Feeding FAQ: 18-24 months – Other

I was looking for an easy meal idea for my 1½ year old son last night and noticed a pack of vege sausages in the fridge. Are these okay for him to eat? And what about other ‘convenience foods’ like regular sausages and burgers, or are they too full of rubbish? Normally I cook from scratch but sometimes I just want to make something quickly.

We all have days when we don’t want to or don’t have time to spend long in the kitchen, and the occasional ‘convenience’ meal of foods such as vegetarian sausages will do no harm. In this sense, children are the same as adults – so long as they are eating the right thing most of the time, having a few foods that may not be the most suitable does no great damage. However I would urge everyone to be particularly careful regarding the salt content of convenience foods for children as their kidneys are not as good at coping with salt as adults kidneys are.

See the Food Standards Agency website www.salt.gov.uk/babies_and_children.shtml for more information on limiting children’s salt intake.

Here are a few ideas to help you to have some other easy meals at hand. Firstly, try to get into the habit of cooking extra and freezing leftovers of foods such as lentil soup, casseroles or pasta sauces, whether in ice-cube amounts for babies or meal-sized portions for toddlers. I quite frequently cook a little too much for my boys without realising it, and always pop the excess into the freezer. Even if it’s only a small serve, it will come in handy for a ‘mini-meal’ when they’ve already had an early evening meal at nursery.

The protein portion of meals is often the most difficult for those of us short of time, as frozen vegetables, cous cous, pasta or rice are healthy, versatile and easy-to-prepare options for other food groups (try to keep them on hand in your freezer or cupboard). My best tip is to freeze 1-2 inch cubes of fresh fish. These can be easily microwaved as needed (about 30-40 seconds, ensuring that they are cooked all they way through), then mashed or chopped if required – my sons love salmon mixed through cous cous with diced tomato and frozen peas. Eggs are rich in protein as well as other nutrients, and can be poached, boiled or scrambled (maybe with some cheese and finely-chopped red and green peppers) for a quick meal. Sausages and burgers can be good sources of protein, but it is worth paying more for a higher quality product if you can. A cheaper sausage or burger can contain a lot less meat and thus not much protein. In this case, you really do get what you pay for.