One year old baby food menu

Sample Menu for a 1-Year-Old Child

Ages & Stages

Listen

Español

Text Size

Babies and young toddlers should get about half of their calories from fat. Healthy fats are very important for normal growth and development at this stage of their development.

All fats are not created equal, though. Healthy fats like those found in avocado, olive oil, fish, nut butters, and dairy are good for your child (and you). Unhealthy fats such as those found in fried foods, fast foods and many packaged foods are not healthy at any age. If you keep your child's daily caloric intake at about 1,000 calories, you needn't worry about overfeeding and risk of weight gain

Here is a sample menu for a one-year-old child who weighs about 21 pounds (9.5 kg):

1 cup = 8 ounces = 240 ml

1 ounce = 2 tablespoons = 30 ml

½ ounce = 1 tablespoon = 15 ml = 3 teaspoons

1 teaspoon = ¹⁄³ tablespoon = 5 ml

BREAKFAST

½ cup iron-fortified breakfast cereal or 1 cooked egg
½ cup whole or 2% milk
½ banana, sliced
2 to 3 large sliced strawberries

SNACK

1 slice toast or whole-wheat muffin with 1–2 tablespoons cream cheese or peanut butter, or ½ cup yogurt with cut-up fruit
Water or ½ cup whole or 2% milk

LUNCH

½ sandwich: sliced turkey or chicken, tuna, egg salad or peanut butter
½ cup cooked green vegetables
½ cup whole or 2% milk

SNACK

1 to 2 ounces cubed or string cheese, or
2 to 3 tablespoons fruit or berries
Water or ½ cup whole or 2% milk

DINNER

2 to 3 ounces cooked meat, ground or diced
½ cup cooked yellow or orange vegetables
½ cup whole-grain pasta or potato
½ cup whole or 2% milk

Remember

Talk with your child's pediatrician if you have any questions or concerns about your baby's diet.

More information

Discontinuing the Bottle
Unsafe Foods for Toddlers
Selecting Snacks for Toddlers
Water & Juice

Last Updated: 8/12/2022

Source: Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 7th Edition (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics)

The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.

Feeding & Nutrition Tips: Your 2-Year-Old

Ages & Stages

Listen

Español

Text Size

With your two-year-old's blossoming language and social skills, they're ready to become an active mealtime participant. They should no longer be drinking from a bottle, and can eat the same food as the rest of the family. Their diet should now include three healthy meals a day, plus one or two snacks.

Here are some tips to help your little one develop healthy, safe eating habits and get the nutrition their growing bodies need.

Mealtime tips for toddlers

Try not to fixate on amounts of food they are eating.
Avoid making mealtimes a battle.
Pay attention to adopting healthy eating habits—including sitting as a family at mealtime.
Focus on making healthy food choices as a family.

Unsafe foods for toddlers: choking risks

At two years old, your child should be able to use a spoon, drink from a cup with just one hand, and feed themselves a wide variety of finger foods. However, they are still learning to chew and swallow efficiently and may gulp food down when in a hurry to get on with playing. For that reason, the risk of choking at this age is high.

Avoid these foods, which could be swallowed whole and block the windpipe:

Hot dogs (unless cut in quarters lengthwise before being sliced)
Chunks of peanut butter (Peanut butter may be spread thinly on bread or a cracker, but never give chunks of peanut butter to a toddler.)
Nuts—especially peanuts
Raw cherries with pits
Round, hard candies—including jelly beans
Gum
Whole grapes
Marshmallows
Raw carrots, celery, green beans
Popcorn
Seeds—such as processed pumpkin or sunflower seeds
Whole grapes, cherry tomatoes (cut them in quarters)
Large chunks of any food such as meat, potatoes, or raw vegetables and fruits

The best foods for toddlers include:

Protein foods like meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, nuts, seeds and soy
Dairy such as milk, yogurt, cheese or calcium-fortified soymilk
Fruits and vegetables
Grains such as whole wheat bread and oatmeal

It is normal for toddlers to choose from a limited number of foods, reject foods entirely, and then change their preferences over time. Never force your child to eat something they do not want to eat. The best approach is to let your child to choose from 2 to 3 healthy options, and continue to offer new foods as their tastes change.

Offering a variety of foods and leaving the choices up to your child will eventually allow them to eat a balanced diet on their own. Toddlers also like to feed themselves. So, whenever possible, offer your child finger foods instead of cooked ones that require a fork or spoon to eat.

Supplements for some children

Vitamin supplements are rarely necessary for toddlers who eat a varied diet, with a few exceptions.

Vitamin D. Infants under 12 months of age require 400 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per day and older children and adolescents require 600 IU per day. This amount of vitamin D can prevent rickets—a condition characterized by the softening and weakening of bones. If your child is not regularly exposed to sunlight or is consuming enough vitamin D in their diet, talk to your pediatrician about a vitamin D supplement. See Vitamin D for Babies, Children & Adolescents for more information and a list of vitamin D-enriched foods.

Iron. Supplemental iron may be needed if your child eats very little meat, iron-fortified cereal, or vegetables rich in iron. Large quantities of milk (more than 32 ounces [960 mL] per day) also may interfere with the proper absorption of iron, increasing the risk of iron deficiency anemia.

Calcium. Your child should drink 16 ounces (480 mL) of low-fat or nonfat milk each day. This will provide most of the calcium they need for bone growth and still not interfere with their appetite for other foods—particularly those that provide iron.

Note: Children stay on whole milk until they are two years of age—unless there is a reason to switch a baby to low-fat milk sooner. Whole milk contains approximately 4% milk fat. It may help to gradually switch your child from whole milk to a lower-fat milk. Therefore, many pediatricians recommend that children get reduced fat (2%) milk for a few weeks before switching them to low fat (1%) or no fat (skim) milk.

More information

Sample Menu for a Two-Year-Old
Feeding & Nutrition Tips: Your 3-Year-Old
Selecting Snacks for Toddlers
I Need a Treat: How to Tame Your Child's Sweet Tooth
Diagnosis and Prevention of Iron Deficiency and Iron Deficiency Anemia in Infants and Young Children (0-3 Years of Age) (AAP Clinical Report)

Last Updated: 9/6/2022

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Obesity (Copyright © 2022)

Menu for a child at 1 year old for a week, rules and recipes

Menu author: Natalia Dik — pediatrician. She graduated from the Chelyabinsk Medical Academy, clinical internship and residency, specialty pediatrics. She has been working in her specialty since 2007, from 2005-2008 she has been the head of the Allergy Department of the City Clinical Hospital No. 1 of Chelyabinsk, since 2008 she has been a specialist in clinical trials of drugs. She enjoys cooking and practices the Menu of the Week system in her daily life.

What food should be on a child's menu after the first birthday? Perhaps there is no mother who would not ask herself this question at least once.

The baby more and more confidently eats not only pureed dishes, but also dishes with small pieces of food, his diet at 1 year old gradually expands, the menu becomes more diverse and as a result, the mother has a lot of opportunities for culinary experiments.

It is possible and necessary to experiment, because it is at an early age that a child develops eating habits . You don't want him to turn his nose away from a plate of food in the future because it contains fried onions or baked broccoli, do you? Then start introducing him to a variety of products and how to cook them now!

Things to remember when compiling a menu for a child after 1 year:

First of all, try to keep the same feeding schedule for better production of digestive enzymes . It is recommended to give "adult" food to babies 5 times a day at intervals of 3.5-4 hours: breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and milk or kefir at night. It is very good if the mother's lactation is preserved, and it is possible to continue natural feeding on demand. Usually, children ask for a breast in the morning after waking up, in the afternoon after taking regular meals, or in between and before bedtime. With artificial feeding, babies usually continue to drink formula milk in the morning and before bedtime after a year.
It is not difficult to diversify the diet: it is enough to include vegetables, fruits, cereals, protein products (milk and dairy products, legumes, meat, fish) and fats (vegetable, butter, sour cream) in it daily. For example, if there was a cereal side dish for lunch, it is better to cook a vegetable dish for dinner, and vice versa.
The most optimal ways of cooking are stewing, boiling (in water or steam), baking. But there are some peculiarities: if you cook soup in broth, it is better to use boneless meat and drain the first broth to avoid overstimulation of digestive enzymes
You can gradually introduce child to various spices and seasonings (cinnamon, coriander, cumin, etc.). Of course, a lot of spicy additives (pepper, garlic) are best avoided, as well as products with artificial flavors (seasonings containing monosodium glutamate, etc.). It will be more useful if the baby learns to enjoy natural tastes.
All mothers are well aware that water is very important for the health and well-being of babies, so make sure that your child drinks enough water between feedings (in extreme cases, unsweetened tea or a decoction of herbs, rose hips). You can pour water every morning into a sippy cup or bottle in a volume of about 300 ml and periodically offer him a drink.

MONDAY

Breakfast: Wheat porridge
Lunch: Chicken pumpkin puree soup recipe
Dinner: Zucchini and carrot casserole

Pediatrician's comment:

lunch often offers to cook broth and stewed vegetables. In my opinion, puree soups combine two dishes at the same time, thereby saving time on cooking. Complementing them with steam cutlets or meatballs (from meat, poultry or fish), we get a full meal.

TUESDAY

Breakfast: Oatmeal Porridge with Caramel Apples
Lunch: Broccoli Soup, Fish Meatballs
Dinner: Zucchini and Carrot Casserole

Pediatrician's comment:

For afternoon snack you can give your baby fruit (if there are still problems with pieces, then in the form of puree or grated), cottage cheese, yogurt or kefir with children's cookies.

Wednesday

Breakfast: Pudding from cottage cheese
Lunch: Broacli Puree, Fisheries
Dinner: Buckwheat porridge

9000 9000 9000 9000

Pediatrician's comment:

Many children even a year prefer to have breakfast with breast milk or formula (if they are formula-fed). Dairy porridge has always been considered a tasty and satisfying breakfast. In addition, you can cook cottage cheese casserole or scrambled eggs.

Thursday

Breakfast: Omlet
Lunch: Puree soup
Dinner: Greek porridge

9000 9000

Pediatrician's comment:

For dinner many children have enough porridge or vegetable puree.

Friday

breakfast: wheat porridge
lunch: soup pure of various vegetables, cutlets
Dinner: zucchini stew in sour cream

9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 flakes with caramel apples
Lunch: Cauliflower soup, liver sauté
Dinner: Sour cream stewed zucchini

Pediatrician's comment:

If the baby has not yet given up five meals a day, then before going to bed drinks with pleasure either breast milk or formula (yogurt, kefir), depending on the type of feeding.

SUNDAY

Breakfast : Baked apples with cottage cheese
Lunch : Cauliflower soup, liver sauté90 Potatoes
Dinner
0078 , Salad of carrots and dried apricots

Such a menu for a child for a week will please not only the baby, but the whole family. Let me just remind you that for children, you need to replace mayonnaise with sour cream, and hot spices (pepper, garlic) can be added to adults in ready-made portions.

Health to your children and the whole family!

Do you like these recipes?

Author: Dasha Chernenko

Menu for a 1 year old child: a detailed guide for parents

A man is already a year old, he has acquired teeth, watches with interest what adults eat and constantly tries to catch something from their plate. And here comes the one who instructively says to the parents: “It’s time to transfer to the common table!” And it won't be right. We find out what the child’s menu should be per year so that he grows up healthy, active and happy.

What to feed a child in a year

A child's menu at 1 year old should include daily dairy and meat products, vegetables and fruits, bread and cereals, vegetable and butter. Twice a week - fish and eggs. Let's figure out what exactly and in what quantity to give the baby - let's look at the pyramid of the children's diet in detail.

Milk

The very first and most important milk for a child is mother's milk. It not only nourishes, but also supports the immune system, and the feeding process itself is useful for the baby emotionally. After a year, the child ceases to be a baby by definition, but this does not mean that breastfeeding should be hastily “curtailed”. Pediatric experts, including the World Health Organization, recommend continued breastfeeding until the child is two years old. But the number of attachments to the chest can be reduced - now one or two times a day is enough.

After one year, the baby can be introduced to cow's and goat's milk. Up to a year, animal milk is prohibited, primarily because children's kidneys are not yet ready to properly remove the excess phosphorus contained in the product.

Together with phosphorus, they get rid of calcium and vitamin D, and this is fraught with the development of a severe form of rickets in a child.

Like any new product, it is necessary to introduce milk into the children's diet gradually, especially since it is often allergic. First, give half a spoonful during breakfast and observe the reaction throughout the day. If there is no allergy, you can double the portion every day. The milk standard for a one-year-old child is 200 ml per day, plus 100 ml for cooking.

When choosing milk for a child, remember that it should not be:

fat: no more than 2.5–3.5%, otherwise the load on the digestive organs and biliary tract is great;
fat-free: no nutritional value, no fat-soluble vitamins;
unprocessed: "live" milk from the farm must be boiled. Yes, there will be fewer vitamins, but the nutrients will remain, and the milk will become microbially safe.

Fermented milk products

Fermented milk products appear in a child's diet even before the age of one. They are rich in protein and calcium, improve intestinal motility, increase immunity and should be on the child's menu every day. But they should be given no more than the recommended rate, so as not to overload the baby's kidneys.

40 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of a sour-milk drink: kefir, biolact, yogurt, etc. are enough per day for a one-year-old child.

The menu of a one-year-old child can be varied with 10-15% fat sour cream. The daily norm is 5-9 g. It can be added to soup, salad or served with the same cheesecakes.

In the year of the child for the first time you can treat cheese: just give a piece to gnaw or add it to pasta, casserole, scrambled eggs. Cheese is rich in calcium - 600–900 mg per 100 g of product.

But cheese should be given to the baby in limited quantities - no more than 5 g per day, because it contains a lot of sodium. Choose hard or semi-hard varieties with a fat content of 30-35%. Remember that blue cheese, smoked, processed, spicy, brine and with various additives, such as nuts and peppers, are not suitable for baby food.

Meat

Every day in the diet of a one-year-old child should be meat, the norm is 100 g. You can give beef, veal, lean pork, rabbit meat, turkey and chicken. Offal diversifies the menu: language and heart. The liver is also useful, but it is advised to give it no more than 1 time in 7-10 days, since it contains a large amount of toxic substances.

Duck and goose meat is not suitable for baby food because it is very fatty. The same with lamb. Not a place in the children's menu and sausages. Sausages, sausages, sausages are harmful for adults, and even more so for children.

Fish

Twice a week it would be good to replace part of the meat portion with a portion of fish. 30–50 g will be enough. Fish is easily digestible, contains iodine, fluorine, copper, zinc, vitamins A and D, B vitamins, polyunsaturated fatty acids and iron.

For the first acquaintance with fish dishes, nutritionists advise choosing not river inhabitants, but marine inhabitants - they have a priority in terms of environmental cleanliness and the content of useful elements. In addition, they are less bony. You can start with low-fat varieties, such as pollock, cod, flounder. And later add haddock, navaga and horse mackerel to the diet.

The advantage of river fish is that it is not as allergenic as sea fish. The most suitable for the children's menu are: hake, carp, river trout and river perch.

A strict taboo in baby food for smoked and salted fish, as well as caviar - so much salt is definitely not good for a child. It is too early to indulge your baby with seafood: all kinds of crabs, shrimps, squids, mussels, lobsters and lobsters are too dangerous from an allergenic point of view.

Eggs

It is desirable that eggs be on the baby's menu 2-3 times a week. Starting from a year, a child can be given not only the yolk, but also the protein. It is better to choose chicken or quail eggs, which, by the way, are less allergenic. Eggs of waterfowl - ducks, geese, etc. - are banned, as they are most often infected with salmonella.

Due to the potential for infection, any eggs must be cooked before being placed on the baby's table. The “soft-boiled” and “pouched” options are not for the baby. The child can be fed with a hard-boiled egg, scrambled eggs with milk, or dishes with the addition of an egg.

Vegetables and fruits

About four times a day the child should eat vegetables and fruits. The kid has already met many of them. During the year, culinary acquaintances continue, you can try beets, turnips, tomatoes, cherries, cherries, strawberries, chokeberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, lingonberries, apricots, peaches, kiwi and citrus fruits.

When your child is one and a half years old, you can add seaweed salad to his diet. Naturally, it should not contain vinegar! Laminaria is rich in iodine, macro- and microelements, and is easily digestible.

Do not forget about dried fruits, compared to fresh fruits, they are several times more fiber and minerals: magnesium, iron, potassium.

Slowly start introducing greens into your baby's menu: cut them finely and add them to salads, soups, main dishes. Dill, parsley, cilantro, celery are especially useful - they have a lot of vitamin C.

Legumes

Legumes contain a lot of vegetable protein, fiber, B vitamins, vitamins C, E, PP, carotene, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, iron, etc. But they should not be more often in the menu of a one-year-old child 2-3 times a week, because they are known for their ability to cause increased gas formation in the intestines. Before giving a child legumes, they must be thoroughly boiled and, if possible, cleaned of coarse fibrous skin. Green peas (fresh or frozen) and green beans are best suited for a children's menu.

Cereals

Cereals are the basis of the food pyramid, they should be present in the child's diet every day. In the morning - in the form of porridge, with or without milk. For lunch, as a side dish. Buckwheat and oatmeal have the first place in nutritional value. From these cereals, they usually cook, even before a year, the first porridge for the baby. Among the "firsts" are also corn grits and rice.

When the child has already tasted cereals from the main cereals, you can experiment with millet and cereals obtained from wheat - wheat and semolina. Note that semolina porridge is not held in high esteem by nutritionists, because it is the poorest in vitamins and minerals. It is not often advised to give it to a child, only for the sake of a variety of taste sensations.

Healthy barley and barley porridges are heavy for a delicate children's stomach. Barley porridge can be given to the baby only after one and a half years. Barley - after three.

Pasta and bread

Pasta is a lifeline for a mother who is drowning in business, but has to feed her child urgently. Kids usually like pasta too. And only nutritionists are dissatisfied, they remind that pasta:

can be entered into the menu of a child at 1 year old no more than 1-2 times a week;
is better not to give to overweight children;
should be excluded when the child is constipated.

Babies can be given bread per year, but not more than 60 g per day. It is better to start with wheat or rye-wheat. It is desirable to dry it slightly in advance so that it becomes easier to digest. Rye bread is made from sour dough, which causes fermentation in the intestines, so it is advised to treat a child to it only after a year and a half.

Butter

Butter not only improves the taste of dishes, but also enriches the diet with vitamins D, E, K, A. A one-year-old child can eat 10–20 g of the product per day, as part of dishes or spread on bread. The oil should not be the fattest - the optimal fat content is from 72.5 to 82%.

Vegetable oils are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are necessary for maintaining the health of both children and adults. It is enough for a one-year-old child to eat 10-15 ml of vegetable oil daily. In addition to the popular sunflower oil, the baby's diet may include corn oil, olive and sesame oil.

Important! Both butter and vegetable oil should be added to ready-made dishes, they should not be subjected to heat treatment.

How to cook for a 9 year old baby0279

After a year, a very important stage should begin in the child's nutrition - a gradual transition to solid food. It is now very important for a baby to learn to chew food, so he will develop chewing muscles, improve the ability to voluntarily control the movements of the organs of articulation.

To begin with, try to offer your child vegetable stew, just thoroughly mashed with a fork, instead of “airy” puree. A little later, you don’t need to knead the vegetables, it will be enough to chop them finely. Start cooking cereals from ordinary, not ground, cereals. Make salads with finely chopped fruits and vegetables.

An important principle in the preparation of children's food is to preserve the beneficial substances contained in the products as much as possible. Therefore, use gentle technologies: boil, bake, stew, steam.

Remember that a significant part of the vitamins is destroyed by heat and exposure to moisture and air. Never peel vegetables ahead of time - just before putting them in the pot. The water should be boiling by now. To preserve minerals in vegetables, boil them in salted water. The rule does not apply to beets - boiling in salted water worsens their taste.

Cook baby soup without toasting. If the soup is meat, be sure to drain the first broth.

Is it possible to use salt and spices

Food for a one year old baby can be slightly salted. To an adult, children's food should seem undersalted.

It is acceptable to use spices, but in very small quantities - only until a light shade of taste is achieved. Bay leaves, basil, cumin, thyme, coriander, marjoram, rosemary, allspice, vanilla, cinnamon can be added to the dishes of a child from one to three years old. Spices such as red and black pepper, horseradish, mustard are too hot and are not suitable for children's dishes.

What about sweets

In our culture it is customary to treat children with candy, and this is completely wrong. Sweets increase allergic reactions, lead to overweight and provoke the appearance of caries, so the later the baby gets to know them, the better.

You can sweeten foods only if the baby refuses to eat unleavened food - cottage cheese, porridge, etc. But first, try to improve the taste with berries, fruits or dried fruits.

If you still can't wait to pamper your child with something sweet, let it be marshmallows, marshmallows, marmalade, jam, marmalade, jam or children's cookies. But only after the main meal.

What you can and cannot drink

For a child, as well as for an adult, the ideal drink is ordinary water. You can offer the baby boiled water from the tap or buy a special one - in a bottle marked "for baby food".

Compotes from vegetables, fruits and dried fruits diversify the drinking diet. Try to cook them without sugar, most likely, the baby will be delicious anyway. Vegetable and fruit juices are also better to make yourself. However, it is often not worth giving them to a child to drink: there are no dietary fibers in them, but there is plenty of sugar and acids.

At the age of one year, the child can already be given weak herbal and fruit teas. It is useful to drink cocoa, it contains proteins, carbohydrates, fats and a biologically active component that can stimulate the activity of the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Sometimes you can treat your baby to surrogate coffee, which is made from barley, oats, rye, chicory, soybeans, chestnuts, etc.

Do not give your child tea, cocoa, or surrogate coffee after fish or meat dishes. These drinks contain substances that prevent the absorption of certain nutrients, such as iron.

Do not treat your baby to carbonated drinks, even mineral water - the carbon dioxide contained in them irritates the gastric mucosa.

How to make a menu for a 1-year-old child

Experts advise to prepare a menu for a child for a week in advance. This makes it easier to ensure that the baby's nutrition is balanced. It is important to immediately build a regular meal schedule and, if possible, do not deviate from it for more than 30 minutes. Thanks to the regime, the child develops a conditioned food reflex, and this helps to digest and assimilate food well.

A one-year-old child is recommended to be fed five times a day. three main meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner and two additional ones: afternoon tea and bedtime feeding.

A child from one to one and a half years old needs about 1000-1200 ml of food per day, from one and a half to three years - 1200-1500 ml. The volume of food in one feeding should not exceed 300-350 ml.

The total calorie content of meals should now be approximately 1300 kcal. A child's menu per year may look something like this: