I’ve seen a multitude of what I eat in a day videos from adults. Accurate or not, they have always been somewhat inspiring and entertaining and provide lots of new ideas.
So I thought it might also be fun to do a little recap on what my 13 month old eats in a day to provide some 13 month old food ideas.
And also show what was left on the plate.
Because even though she is usually a good eater, the amount she eats varies greatly.
I try not to stress out if she eats very little, just like I don’t stress out when she eats seconds.
I trust that her body gets what it needs, and so far this approach has been working well.
So let’s jump right in and start with her fist meal of the day.
Breakfast
The first meal of the day is typically the most challenging meal for our daughter.
Right when she gets up she gets a bottle of formula, so she usually isn’t too hungry for breakfast
Our go-tos are:
- Yogurt with hemp seeds
- Berries
- Oatmeal
This is a typical breakfast at the moment.
She absolutely loves yogurt. We usually serve her plain Greek full fat or whole milk yogurt, without any added sugars or anything.
Her second favorite part are the berries. Usually, she finishes all her berries and yogurt first.
Oatmeal is a hit and miss. Sometimes she likes it, sometimes she won’t touch it. We try to add a little applesauce and cinnamon to give it some flavor, but that doesn’t seem to matter to her.
Breakfast food ideas for 13 month old babies
Other 13 month old food ideas for breakfast that we serve her regularly are:
- Eggs – scrambled or hard-boiled
- Toast or bagel with cream cheese
- Cereal (plain cheerios) with milk
- Pancakes
- Waffles with peanut butter
Surprisingly, she is not really into pancakes or waffles, even though they’re usually sweetened with some banana or applesauce.
She prefers plain yogurt over everything else, so most days we stick with this.
Snack 1
Snacks are not as consistent at this point.
We are often going on a walk in the mornings or have some errands to run, and my little one likes having snacks on hand.
So I like bringing this snack cup for her. We usually fill it with a mix of snacks.
As baby snacks are really expensive, we like to switch things up.
Snack cup food ideas
This is what we like to put in the snack container:
- Cheerios (plain, unsweetened)
- Rice cakes (plain, unsweetened, no salt)
- Cheese puffs (either baby version, or Hippeas)
- Yogurt melts
- Other baby puffed snacks
You can check out our favorite healthy snacks that we buy all the time here!
These are mostly very dry snacks, but she likes them a lot and this snack cup keeps her quite entertained when we’re out and about.
If we are staying in, she still gets this snack cup, but we also add some cut up fruit.
And water! Especially after eating lots of dry snacks, she gets quite thirsty after a while.
Lunch
For lunch our little one often gets leftovers from the previous day’s dinner.
So a typical lunch for my 13 month old can look like in the picture above and consists of:
- Pasta (topped with a little bit of cheese)
- Peas
- Avocado
- Corn on the Cob
I always try to include some protein (peas and cheese), some carbs (pasta), and some veggies (corn and peas) for lunch.
I try not to add sweet things, but she does get some fruit for dessert sometimes.
Lunch food ideas for 13 month old babies
Some other foods that we like to make in bulk to have handy for a quick lunch are:
- Rice
- Sweet potatoes
- Roasted veggies
- Shredded chicken
Other food ideas that can be prepared quickly and put together for a 13 month old’s lunch that we like as well are:
- Beans
- Peas
- Cucumber
- Hummus
- Corn
- Toast with cream cheese
- Avocado
- Shredded cheese
Just having a list of ideas comes in handy when you don’t have much time to cook a full lunch for your little one.
And having some foods meal prepped allows you to throw together a quick meal for your 13 month old.
Snack 2
In between lunch and dinner, our 13 month old needs another snack.
This usually includes some milk before or after her nap, and either another snack cup or something fresh.
Snack food ideas for 13 month old babies
For a fresh snack, I like giving her e.g. some banana or very thinly sliced apples with a little peanut or almond butter.
She also loves munching on hummus that I spread on some teething crackers
For more ideas, check out my post on healthy snack ideas that don’t break the bank here!
Depending on if we are staying home or are on the go, the snacks adapts to our needs.
And I do think she enjoys the variety. At least she hasn’t complained yet.
Dinner
The last meal of the day is typically our one big family meal.
I usually try to cook something that she can eat as well.
Even though she is over the 12 month mark, we still like to keep the amount of salt in her food at a minimum. And the same goes for sugar.
So we try to stick to meals that are easy to cook, don’t require much salt or other spices in the cooking process, but still taste good.
The picture above is a good example of how a family dinner with a 13 month old can look like.
What’s on her plate:
- Avocado
- Mashed black beans
- Brown rice
- Tofu
- Corn on the Cob
- Tomatoes
My husband and I would call this a power bowl.
For us adults, we would add some lettuce in there as well, and shave the corn off of the cob and add it to our bowl.
We’ll also add some salsa and maybe some taco seasoning.
As you can see, we do like to keep it simple when it comes to making meals, and enjoy having foods that can be easily adapted for our 13 month old.
Dinner food ideas for 13 month old babies
In general, like for lunch, I try to follow the protein+carbs+vegetables guide, making sure her dinner has one part of each.
For proteins, we like to make:
- Chicken drumsticks
- Meatballs
- Salmon
- Cod
- Homemade chicken fingers
- Homemade fish sticks
- Black bean patties
- Turkey burger
- Shrimp
- Tofu
When it comes to the carbs portion, we often pick from the following foods:
- Potato wedges
- Roasted sweet potatoes
- Mashed potatoes
- Rice
- Pasta
- Polenta
For vegetables, we usually try to see what would match well with the protein and carbs that we picked:
- Peas
- Corn
- Roasted bell peppers
- Roasted root vegetables (carrot, parsnip, beets)
- Cucumber
- Tomatoes
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Zucchini
We try to aim for a colorful plate, to ensure a nutritious meal that also looks interesting to our little one.
Having these lists of food ideas for your 13 month old allows you to easily pick whatever you have at home and mix and match and put together a simple but delicious meal.
Conclusion
All in all, we like to keep things simple but delicious for our little one.
She enjoys examining the different textures of food, and the different colors and tastes.
We encourage her to try new things and like to switch it up. But we never force her to finish a plate, or try a food if she is really not interested.
I hope this summary of what my 13 month old eats in a day helps you find some inspiration and some new food ideas for your little one.
Let me know in the comments what your baby’s favorite meal is!
Happy eating.