The 12 Month and Up Crowd

By: Denise Henderson

Founder and Mom

Square One® Organics

At this age your child can eat just about anything. So you can officially stop shopping in the baby food aisle. Your child can eat cut and or mashed up version of what being served to the family. They probably have a few teeth, so they can chew more, and their digestive system is mature enough to handle these foods. Watch out for nuts and raw veggies though! Delay these for another six months. You will notice that they will want to feed themselves. Go buy a bunch of bibs and saddle up for messy feeding time. Here come the Berries, Beans, Basta, and Eggs!!!

Here are some suggestions:

1. Berries are the Berries!! A whole bunch of vitamin C with a very low glycolic index. Low Glycemic Index foods produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels. Read more here. So no sugar crash, just amazing vitamin C and a pallet that loves berries. You will be very happy you incorporated berries into their routine. Berries are very portable and are an amazing superfood snack food. Cut/mash them into soft pieces so they are fairly easy for the baby to grab. You will notice on the SQ1 Superfood Guide, that Berries are not on the radar until your child is 12 months old. Dr Nimmagadda, Pediatric allergist from Children’s Memorial Hospital, worked with us when we created the SQ1 Guide. He wanted us to delay the introduction of berries until children were 12 months old for allergy reasons.

2. Basta and Beans – As you know, I am almost all Italian and grew up calling pasta, basta. I was never corrected and it stuck – so bear with me! Smash/cut the beans and serve them with basta (cut the basta into pieces too) or any other grain. The combination produces a more complex protein for your child. You will be happy you got this going early. In elementary school, many of the cafeterias are “nut free zones”. So no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches allowed. You will be so happy when you send a thermos of basta and beans or Quinoa and beans with organic butter and sea salt to school with your child for lunch.

3. The entire egg is ok now! Before now only the yolk was on the menu for the baby. It’s a new day and the entire egg can be eaten. Scrambling an organic egg, adding a SQ1 spinach cup and some organic shredded cheese has to be the easiest thing going. In about 2 minutes, you can serve your child protein, vitamin A, C E and calcium. You can even add this scramble to the above basta and bean meal for a power lunch or dinner. This is some very efficient grocery shopping! Scrambled eggs for everyone in the family. Check out the SQ1 Green Eggs Muffin recipe and do this in bulk to make breakfast cooking a breeze.

Enjoy and remember it is time to

Chew your food!!