Toddler-Approved IBS-Friendly Meals: Breakfast And Lunch

Cooking IBS-friendly meals is hard enough as it is. But when you have small children at home who can be very particular about their food, it’s even more complicated.

Cooking for my family and my IBS

I have two boys who are 3 and 1.5 years old, and I wanted to share the recipes I make for them and myself. The dishes below are both IBS-friendly and toddler-approved in our home. But of course, be sure always to personalize everything to your own needs!

Avoiding both flares and toddler tantrums

My toddlers and my IBS all disapprove of sauces, so that’s why I limit those. I’m also not sharing many vegetarian options because I’m still working on recipes that don’t cause an IBS flare or a toddler tantrum when served. The recipes below have proven successful over and over again, so I hope that they’ll work for you, too!

Breakfast:

Scrambled eggs with camembert, oregano, and gluten-free bread

This breakfast food is so easy to make, and everyone in my family loves it. I simply add eggs, a bit of butter, a slice of camembert (because that’s a cheese that works for me), salt, oregano and scramble it all together.

Serve on buttered gluten-free bread, and it’s so good!

Homemade cereal

Mix oats with chopped-up raisins and dark chocolate, and add a little bit of unsweetened cocoa powder. We always have a batch of this in our kitchen; it’s the kids’ favorite breakfast. I just add whole milk for them and cook it all with non-dairy milk for myself since I don’t do well with cow’s milk.

Lunch:

Whole chicken with potatoes

The whole chicken takes a while to cook, but it also lasts for several meals. Just take an oven-friendly dish and put an entire chicken inside. Coat it with oil, salt, pepper, and some other spices that work for you. I personally do turmeric, cumin, and a bit of paprika. Then, add peeled potatoes to the dish. My youngest only eats potatoes when they’re cut like fries, so that’s what I do.

Put the dish in the oven at 400°F for about 1 to 1.5 hours (depending on the size of the chicken) while turning it every 20 -30 minutes. You can also coat it with the oil that drops to the bottom every 15 minutes. It should have a nice golden crust when it’s done.

Since this, on its own, is a bit too greasy for me and there aren’t enough potatoes for the amount of chicken, I always boil some more potatoes separately, too.

Chicken stock with carrots and gluten-free noodles

The whole chicken really is a 2-in-1 recipe for me. Once we finish the meat, I never throw away the bones but keep them to make chicken stock. When I’m in a rush, I usually just throw everything in a pot with water and some whole, peeled carrots and let it cook for 2-3 hours.

Then, I make gluten-free noodles and put them in the chicken stock for myself. I put the chicken stock in a cup for my boys, cut the carrots into sticks so my youngest will eat them, and serve the pasta separately. You could also add butter or ketchup to the pasta, depending on your children's preference.

Fish cooked in butter, rice, and avocado

An extremely easy meal I can do, even with two toddlers screaming next to me, is fish with butter. I usually just put some frozen or fresh fish in a pan, add butter, and let it simmer until it’s done. If you can’t do butter, you could use any other oil. I personally love the taste butter adds and am fine with it.

Serve this with a side of white rice and a cut-up avocado (or any other vegetable that your children and stomach like).

Sides of vegetables

Speaking of sides, I often like to make dishes without vegetables and add them on the side. This allows me to keep my own vegetable portions small and avoid IBS-D flare-ups. Second, I never know if my kids will be in the mood for vegetables. They either eat a ton or none at all, so having them separately works best for us.

My (and my toddlers’) favorite vegetable sides are steamed carrot sticks (they HAVE to be sticks, or else my youngest won’t touch them), steamed cauliflower, and air-fried zucchini. Cauliflower and zucchini aren’t exactly safe foods for me, but they’re fine if they’re soft and if I don’t eat too much.

Do you have other breakfast and lunch ideas that work for IBS-D and toddlers? If yes, please feel free to share them with the community!