eat for a bit.

I just want to add that the bedtime bottle she gets (and that my son got) is not taken into bed. They get it right before bedtime and it helps her get sleepy. My son who did this till about age 2 never got a single cavity. I think the problem is if you let them nurse or take a bottle to bed and they lie there half asleep with milk sitting in their mouths. Our good friend's son would hang on to her breast half breastfeeding, half sleeping and sadly he has a mouth full of cavities. She regrets letting him do this, but he was a really needy little guy and at the time she was desperate for sleep.

You're going to get varying suggestions so fit it to your needs.

First, a bottle is just a tool. If the child can tilt the bottle and drink it themselves, it's time to move to a regular cup. Sippers cups were created for TRAVEL ONLY, but today they're used as a daily cup. What you want to to is start using a transition cup. Once companies saw how parents gravitated to travel/sippy cups they stopped making transition cups. Those were the kinds with holes in the spout that would drain out and had a weighted, round bottom so they wouldn't tip as easy. Today you can get those toss away cups with lids where the spout has holes that drain out. A travel/sippy cup using the same technique as a bottle where you have to suck to get fluids out. Years ago older infants were taught to use an open cup by starting with a transition cup. Today you find most babies still sucking away on travel/sippy cups because it's easier on the parents. So your child should have been transitioning to a regular cup after they were able to hold and tilt their baby bottle on their own.

With that said, taking away a baby bottle is a big change for some children. And switching to milk from formula can be a big change for some (taste and texture). I suggest either teaching him to use a regular cup first (toss away with drain lid) and then introduce the milk. Or introduce the milk and then switch to a regular cup. The latter may be easier, switching to milk first.

At age 1 you'll want to give milk with all three meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. He'll need 8 ounces per meal giving which is 21 ounces per day. Depending on the child, you may want to give food first and then the milk for last. Introduce their least favorite food first then save their favority for last. Some kids may perfer their meat and eat that all up first and leave the rest. So offer the other foods first. All kids are different. Some of my kids would eat everything on their plates like animals. Others had to be served one item at a time to get them to eat properly. Some I didn't have to worry about slamming downt their milk as they'd still eat their food. Others of mine had to have their drink held back or they wouldn't eat.

Give a morning snack between breakfast and lunch and an afternoon snack between lunch and dinner. Juice is for snacks, mixed with water if you prefer. I had 2 sons who had to have it mixed with water or they'd poop too much. I had another son who had to have it straight or they wouldn't poop enough, lol. Snacks can be crackers or soft canned mixed fruit already in chunks.

Example menu for my youngest (triplets):
- Breakfast was MultiGrain Cheerios on their tray with a milk chaser.
- Snack was Gerber Puff/Wagon Wheels (veggie variety), graham crackers, etc, with a juice chaser.
- Lunch was mainly fruit, with a milk chaser.
- Afternoon snack was the same idea as morning snack with juice.
- Dinner was veggies and meat, with milk.

They got plenty of grains for breakfast and 2 snacks. Lunch guaranteed their fruit intake. Dinner focused on veggies so no fruit so it wouldn't take away from them eating veggies. And meat as well. Use low fat dipping sauces to get them to eat some things.

You can offer them what you're eating as long as it's not spicey. And keep in mind to balance their nutrition intake through out the day.

Grains ideas - cereals, breads, pastas
Fruit ideas - canned fruit cocktail drained. They're soft and finger size and gives them a variety of fruits to try. Cut up bananas, oranges, etc.
Veggies - sweet potatoes, broccoli, beans, peas, carrots, or canned mixed veggies that are soft and finger size which gives variety.
Meats - and soft meats that are in tiny sizes.

You can give mini or micro ravioli rinsed. Just remember that if you give a grain with meat at lunch that you can give a fruit at dinner to replace what he missed at lunch. Remember to keep his food balanced through out the day.

Kids will get picky. You're the parent so let him learn early that you will not cater to him. He'll eat what's put in front of him or wait until the next meal or snack time. Sometimes his body doesn't need much so don't force him to eat when he's not hungry. Just wait until the next feeding time and keep the same schedule. When he hits 2 things can get more picky and by then you can start giving him 1/2 a complete vitamin daily during his picky stage to catch up on the things he's missed during meals. If he gets really picky before 2 you can ask your doc if he can get a 1/2 vitamin before age 2.

Again, each child is different.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets