What sort of portion sizes for 8mo?

[gretagrape]

Hi. My HV and my Mum think I am underfeeding our son and that he won't start to drop a milk feed because he isn't getting enough food. The HV said to increase the portions and that he will stop once he's had enough. Well I doubled the amount I gave him for lunch and dinner yesterday and he had the whole lot - so do I need to triple the amount??!

Size of breakfast was a big handful (mine) of blueberries with approx 3 tbsp of millet, lunch was approx 4 heaped tbsp of pea and leek mash with approx 2 tbsp parsnip. Dinner was 5 stalks of asparagus (ate about 2/3rds of each stalk) and approx 4 tbsp of swede and carrot mash.

Does that sound like too little?

Thanks
x

[Artandco]

It's usually 1 portion is the size of their fist. Based on a standard meal 1 portion or protein, 1 carbs, 1 veg roughly.

Ie a 8 months fist size of fish, with same of mash and a piece of brocoli.

If they want more thats fine but if they are eating that its plenty. Their stomach is tiny still.

The above sizes fine and babies are supposed to drink milk. Before 1 year it's still recommended you offer milk first then food so they don't refuse the milk. Ie milk 7am, breakfast 8am

[SteamWisher]

It sounds not very filling - where is the protein? That might be why he's not dropping milk.

[Jackanory1978]

Yeah that was my initial thought. Your basically only feeding fruit & veg, that wouldn't fill me up! If you added in protein & carbs he'd be more satisfied with solids & possibly drop his milk feeds.

[MortifiedAnyFuckerAdams]

Try a portion of porridge with blueberries for breakfast
Omelette woth the veg for lunch
Add in some strips of chicken breast or fish to the dinner

You are feeding him as if he were a dieting woman

[gretagrape]

Hmm, yesterday might not have been representative - pretty much every day he does have protein in the form of lamb, turkey or chicken, but the millet and root veg would have provided adequate carbohydrates. He also has millet, amaranth and quinoa most days which provide carbs and the last two have lots of protein as well.

He has allergies to dairy, eggs, peanuts and now we have been told to lay off all gluten due to reaction to oats last week.

So, today for example is avocado and banana, then lentils and carrot then dinner will be lamb, amaranth, peas and leek.

So if the meals themselves are balanced, which I admit weren't yesterday, do you still think that the portion sizes are too small?

[gretagrape]

Just re-read artandco's post - so each meal should have carbs, protein and veg/fruit?

God, I'm spending so long doing meal planners because I don't want him to miss out on nutrients with the restrictions on his diet and now I feel like I'm totally screwing it up. Our dietician is useless (her main piece of advice was to add Nesquik to his Neocate to make it nicer), and I just feel so much pressure to get this right...and now it turns out I'm failing at the first fence.

[Artandco]

Greta - it's more a guideline. So x3 8 month old fist size. If you give him avocado and banana just make sure it's roughly the size of 3 of his fists total.

As long as he has carbs/ protein and veg/ fruit across the day it doesn't really matter what order

[gretagrape]

Thank you for the reassurance - feeling very out of my depth at the moment. Who decided I was up to this job???!

[Jojay]

I've always fed purely to appetite, offer a decent range of foods and let them decide.

I feel your pain with the allergies, mine are dairy / egg/ soya/ nut free too which does complicate things somewhat, but as long as you are offering a decent variety of healthy foods, let him have as much as he wants. If he'll eat double, I'd give him double.

You're not failing at all. Weaning is daunting, multiple allergies make it 100 times worse, but don't over think it, you're doing fine. Follow his lead and you won't go too far wrong

[Jojay]

My allergicky ones are 2 1/2 now (twins) and they are so fickle, one day they eat mountains, then next nothing at all. You have to get used to letting go of controlling what they eat - in a few months time he could be a fussy monkey like mine and you'll be pleased about a mouthful of anything

[gretagrape]

Oh, and I forgot, no soya as well...

Ha ha, yes, a friend of mine said I should relish this time as he'll soon decide that he can only eat orange food in the shape of a square for a month at a time!

You are right, I need to stop studying it in too much detail and go with the flow. You have massive admiration from me having gone through it with twins!

[theyoniwayisnorthwards]

I'd say prepare an amount bigger than you think he can eat and offer food until he refuses. Let him determine portion size. Mine have hungry days and barely eating days, they are 3 and 1. It all kind of balances out. Think about when you feed too, try food first then milk.

[gretagrape]

Well, I increased tonight's dinner - lamb, lentils and carrot and it was probably 4 of his fistfuls and he polished off the whole lot, so could have had even more. That was probably about 3-4 times the quantity I was giving previously so he's obviously a hungry boy!

I'll keep upping the amount so he can tell me when he's full from now on.

Thanks for your advice - he appreciates it!

[theyoniwayisnorthwards]

Glad to hear. Lucky you have an eater, easier than trying to coax every mouthful in, my three year old is inexplicably refusing dinner every few days this week!

[gretagrape]

Thanks. I seem to have reached a point where he is satisfied now although it seems like a hell of a lot, not much less than I would eat!

Breakfast was 1 mashed avocado, approx half a pear and approx 4 tbsp millet. He only left about 2 tsp in the bowl before refusing and I think even that was because he has a cold and was tired!

His weight is just above the 75th - started on 75th, dropped to below 25th due to the allergies, but since weaning has zoomed up the chart to pretty much where he started so I'm happy that he's a good weight.

[Jojay]

I think that's it's pretty common for babies to eat loads at that age - I remember my eldest eating 2 weetabix in one go quite early on, which is what I would have for breakfast.

It tends to slow down around their first birthday IME, so don't be alarmed when it happens.

[gretagrape]

So, he's jumped from 75th to 91st centile in one week, and now a different HV has said I'm feeding him too much. Apart from the first couple of times, he still never gets to the point where he stops eating - last night's dinner was 1/2 a chicken breast, a fistful (his) of rice, a fistful of parsnip and a fistful of carrot - and he had the whole lot an hour after his bottle, then had another bottle an hour later for bed.

My instinct is telling me that actually there are some babies who will overfeed themselves and don't decide to stop! Miaow - he'd probably be happy with the size of a 1L yoghurt pot!

Portion sizes are going to be reduced a bit I think, otherwise he's going to be off the chart in another week.

[mrsmalcolmreynolds]

Hi. Just read your update and I think (very understandably) you are trying to micro manage this still. A movement from one percentile to the next on just a week could be down to something totally random like having just done a big poo last week and not this. The recommendation is to only weigh evert four weeks at this age precisely because more often can give a misleading and stressful picture. Personally I would feed to appetite and not go near the weighing clinic for two or three weeks and see how things are then. Your latest HV sounds as if s/he is not really taking the whole picture into account!

[haveyourselfashandy]

I think you are way overthinking this.You would be mortified with what my dd ate at that age and still does! If he's enjoying what he's eating it doesn't seem fair to take that away again.Sod the centiles for a while and enjoy watching him enjoy his food!

[gretagrape]

You are right - the less confident I feel the more I try and manage and organise and plan, and I end up feeling even less confident because if there's anything that doesn't respond to planning and organising it's a baby!

Going with the flow seems like a distant dream for me at the moment (but that could be another thread all by itself) - but I will try and stop thinking too much about it.
Thanks
x

[RosebudTheCat]

If it makes you feel better, I am on DC2 (8mo DD) and her meals just have to fit in with us and DS (3). So she eats all kind of randomness and has already had fish fingers a couple of times, which she liked, and pizza (no, not every day, and it wasn't Domino's!). Along with healthier meals mashed up, cheese on toast, fruit, etc etc. She doesn't often get her own special meals - I'm afraid to say I don't get much time. To be honest your son's diet sounds really healthy and well-planned and you shouldn't feel guilty. As for over-feeding - any excess will get burnt off once he starts running around, so long as you aren't feeding him loads of junk, which you aren't. Is he mobile yet? DD was an early crawler and I found her appetite increased around the time she started to crawl. If not yet, maybe he is working up to crawling.

[gretagrape]

Yes, he's crawling everywhere at 100mph, for about 3 weeks now. He's on the go from the minute he wakes up to the minute he goes to bed, so he's definitely burning a lot off!

I have made things a bit easier by planning his meals and ours at the same time so I can overlap a lot of the cooking even if we are having stuff he can't eat. I have managed to relax a bit about what I'm doing this week - I'll just have to put up with him doubling my food bills!
Thanks
x