Baby Champuru enjoys feeding herself, shown here eating
a whole wheat tortilla with cream cheese & grape jelly

Baby Champuru was a fabulous foodie in her infant months, but as a toddler she is suddenly a finicky eater.  There are developmental reasons for this and it is not uncommon.

On most days, she will refuse to eat anything I try to give her with a spoon, preferring to feed herself.  This is understandable as she is learning to be independent. She also has teeth and prefers to eat things that will require use of her new chompers.  Pureés are quickly becoming out of style in this house, as it should.

So, I was in a quandary about what to feed Baby Champuru for about a week as she mainly subsisted on applesauce, Gerber Graduates snacks, formula, and small amounts of table food. Of course, this flies in the face of my preference to feed Baby Champuru wholesome, homemade, organic food.   I’m still trying to do more research and allow baby to experiment with different foods and see what she ends up liking.

Today she had cream cheese and grape jelly thinly spread on a whole wheat tortilla. As you can see from the photo above, she quite liked it.  As you can imagine, the grape jelly makes for a sticky mess in the end, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that toddlers are messy and you just have to let them be.

Tortillas are handy tools for toddler feeding. I opted for the whole wheat variety, but you can also find colorful vegetable-based tortillas such as tomato or spinach. I warm the tortilla in the microwave at 50% for 10-20 seconds.  Depending on your toddler’s preference or eating ability, you can either fold the tortilla in half and cut in triangles or roll it up.  Here are a few ideas for toddler tortilla goodness:

• If your toddler is older than 3 years old or has already been introduced to peanut butter, here’s a sweet treat she’s bound to love: on a warm tortilla, spread peanut butter and top with chopped bananas.
• For a peanut-free alternative, try cream cheese and jelly/jam.
• Toddler Quesadilla: 2 T. shredded cheese such as cheddar, fold in half, and microwave for 30 seconds.  To change things up and for added nutrition, consider chopped, cooked broccoli, carrots, chicken or ground beef.

I just stumbled upon this great article by Dr. Sears entitled Feeding Toddlers: 17 Tips for Pleasing the Picky Eater that I’ll try with Baby Champuru.

Do you have any tips on feeding toddlers? What is your toddler’s favorite foods?