Food for 1 Year Old-what to bring

[frannn]

DD will be 1 when we go to DW. She is a big eater, and does not miss a meal. She is 9 months now and has bottles, baby food, and some table food. She does not have any top teeth yet, just two bottom ones. I was thinking of getting her some of the applesauce snack packs, and the baby microwave meals that come in the plastic containers (not frozen, room temp). I would buy this stuff in Publix when we get to Boca (going there before Orlando). Other than that, I am clueless. I will probably get some fruit and muffins for DH and I, but we will be at the supermarket on Tuesday and won't be at WDW till Friday. What should I get for DD and us to snack on & eat as lunch in the parks? We will not have a frig....and will be on site.

 

[disynut]

Let's see...I'm trying to think what we took for ds at that age(he's 3 now--he's a very picky eater). Cheerios are good, goldfish crackers or cheez-its pack well too...I never could get ds to eat applesauce but if yours likes it I think those little snack packs would be perfect. The little fruit snacks are good too--but be careful because they can be choking hazards(I think the ones by Gerber may be better but I'm not sure). If you're going in the heat take lots to drink(we take Gatorade and water it down--I don't know about for a one year old though).

I'll try and think of more later...


Jennifer

 

[Jordan's MOM]

When my DS was that age I bought a lot of the Gerber graduates. They have finger foods that come both in jars and those mirowave containers. All are fine room temp. They also have lots of finger foods such as cerals, cookies, fruit snacks etc.

A good way to keep things cool in you room is to pick up a cheap cooler at Publix. Keep it filled with ice from the resort and it will keep milk for the baby, as well as a few other items very cold.

As for lunch, with a baby you might find that going back to your room at lunch for a nap fits well into your plans. If that happens, cold cuts kept in the cooler and a loaf of bread will take care of lunch. We carry little food into the parks, but ideas I have seen here include trail mix, creal bars, nuts and tuna packets for a high enery lunch.

You might want to consider carring water bottles too. September will still be quite hot and the water is like 2.50 a bottle. Good luck and happy planning.


Jordan's mom

 

[Nette]

Here's what we took: (for a 4 day trip)

Packed in luggage:
1 can of carrots (pull top) - didn't open
3 cans of gerber grad Pasta Pickups (one in carryon) - used one
1 sleeve of saltines - used about 8 of them

DH bought a box of mickey graham crackers (one pkg) for about $2 and we ate most of those before getting home.

Our DD is a good eater too... so I wanted to make sure we had things she could eat. She's 11 mo and only has 1 (snaggle) bottom tooth. Most of what we ate, she could have little pieces of, so we did that.

I agree that the little fruit cups would be great... and I've been looking for ones packed in JUICE (not light syrup) but cant find them anywhere.

If I had to change what we did, I'd make sure that she got more veggies and fruits... she ate a lot of chicken and bread.

Oh!!! one more thing, if your little one likes bananas, bring them to WDW or you'll pay an outrageous $1.50 for ONE BANANA!!! we only did that once (stole one from a buffet afterwards
)

 

[Kermit]

You can always fill a cooler with ice and keep things cool, so you could buy string cheese. It doesn't have to be kept so cold that you would need to worry about it going bad as long as the ice was changed daily.

She'll also be able to eat some fruits, like peaches and bananas, raw by that point.

Bagels are always a good snack for toddlers. Buy the whole wheat ones (rather than white) because wheat bread is less of a choking hazzard.

 

[J. Galt]

This is a great question (as I am facing the same situation in November)! Lots of good responses so far. Here is what I was thinking of bringing/buying for my little one (FYI - we are planning on having a cooler in our room):

Cheese
Milk
Juice
Bread
Peanut Butter
Fresh fruit (such as bananas, apricots, berries.... whatever your little one likes)
Cheerios
Gerber snacks
Avocados
Gerber finger foods
Graham crackers
Yogurt
Applesauce

That's all I've got for now, but will add to the list as her tastes change. I also plan to supplement with whatever we eat at the parks (ex: chicken in pieces, scrambled eggs at breakfast buffets, a little ice cream). I think you'll find a lot to feed your little one at the parks/restaurants. Ex: just order a chicken sandwich for yourself and cut some up in pieces for your little one. Then you can just fill in the nutritional gaps with what you purchase.

 

[kj&zb'smom]

The previous list looks good except the peanut butter - you need to avoid nut products until your child is 2 (to avoid possible life long allergies).

 

[bartleby1]

My DS is 13 months and we are leaving in a week. I plan on bringing LOTS of the gerber graduate diced veggies and fruits since fruits and veggies are often harder to find while travelling. We can always give him meat off our plate and some sort of bread/roll. I'm throwing in a few of the microwave gerber meals, although he's not too fond of them.

As far as snacks, I'm bringing mini bread sticks (stella dora), whole wheat pretzels, goldfish, cheerios, bananas, gerber graduate veggie crackers and cereal squares, and whatever else I can find, lol!

I think you're probably going to find that your DD's ability to eat real food will be pretty good by one year and she should be able to eat most of what you are eating as long as you break it into small enough pieces. As kj&zb'smom said though, skip the peanut butter until at least 2 years old since peanut allergies can be life threatening and peanut butter is also a choking hazard. Since allergies run in my family, our pediatrician didn't want us to introduce peanuts until 3 years old. My DD is 3.5 and I'm still too chicken to try it!

Have fun! Definitely check out the gerber graduate products. They make some great snacks for the little ones.

 

[owensamo]

We took my DD when she was 11 mo old in March. I had some of the Gerber fruit bars and cheerios and I had been planning to take a couple jars of baby food but forgot to pack them. DD isn't a great eater and wasn't into baby food at that point anyway - she was eating all table food and she ate *great* at WDW eating off of Mom and Dad's plates.

I do have to say, thought, that besides food the two things I would take would be Pamper's Bibsters (disposable bibs) and Table Toppers. The Table Toppers are a godsend - disposable placemats that stick to the table. When you've got a child around 1 year old that wants to do it themselves, it's great to have something that you can feel confident it's clean to put their food on when you're out. We get ours at Toys R Us, but they also have them available online at One Step Ahead. The ones at Toys R Us have Sesame Street characters - our DD *loves* Elmo, thought not quite as much as she loves Pooh!

Mur!

 

[swilphil]

Mur--Thanks for the tip on the Table Toppers. I already have some Bibsters, now to see if 1 year old will wear them! He's been pulling his other bibs off, and the 3 year old also refuses to wear one.

As far as what to feed 1 year old, I vote for just about any table food, except the peanut butter and other nuts. About the only baby food my youngest will eat is the Apples and Chicken Simple Recipes, and the Gerbers 2 or 3 Oatmeal. He loves all fruits and veggies from my plate, as well as chicken, ground beef, ham and turkey. Likes pasta and mild mexican food, too. He even had some lettuce the other day. I read that if you introduce new foods to babies between 9 and 12 months, they will be better eaters. So far it's worked great with my 1 year old. I fed my oldest a lot of baby food at this age, and he's such a picky eater.

A favorite on the go food for both my kids is mandarian oranges. They sell the small pop-top cans. It's easy to drain the juice out, and it's not as messy as some other canned fruit.

Happy travels

 

[frannn]

Now all we need to do is get DD some top teeth.....otherwise I would think the cheerios, oranges, fruit bars, crackers etc. would be a no-no. Correct?

 

[frannn]

Do you let 1 year old feed herself the cheerios, etc, or do you feed her little pieces by hand? If you let her do it, what type of container do you put it in? The stroller I'm planning on taking does not have a snack tray or drink holder (but it is very lite and easy to fold, steer, and carry). I bought a Pooh bottle holder from the DS, I think it has a short buckle. Is there a good use for this (so it doesn't get lost)?

 

[Nette]

What a kid can mush up with her gums...

Ours definitely can eat the fruit bars and cheerios.. She even eats meat (in small chunks)...

I usually don't let her feed the cheerios herself... Just put a few in front of her on the table (or hand them to her one at a time if not at the table). As for crackers, I break them in half and give her both halves (one for each hand - she likes that). Mostly they just disolve as she gnaws on them.

OH, BTW, avoid giving your little one shell fish (or anything that comes in contact with it) as well as PB until she is older... It's another one of those things that can be serious if your DD does happen to be allergic...

 

[swilphil]

The pediatrian told me that cheerios will dissolve. I put them in snack size ziploc bags, and give DS a few at a time.

Ritz crackers are also very soft. Some other crackers are too hard.

 

[owensamo]

Originally posted by frannn
Now all we need to do is get DD some top teeth.....otherwise I would think the cheerios, oranges, fruit bars, crackers etc. would be a no-no. Correct?

My DD didn't have any teeth until she was 13 months old - so we were feeding her all table food with just gums. You'd be surprised what a baby can gum to pieces! She was eating pizza, chicken, deli ham and turkey, cheese, mandarin oranges, blueberries, grapes - pretty much everything in small bites, including crackers and cheerios!

Now she only has her two front bottom teeth, and she's eating better - she can actually take bites of things even without the top teeth. So we give her whole Ritz crackers and keep an eye on her and she just wanders around with them and nibbles on them. We give her the baby goldfish and she pops two or three of those in her mouth at a time - she love them.

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are both peditircians and they said that cheerios aren't really a choking hazard for 2 reasons - first, they dissolve pretty quickly in saliva, and second, there's a hole in them so thy can't get lodged in a baby's throat in any way that would completely block the air supply. So our DD has been playing with cheerios since she was about 6 months old.

Mur!

 

[deb305]

We took DS in Jan when he just turned one. If you are planning on packing meals for the rest of the family, the lists all sound great. DS had top two and bottom two teeth at that time. The great thing about WDW parks is the wide variety of foods. We would take bottled water and juice in the parks, along with a sleeve or crackers. After that we grazed as needed. We were able to buy, and he ate fruit (Watermelon, cantelope, diced grapes, strawberries), any pasta chopped up, soft veggies, fish, chopped chicken sandwich, etc. One day as a family we grazed through EPCOT eating at almost every country We'd buy an entree and split among the 4 of us. At that age they don't know they aren't supposed to like things, so he ate fish and chips, lentils, couscous, creme brulee, brats (chopped) etc.
As long as food is in small pieces, and not unreasonable hard they can gum almost anything. We also discovered on this trip that he loves all things chocolate (thanks to DD 4 yrs who snuck it to him)
Did you know that children under two eat free in many of the Disney restaraunts, especially the buffets!!

 

[bartleby1]

Originally posted by frannn
Do you let 1 year old feed herself the cheerios, etc, or do you feed her little pieces by hand? If you let her do it, what type of container do you put it in? The stroller I'm planning on taking does not have a snack tray or drink holder (but it is very lite and easy to fold, steer, and carry). I bought a Pooh bottle holder from the DS, I think it has a short buckle. Is there a good use for this (so it doesn't get lost)?

We went out and bought a lightweight stroller with a snack tray specifically for our trip since that is where my DS will be doing much of his eating.

Does your stroller have a bar going across the front? They do sell a toy/snack bar that you can attach to your stroller but I think it only works if you have a bar. I saw one at babies r us made by Graco. There is another company that makes one but I can't think of what it is. Check on amazon under stroller accessories. Also, there is a line of products put out by Prince Lionheart called "Click n Go" which has different types of cup holders and snack cups that attach to your stroller. Babies r us had a whole display of them when I was there last time. I've never used them and don't know if they work but it might be worth looking into. Definitely get the stick on placemats. They are WONDERFUL for little ones.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

If your child is still taking a bottle, like mine was, purchase the premeasured "sleeves" of powdered formula. I was able to find them at high-end grocery stores. Haven't looked lately (she is now 4).

I would fill the bottle with distilled nursery water before we left the room and then I only had to open packets and pour in 2 and shake to make a bottle whenever I wanted and didn't have to worry about spoiling.

She was only taking 1 or 2 bottles a day at that time, but it was a God-send to be able to give her bottle while we would sit and wait for older brother to ride. She would usually take it at naptime and drift off.

Made for a pleasant afternoon for everyone.