Is this a good one day menu for a 1 year old/?!
Is this a good one day menu for a 1 year old/?
I'm not sure if my daughter is getting what she needs through diet but our next well-baby visit is next month, so in the meantime if you could help? She's 18 months old & this was her yesterday menu:
(wakeup) 2 oz unswtd soymilk diluted w/ 6 oz more water
breakfast:2 Tbsp. dry oats(but cooked up to 1/4c.) made w/ 1 Tbsp. flaxseeds &3 Tbsp. blueberries
2 oarnge sections
snack: 1/4 peice 8grain bread & 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
8 oz water
(morning nap)1 oz unswtd soymilk diluted w/ 3 more oz. water
Lunch: 4 florets steamed broccoli
3 Tbsp. applesauce
1/4 wheat tortilla w/ 1 Tbsp. mashed beans
2 oz unswtd soymilk diluted w/ 6 oz more water
(afternoon nap) 1 oz. unswtd soymilk diluted w/ 3 oz. more water
snack: 4 Tbsp. mashed potato plain
5 (about) 1 in. cubes honeydew
8 oz. water
Dinner: 10 spaghetti noodles
4 Tbsp chopped tomatoes
1 Tbsp. tofu crumbles
4 Tbsp. baked acorn squash
ni'nite: 2 oz. unswtd soymilk diluted w/ 6 oz more water
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1 month ago
Does this sound like she's getting enough? Too little? Too much? The right stuff? If she continues eating this way will she stay healthy & up to speed w/ growth? Any relevant opinions, insight, etc you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much. (=
1 month ago
Also, please remember that while yes it does look like a lot, its simply a lot to read so please look at it as a whole. (=
Answers:
1 month ago
Does this sound like she's getting enough? Too little? Too much? The right stuff? If she continues eating this way will she stay healthy & up to speed w/ growth? Any relevant opinions, insight, etc you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much. (=
1 month ago
Also, please remember that while yes it does look like a lot, its simply a lot to read so please look at it as a whole. (=
Does she seem satisfied or asking for more food? At that age, they are pretty good at letting you know if they need more. Here is a snippet of an article I recently read:
Toddlers are already a bit of a challenge when it comes to eating. As they come off of breast milk or formula around 1 year (although vegans often breastfeed longer), children are at risk for nutritional deficiencies. After the age of 1, strict vegan diets may not offer growing toddlers enough essential vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, calcium, and zinc. So it's important to serve fortified cereals and nutrient-dense foods, as well as watch your child's fiber intake. Vitamin supplementation is recommended for young children whose diets may not provide adequate nutrients.
Toddlers are typically picky about which foods they'll eat and, as a result, some may not get enough calories from a vegetarian diet to thrive. For vegan toddlers, the amount of vegetables needed for proper nutrition and calories may be too bulky for their tiny stomachs. During the picky toddler stage, it's important for vegetarian parents to make sure their young child eats enough calories. You can get enough fat and calories in a vegan child's diet, but you have to plan carefully when excluding food groups.
Source(s):
http://www.vegetarianbaby.com/
That is alot for a one year old.Why do you diluted the soymilk milk. At the age of one they should drink milk without dilted.
Instead of asking here....consult your pediatrician......
The first part that jumps out at me is that she is only getting 8 oz. of soy milk per day. I think she needs more than that to meet her calcium and calorie needs. Perhaps you could change the ratio of milk/water in her bottles, or start offering a cup of soymilk at meal times. I'm sure you will want your Dr. to verify this.
You are doing a great job with variety and vegan protein sources. As she grows she will of course need more protein as well as more calories.
Keep up the good work!
I think it sounds good but, like others, not sure why you dilute the soy milk. If you were non-vegan, cow's milk would not be diluted so I would think you would do the same for soy. But I'd check with your dr. Also, it doesn't seem like there's enough fats in her food, and little kids need some fat for proper development.
I would bring a weeks worth of menus with you on your next dr's visit so s/he can get a good idea of what your daughter is eating.
Why are you diluting soymilk for an 18 month old? At that age, she can pretty much eat what you eat but the food should just be cut into smaller pieces.
Does she seem satisfied or asking for more food? At that age, they are pretty good at letting you know if they need more. Here is a snippet of an article I recently read:
Toddlers are already a bit of a challenge when it comes to eating. As they come off of breast milk or formula around 1 year (although vegans often breastfeed longer), children are at risk for nutritional deficiencies. After the age of 1, strict vegan diets may not offer growing toddlers enough essential vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, calcium, and zinc. So it's important to serve fortified cereals and nutrient-dense foods, as well as watch your child's fiber intake. Vitamin supplementation is recommended for young children whose diets may not provide adequate nutrients.
Toddlers are typically picky about which foods they'll eat and, as a result, some may not get enough calories from a vegetarian diet to thrive. For vegan toddlers, the amount of vegetables needed for proper nutrition and calories may be too bulky for their tiny stomachs. During the picky toddler stage, it's important for vegetarian parents to make sure their young child eats enough calories. You can get enough fat and calories in a vegan child's diet, but you have to plan carefully when excluding food groups.
Source(s):
http://www.vegetarianbaby.com/
For overall nutrition needs, a one-week or longer menu would be necessary. From what you've written here, you're including all of the food groups and have a great variety.
Toddlers are always difficult to feed, and the best advice about quantity is to provide sufficient and don't worry if they're not finishing all of it.
As for the diluted soy milk, is this a powdered formula that you're mixing up? If not, slowly decrease the dilution (the girl might balk at suddenly having straight soy milk) and provide a cup of water that the girl can drink from at will.
It seems fairly balanced, but please take a couple of suggestions. Soy milk can cause allergies to develop, especially if its genetically modified soy. It will only be NON GMO if its CLEARLY marked as such-over 80 percent of the soy in the US and UK are GM. You might try rice milk (homemade is easy and the best) instead of so much soy. My other suggestion is to quit counting how many of each thing she has-just give her a plate of goodies and let her munch to her hearts content. She will quit eating when she is full. You might try giving her some quinoa pilaf-its a super source of whole protein, is easy to digest, and is very tasty. You could make her some quinoa muffins with quinoa flour and quinoa flakes (email me if you need a detailed recipe-I make mine with flax instead of eggs) I would also have a bit of concern with the peanut butter-if its commercial, its loaded with other stuff. Perhaps some home ground almond butter would be better-peanuts are in the top 8 allergen catagory.
It sounds fairly well balanced, but your portions seem just a bit controlled. Good luck!
Is she getting a reliable source of B12? Do ensure that. Also you can try to increase the varieties of nuts and seeds (perhaps in milk form) fed to ur daughter. I don't know what an 18mth old baby can eat, but here's a list of sources of vitamins and minerals that you can find in a plant based diet, hope it will help.
http://www.vegetarian-society.org/downlo...
http://www.vegetarian-society.org/downlo...
OK, first of all everything looks fine (compared to most of the crap people stuff into their kids these days), but there's a general lack of breast milk. Children should still be breast feeding for at least a couple years or so. That said...
Additionally, you are feeding the 1 year old too much variety. This is how allergies etc. get started; by feeding children with an undeveloped digestive system 'adult' foods such as spaghetti noodles, peanut butter, beans, grains, etc. All very difficult to digest. I assume you are not breastfeeding, therefore I assume more variety will be needed with that lack of nutrients from breast milk, but avoid the more 'adult' hard-to-digest foods.
Also look at food combining for digestion. Never mix fruit/berries with anything else. This is really bad for digestion. You may not notice since you are older, but mixing fruits and vegetables leads to indigestion -- apples with vegetables and beans... really, that should be a common sense no-no. Then there's the potato eaten with honeydew -- really, not a good mix. We tell our kids to wait at least an hour after fruits/berries before eating anything else.
Think simple; think plain; think easy to digest.
You know what, here are two very good books to read, "Macrobiotic Pregnancy and Care of the Newborn", and "Macrobiotic Family Favorites". These are really two great books on raising healthy children. I don't follow macrobiotic diet myself, but I think that it's really the best (it basically means, eat locally, eat simply, eat seasonal food, etc.).
Look into steamed vegetables and root vegetables. Our daughter really loved that sort of stuff at 1yr. As long as you continue to avoid really strongly flavoured foods (salt, sugar, highly cooked/processed, etc.) kids will eat very healthy foods and love it. Slowly we introduced our first daughter to food with steamed root veggies (like turnips and radish), then onward slowly to more 'adult' foods. She's 3 now, and she eats pretty much everything we do (although we are very healthy eaters anyway). We never give her sugary foods, candy, highly processed foods, etc. -- we really don't eat any junk foods anyway ourselves. The only things we eat which we do not share with our young kids are: potato chips, chocolate, non-homemade cookies, etc. Perhaps some honey on her pancake, and rice malt etc. for sweet treats, but basically with any refined sugar she just goes crazy then at the end of the day gets very grumpy and moody and driving us crazy. In the end, we just try to keep their foods very healthy and simple and organic and not allow them to mix foods improperly (see link below).
I'm not sure why you'd dilute the milk or give a baby flaxseed.
Be sure shes is introduced to a large variety of fruits and vegetables and, run babies diet by her doctor.He might tell you not to dole out food.Some days they're hungrier than other days. On their own, they don't gorge themselves but stop eating when they've had enough.
I'm glad you're skipping the cookies and other sweets.