Saturday, August 25, 2012

Breakfast options for 18 month old child

Breakfast as we all know, and have been reading a lot recently , is the most important meal of the day- yet on speaking to a lot of friends who have kids , have found that they are making do with a glass of milk and fruit OR a bowl of oats.
I feel this is a very inadequate breakfast for a child who most probably had her dinner by 7-8 pm, and has thereby been fasting for almost 12 hours.
With the kind of active lifestyle they lead, children need the most nutrition we, as mothers, can provide them, and an integral part of this is a healthy , filling breakfast to kickstart their day.
My DH is currently 18 months old, and even though we don't experiment a lot with her food, yet three meals are fixed for her at specific times.

Mostly she will have a bottle of milk by 6.30 - 7.00 am
Gets up by 8-8.30
Followed by body massage
Play for 10-15 mins
Breakfast by 9-9.15 am

Am replicating some of the options,with methods to make them as well:

Breakfast for an 18 month old can be any of the following:
1. Dosa
               Prepare dosa batter by soaking 1:5 ratio solid urad dal and ildi rice.Grind after a soaking period of 8-10 hours.The dal needs to be ground, then rice added to it and ground to a fine batter.
This batter needs to ferment in a vessel for around 5-8 hours.
It can be stored in the fridge for upto a week , and used for making doses and idli for your little one.
The dosa for a child should be soft.Take a little amount of batter in a ladle and pour on the tawa(griddle) in a thick round shape and spread so that it is not too thin, neither too thick.Spread ghee on it, and let it cook.Once this side is light brown in color, turn and cover with a lid.This will make the dose even more soft.
Once it is cooked, dip in milk (you can add sugar if you want) and feed.


2. Idli- 
           The above batter is steamed in a idli making vessel or in microwave.To know whether the idli is cooked or not- insert a knife- this should come out without any batter.

3.Wheat dosa-
                         Mix one ladle ground wheat with a pinch of salt and add water.The consistency should be such that the mixture should flow freely.
This should be cooked like a dose on the griddle.The only difference being that both the sides should be cooked really well- the taste of wheat should not come.
This can be fed dipped in milk.


4. Bread in milk
5. Oats
6. Upma with vegetables
7. Wheat daliya
Recipes for 4-7 in the next post..
Happy feeding:)

Leave a comment if you want to add more options OR would like me to do so....