To ask what your 1 year old eats in a day?

[Twounder1]

Posting here mainly for traffic.
Dd is 13 months old and never really eaten much. She drinks enough etc, has three bottles a day (trying to hard to wean her off) but she's 6 inches taller than she should be for her age an she's slightly underweight. I feel awful!.
I've tried everything to get her to eat but she won't. She likes to feed herself, I let her but I'll offer food and either way. If it's her feeding herself or I'm feeding her, majority of the time she will just reject it.
So for breakfast (9am) she will have a big bowl of natural yoghurt with lots of blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and some seeds usually or a bowl of porridge with some banana and natural honey. (she likes it but she's iffy with it so she doesn't usually eat a lot.

Lunch (12/1pm) this is so difficult! I like to give her the freshest food I can so I usually do some vegetables or I do her some sort of healthy green salad, beetroot, or I'll do her some beans on toast. She hardly touches this. Even if I feed her or let her feed herself, she just isn't interested

She will then have some milk around 2pm an have an hour nap.

Dinner is at 5pm.

I'll give her some veggies, fish, she had some pasta bake that we made earlier and lapped it up but still, not a huge amount.

Then for 'pudding' I'll give her a kiwi as I've read it can help you sleep.

The she will have a bottle around 8pm and fall asleep but 8/10 times there's a fight to sleep.

Bottle if she wakes up in the night but I'm trying again to put a stop to this.

She just isn't hungry. Does this sound like enough? I offer snacks etc she refuses them.
Should I be more concerned or take her to see someone?

[Lifeaback]

First of all, don’t feel awful! It sounds like overall she has a really healthy range of foods, and remember that the weight chars are only guidelines and lots of kids fall either side of the ‘healthy’ mark.

I have 4 DD’s and all of them (well, one is a newborn so excluding her obviously!) have very tiny appetites. They aren’t fussy eaters and eat a huge range of foods but get full very quickly. When DD2 was 1/2 she was quite underweight and the advice I was given was to ‘bulk out’ her food with higher calories to help her put on weight without increasing portions. Things we did to do this was add extras like melted cheese onto pasta, peanut butter into porridge, whole milk rather than semi skimmed and full fat yoghurt rather than low fat. This helped her out on a bit of weight until she was out of the ‘failure to thrive’ zone. It’s weird at first as it goes against everything we are conscious of as adults as it seems ‘healthy’ to opt for the low calorie options but children have very different requirements to us.

Another thing to try is spread out the time between meals. For example, if breakfast is usually at 9am, why not have it at 7:30/8am instead? And move lunch to around 1:30/2pm so she is slightly hungrier for it. 1 year olds have much smaller stomachs than us, so they fill up much quicker. With DD2 the doctor also reccomended we added a few light snacks spread throughout the day- this increased the number of calories she was getting without filling her up so much that she couldn’t finish the bigger meals.

Please don’t stress though. It sounds as though your daughter is getting a good level of nutrition and doesn’t sound as if she’s drastically underweight. It is maybe worth booking a GP appointment to talk through your concerns and see what they think about her weight, for reassurance that you are doing just fine more than anything else

[Bloodybridget]

Really, I wouldn't expect a baby of 13 months to eat "a healthy green salad"! People I know with children of this age seem to offer more protein and carb foods such as cubes of cheese, chicken, breadsticks, oatcakes, hummus with carrot and cucumber sticks. Your DD is getting a lot of nutrition from milk, so it's not surprising that she doesn't eat a big bowl of yoghurt and berries for breakfast. Try some boiled egg and a bit of toast?

[IDefinitelyWould]

When my dd was 1 she'd enjoy peanut butter on toast cut into strips and a few slices of apple or banana for breakfast. She like oatcakes, cheese cubes, scrambled egg, sliced sausage, sweet potato (baked then sliced) crackers, broccoli, pasta in cheese sauce, I made macaroni cheese but did half cauliflower instead of pasta and serve with cucumber strips. She'd have a little of whatever we had in an evening, usually a couple of strips of chicken or fish and some vegs. I did yoghurt and fruit puree for afters. A hv told me banana helps sleep so she often had some banana, sometimes with yoghurt or porridge.

I didn't get too stuck on what constituted a meal or what one 'should' eat for breakfast etc but instead just offered a variety of tastes and textures. My ds didn't eat much of anything until he was 18mo and still isn't too motivated by food, eating for hunger rather than enjoyment but he's healthy and happy. Try not to get too hung up on 'healthy' and just offer a good interesting range and keep meals stress free and happy :)

[IDefinitelyWould]

Sorry, there were paragraphs when I typed it!

[moita]

My DS has always been on a low percentile - my DP struggles to put weight on so I think he takes after his dad.

I try and bulk his meals out with high fat foods just like Lifeaback mention: rice cakes with peanut butter for snacks, cheese, humous on veggie sticks or toast. I also make lasagne and things like cottage pie with sweet potato mash with full fat milk and butter.

I stopped bottles cold turkey when my son turned one as he was filling up on milk. It took 3 days but he then accepted milk from a sippy cup. Slept through the night and started eating better.

[Sashkin]

Mine has weetabix and a small yoghurt for breakfast, something like a cheese sandwich or small portion of soup with bread for lunch, banana mid-afternoon, and whatever we’re having for tea (which was sweet potato gratin today, dhal and rice yesterday). Berries or melon for pudding. He loves rice pudding too, so we sometimes give him that instead of the banana. Small portions of everything, but he eats about every 4 hours. He only has milk at bed time with us.

Nursery give him toast for breakfast, a couple of banana slices or mini rice cakes mid-morning, a pasta or rice dish for lunch, and more fruit and a bottle of milk mid-afternoon. Tea is at home with us again.

Your food sounds lovely for an adult, but sounds a bit light for a toddler. The salad in particular will be hard for her to eat and not very calorie-dense. I sympathise, we would usually be eating a lot of tabbouleh and hot salads in this weather, but DS can’t really eat that sort of stuff (he’s still in the “eating with hands” stage) so we haven’t been able to have much of it either.

[my2bundles]

The portion sizes sound to much esp brwakfast. Why so much yogurt? Equivalent on a late tablespoon is enough. The fruit again a small handful of berries in enough. When giving toast half or one slice is enough. When serving things like lasagne again equivalent to one to two tablespoons is enough, you can offer more if still hungry but what you are serving sounds to much and this can be overwhelming for babies and children. Try things like spag Bol, roast dinners etc but in much smaller portions.

[user1491753603]

My one year old eats well. She is only bf twice, morning and night, and then her food generally goes like this:

8am - half a banana, cereal and slice of toast or yogurt, porridge and fruit.

Between 12 and 1:30- either leftover dinner from night before or sandwich and veg sticks or omelette with lots of veg, a rice cake or or half a jacket potato, veg and tuna.

4pm ish - snack of veg or fruit and a rice cake or breadstick. Maybe some yogurt.

6:30 pm Dinner- whatever we are having e.g Pasta bake, chicken and veg, fish and homemade wedges and veg, curry and rice.

For salad she struggles with the leaves but likes the ‘bits’ so I always do her carrot, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado etc if we are having salad.

She also really likes things like homemade bean burgers, falafel, fritters, etc which I make a batch of and then freeze for lunches or when we are having a meal that won’t suit her.

[lornathewizzard]

Mine is nearly 2 so prob different but always had a big appetite.

Breakfast
Banana
Cereal or toast or waffle
2 petit filous type yoghurts

Lunch
Cheese spread sandwich
Fruit x 3 types usually

Dinner
Whatever us or his sister is having so pretty much anything - yesterday it was sausage and mash with carrots

A yollie for pudding

Will also snack during the day like a fiend

[kshaw]

I'm having the same issue with my 14 month - i started sleep training last night to try cut the milk. My HV yesterday advised lowering the amount of milk in the bottle so finishing the bottle early - she only had 6oz instead of 9 during the night (don't want to go cold turkey). Normal day is this:
Small yoghurt at home with water
Nursery gives toast or cereal
Lunch at nursery that she hardly touches but eats most of the pudding offered (nursery won't not give her pudding without a drs note)
Tea at nursery - no main but normally will eat pudding
Bottle on nursery pick up (dropped this yesterday)
Offered dinner with us but doesn't touch it
A few mouthfuls of porridge for bed, bottle and then 1-2 bottles during the night. Rubbish!

I'm keeping a food diary for 2 weeks and trying to sort sleeping out and fingers crossed will be able to sort it!!

[Spidergirl999]

In the nicest possible way I don’t think you’re offering the right kind of food for 1 1yr old. A green salad would just get thrown on the floor by my son and most of his friends.

Yesterday my 16m old ate

7am 6oz bottle

8am Small bowl porridge with handful of blueberries

Mid morning half a crumpet with butter. Half a banana

12pm 1 slice toasted bagel with cream cheese (ate around 2/3)
Cheese cubes (around 10g)
1 small slice of ham
Cucumber - around 2 inches sliced
Sweetcorn - 1 tablespoon (ate around half)
6 Strawberries

1 large rice cake with peanut butter before school run

Snack of 2 rich tea biscuits after school run (around an hour later)

Dinnner we had a BBQ so not quite a normal dinner but he had
1 sausage
1/3 chicken breast
Table spoon of potato salad
Around a handful of pasta in tomato sauce
2 cherry toms
Cucumber
Small corn on the cob
Tangerine
Kids yoghurt

7pm 6oz bottle

So a lot but he’s at a healthy weight and no concerns.

My DD ate much less than him but she would still eat the same sort of foods. Just smaller portions.

[CatsCatsCats11]

I think you need to increase the fat a little a healthy diet for a toddler isn't the same as a healthy diet for us. My daughter is 16m and huge eater she usually has

Breakfast
Cereal and fruit

Lunch
Chicken breast, cucumber, tomato, cheese, breadsticks, grapes, raisins, crackers, ham etc whatever we have in really.

Dinner
Some of her faves are mushroom stroganoff, sweet and sour pork, spag Bol, tuna pasta, chilli, egg and beans on toast.

Snacks are anything sometimes what I'm having or usually a banana or breadsticks for her.

[CatsCatsCats11]

Yoghurts too after dinner and then 8oz bottle at bed which she doesn't always finish.

[Camomila]

Do you mean salad like lettuce, rocket etc? She might still find that too difficult to eat (bit like apple skins etc...gets stuck in the mouth/throat)

I wouldn't worry too much my DS didn't eat loads and still had lots of milk at 13m if I was there ( breastfed, so had no milk and ate ok the 3 days I worked). The idea of making smaller bottles is good though.

His appetite changed lots just before 2 and now he eats lots and weighs a more average weight for his height. It coincided with his getting molars...sometimes I think he was just lazy before and thought why bother chewing when I can drink milk.

[Steeley113]

I don’t think you’re offering the right foods. At 1, mine have all been good eaters but they wouldn’t have eaten a salad. A normal day would consist of:
Breakfast - wheetabix or porridge with a handful of berries
Lunch - cream cheese sandwich with ‘picky bits’ like cucumber, tomatoes, fruit. Maybe a few puff type crisps and a yoghurt.
Dinner - whatever we were having really. Lasagne and garlic bread, pasta and veg etc. Followed by a pudding of either yoghurt/jelly/chocolate mousse.

They’d have snacks through the day too or like rice cakes, fruit, biscuits, veggie sticks.

[SensoryOverlord]

A typical day would be:

7am Breastfeed

8am 1 weetabix with half a mashed banana, raisins, diluted orange juice

10am A bf to go to sleep

12.15 Feed-yourself lunch. Ham sandwich or egg and bread, grapes, sticks of cheese, par boiled carrot sticks, sticks of pepper, cucumber, tomato. Handful of baby crisps and a yoghurt.

3pm Bottle of formula

5.15 Spoonfed dinner - we still make a lot of his meals in advance (Annabelle Karmel recipes) so spag Bol/curry/salmon/chicken casserole etc. Followed by sliced apple and sometimes a rich tea biscuit.

8.15 - bottle of formula and bf

[SensoryOverlord]

I'm amazed by the amount of snacks some 1 year olds are eating.

Ds3 is a starver and clears his plate but I don't think he'd eat if he was having regular snacks in between his meals, as well as milk. He eats every 4 hours as it is.

[Steeley113]

Oh and at 1, they’d have a cup of milk at bedtime if they wanted it. Mine never have though.

[user1493413286]

It sounds like she’s getting a good variety and I’d keep all the milk while she’s not eating as much.
My DD has:
7am bottle & porridge with fruit pot mixed in
12.30 - half sandwich/fruit/cheese snack/yoghurt or scrambled egg or something on toast
3 - crackers, rice cake or fruit
5- chicken casserole/mash/veg or similar normal evening meal - sometimes she barely touches this
Fruit or sometimes a biscuit
7.30 - bottle
She also has little bits of what we’re eating throughout the day as she always wants to try.

[Twounder1]

I'm trying to keep her as healthy as I can. I have two auto immune diseases, one being RA that is very present in the family (pretty much everyone has it genetically) an I'm so worried she will have it so I'm keeping her as healthy as I can with no junk. Or very very minimal junk. For milk she has Oatley because we're all trying to be dairy free and she loves it. I'm thinking about getting the chocolate version for a few more calories for her. Thank you all for your replies, it's good to see what others are eating. I don't have any mom friends to compare to haha x

[0lgaDaPolga]

My boy who will be 1 tomorrow has:

Bottle of formula first thing
Breakfast: usually porridge with banana
Snack: fruit or piece of toast
Lunch: mini sandwiches, cucumbers, breadsticks, cheese, fruit, mini sausages, finger food etc
Snack: cows milk and a biscuit
Dinner: Pasta, casserole, fish pie sort of thing.

[0lgaDaPolga]

Posted too soon, plus another bottle of formula before bed

[MamaBear2181]

My little girl is 11 months old and i keep feeling like she's not eating much and just throwing things on the floor, but it's quite normal for them around this age to be distracted by other things and be less interested in food. She won't starve don't worry.

Yesterday from what i remember, she had the following

Breakfast: A bowl of baby porridge
Bottle of milk

She ate about 3 spoons of porridge and only about 5 ozs milk and then was shaking her had and pursing her mouth, she'd had enough. She did however get her hands on the bowl of porridge when i wasn't looking and got it all over her face and hands and in her hair.

Lunchtime she had a few of those little laughing cow cheese cubes, obviously i unwrapped them before giving them to her. She had some grated carrot, cucumber sticks, squares of brown bread and a bit of smoked salmon. Most of it ended up on the floor so i was worried she hadnt eaten enough, and carried on going.

I gave her some bits of kiwi fruit and strawberry and a petit filous. It still seemed like most of it went on the floor so she had about 4 ozs of milk too.

Then when i picked her up her belly was very round and clearly full and i realised i wasn't able to gauge properly how much she was actually eating because of the mess that gets made at the moment. It's so much easier when you're feeding them out of a bowl and can see what's gone and what's not.

She ate some soft boiled vegetables, peas and a thin slice of corned beef at tea. a LOT of it seemed to go on the floor again, but watching her more closely a lot more was going in her mouth than i would have thought.

[Dancingtothebeat]

Breakfast: milk, malt loaf fruit and a yogurt
Lunch: water, sandwich (3/4 of a round) cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes , yogurt
Dinner: same as rest of family. Pasta or chicken and veg or fish

[Pikehau]

My 11mth old sometimes doesn’t eat loads neither does my 3.5yr old. One day a while banana will
Be eaten, the next it’s thrown on the floor.

Sounds as if you are offering a good selection of food.

Try a baked Potato-scrape the inside out mix with cheese, bean etc and grate some beetroot in. Then Back in skin and self feeding - so you have carbs, protein, calcium, fibre and raw in one ??

Salmon is always my go to food - easy to self feed- flakes are good size to hold. Can also be mushed up easy and put on a spoon if have some sauce.

Lunch - also try brocollinand cream cheese sandwiches or oatcakes? Fish pates...