Teach Mom Learn

There are two things every 1-year-old loves: food and helping their parents with important jobs.  Rae is at an age now where she is our precious little assistant for everything we do!

Today, Rae and I are going to bake banana bread together to show that it is not only possible, but fun to cook with your 1-year-old. We will be using a recipe called Joy’s Easy Banana Bread from AllRecipes.com.

1. Choose your recipe wisely

When cooking with a toddler, the first step is to choose a recipe simple enough for their help.  It should be something they will love to eat.  Look for lots of toddler-safe ingredients and unique textures for them to experiment with.

Try to find something that will take less than 10 minutes to assemble.  1-year-olds have notoriously short attention spans, so anything too complex or drawn out will bore them quickly.

Baked foods work very well for toddlers.  They can mix all the ingredients ahead of time and even help you push the buttons on the oven.

Cold recipes, like smoothies, also work well.  Your 1-year-old might be a little nervous the first time they hear the blender, but once you let them push the buttons, they will be much more invested.

2. Break the recipe down and set everything up in advance

Remember taking home ec class in middle school? And your teacher made you go through the recipe step-by-step to assign jobs to each person in your group?  That’s exactly what you need to do to make your culinary adventure successful.

First, read the ingredients and determine what you can measure ahead of time.  Choose which ingredients your toddler will be responsible for and which ones you will be in charge of.

Then, review the steps of the recipe.  Identify which steps your child can complete.  Make a plan for the more complex steps and try to find a way for your toddler to be involved in the process. 

This is key -prepare everything you possibly can in advance. Pre-measure ingredients into small, shatterproof containers or bowls.  Line up all the tools you will need in advance.  Set up a cooking station that works for you and your 1-year-old. 

One option is to use dining room table and to keep your 1-year-old contained in their highchair.  That way, you have plenty of space to spread everything out, and you can reach everything you need without leaving your toddler unsupervised with food.

3. Expect a mess

No matter how much you prepare, you will never be able to avoid a mess.  Accepting this in advance will keep you from getting frazzled and enable you to stay in the moment and enjoy the process.

It helps to dress your child wisely.  If it’s warm enough, keep them in just a diaper.  It’s much easier to just have an impromptu tubby time while your cookies bake than trying to get every possible stain imaginable out of one of their precious little outfit.

In colder weather, match your child’s outfit to the color of the food. If you’re making something with chocolate, wear dark colors. For sauce-based pasta dishes, red is the way to go!

Know that everything within a 10-foot radius will likely end up covered in one substance or another. Have the baby wipes ready to clean everything up after!

4. Use an enormous bowl

Your 1-year-old is still working on developing those motor skills, so you want to give them a big space to work with. Having them dump the ingredients into a large bowl makes it less likely that they will miss the target.

Also, once the ingredients are in the bowl, your 1-year-old will want to play with them. The large bowl gives them enough space to move them around as much as they’d like without easily being able to toss the ingredients to the floor!

5. Expect them to taste everything

Your 1-year-old is curious about everything, and when they see something new, they need to examine it thoroughly. That includes tasting it, whether it’s an actual food or the cat toy they found on the ground (true story).

Let your toddler smell spices and extracts every time you cook, and they will get so excited about each new scent. When you cook together, let them smell and taste every ingredient that’s safe for them.

For some ingredients they really love, like chocolate chips, make sure to have some extra! Once they taste something they love, they’ll inhale as much as they can!

6. Use freezer bags for mixing

Using freezer bags for mixing works well for many reasons. First, there is no mess. Your child can develop the skills to squeeze and manipulate the ingredients however they’d like without getting even one droplet on themselves.

Second, it keeps your little nugget safe from potentially dangerous ingredients. You don’t want your 1-year-old to ingest uncooked flour or eggs, but they are necessary for so many recipes!

By enclosing the ingredients, you can be sure they won’t eat anything they aren’t supposed to!

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7. Let them push allll the buttons

1-year-olds love pushing buttons and opening and closing things. Make the most of this when you cook!

Let them push the buttons on your oven or microwave. Have them open the fridge and cabinet doors for you. They will be so excited to help!

Just be sure to plan for enough time for them to do each of these tasks repeatedly. There’s no such thing as simply opening and closing a cabinet door once when you’re one!

8. Take pictures and document the process

Make sure to snap some quick pictures of your little one covered in flour, dumping ingredients, or shoveling brown sugar into their mouth. You’re going to want to look back on these days!

If possible, enlist your significant other to capture your culinary adventure. That way, you can focus on the process with your little one and they can get some great candid shots!

9. Let them help you clean up

Your 1-year-old wants to help you with everything they possibly can, and that includes cleaning up. Plus, letting them help you clean is a great way to develop receptive language skills and gross and fine motor skills, depending on the task.

Your child will quickly learn and generalize common cleaning words. They will also surprise you by initiating other cleaning tasks independently. Once Rae learned to wipe up sugar, she began wiping her highchair tray and the floor as well.

This is also a great way to teach responsibility. Your child will begin to learn that when you make a mess, you need to help clean it up. Be sure to praise their hard work!

10. Set only one expectation: fun

Toddlers have minds of their own, so no matter how excited you are about baking with your little nugget, they may have other plans.

Let me tell you the reality behind today’s pictures: Rae was thrilled to smash bananas and to dump the sugar, cinnamon, and oil into the bowl. Then, she mixed it up with her hands for a minute and did NOT like the texture.

I washed her hands and put together the freezer bag of batter. Rae touched it for a few seconds and lost interest. By the time the banana bread got into the oven, we had two (yes, two) diaper changes, 3 Sesame Street dance breaks, and 1 attempt to chase Rosie.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way! I could’ve made the entire recipe myself in 5 minutes. But where’s the fun in that? Instead, I got to make memories and banana bread at the same time. And it actually came out well! I know Rae loved it!

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For other fun toddler tips, check out Toddler Talk: How to Communicate Effectively with your 1-Year-Old!

What do you like to cook with your 1-year-old? What are some strategies that have helped you? Please share in the comments below!