1 Year Old Meal Plan

Feeding babies is hard, especially if it is your first baby.

You may have found yourself wondering what to feed your child and how much.

This is one of the reasons we started this website - because I was once one of you, a mom alone trying to navigate this new parenting thing all alone.

And trying to find the best and most accurate advice I could online. That is why I called up my sister to help me.

These meal plans were developed by Dora Babic-Cikos, Phd, our resident nutritionist and my sister.

You can check our her book Wean With Confidence for a full 6-12 Month Meal Plan here (7 months of nutritionist made meal plans and over a 100 recipes).

Why should I trust this meal plan?

The sample menu below is based on the FAO/WHO/UNU Energy Requirements energy and nutrient recommendations for an average 12-month-old who weighs 25.4 lbs (11.5 kg).

If your baby is bigger or smaller than this that is ok. Every baby is different and this is just an average.

This is not a personalized plan, so please bear this disclaimer in mind.

How to use this meal plan?

By 1 year, many of you may have already chosen to remove breastmilk and/or formula from your child's diet and you may have started to wean from the bottle.

For this reason, the sample menu includes alternatives to replace breastmilk/formula.

These are based on approximate energy needs at this age, but if your child needs less or wants more food/breastmilk/formula throughout the day, allow them to guide you.

The amounts per meal can also be split into multiple meals.

Because of physical differences, growth spurts, or teething, your child may need/want more or less food than what’s proposed. This is completely normal as every child is unique.

The idea is to offer the proposed average amount of food needed and to go from there.

If however, you need or want personalized advice or have any concerns related to eating, please speak to your pediatrician or a pediatric nutritionist.

How much water should I give a 1 year old baby?

Once babies reach 1 year of age, water requirements start to rise rapidly.

However, the food they are eating also contains water which contributes to these requirements.

Ideally, with this sample meal plan, you would also give your child up to 20 oz of water (assuming your child is getting breastmilk/formula – if not, add in another 3-4 oz).