My ten month old eats like a sparrow

[tigerbreadandtea]

I'm really fed up of weaning. My baby has been way down the percentiles, hovering between 2nd and 9th and I've found weaning hard work. She will not be spoon fed and has been that way for quite a while so we switched to baby led. But most of it ends up on the floor and she loses interest quickly. I offer a wide variety of things and some of it she seems to like but the actual amount she eats is tiny. I can't believe how much some of my friends' babies eat in comparison. I'm just feeling really fed up today.

What do the health professionals say?

Please don't compare to other babies, as some appear to eat enough to feed a small village

I wouldn't stress it. "Food til one is just for fun." My DD barely ate a thing until she was over one and just guzzled down milk. She never stops eating now!

As long as she is drinking plenty of milk, don't worry about it. Keep giving her little bits and she will get there eventually.

Is she having plenty of milk? Is she tracking her centile or dropping through them?

Yes she's having her milk no problem. She's being weighed next week and I feel really anxious. She is so lean, aren't babies meant to have fat rolls.

Some babies are skinny and some are chubby. I had one of each! Ms Skinny wasn't keen on eating and very fussy. Ms Chubby ate anything from early on. Both are now adults, both normal weights and both eat well. It all pans out in the end usually.

Thank you. I'm a first time mum so have nothing to compare to and we had issues with feeding at the start so I think I'm a little more anxious due to that.

My DD2 ate like a sparrow at that age. She lived on petit filous and plain pasta.

She’s still got a smaller appetite than the rest of us but is a perfectly normal weight and height.

OP you might find that once your DD is up and walking her appetite will increase a bit more.

You won’t really know how much of a problem this is until she’s weighed. There are lots of strategies HV can give to boost her weight up.

My DS has the opposite problem. Nearly 2z Really underweight compared to height but eats like a horse and still has 4 feeds per say. But he tends to poo everything out each day. Nothing wrong with him, he just has a great metabolism, but it is worrying.

She isn't fussy, she likes bold flavours, I just which she'd eat more of what she eats!

Wish

My son has a small appetite, he will eat when he's hungry. Even during weaning.

The HV called it a 48hr system he eats a lot one day then will eat limited the next day. I know when not to give him a big dinner. Although school has started to make him eat better.

Oh I remember the worry over this when my DS was a baby. He was always skinny, always around the 9th centile. I remember my health visitor giving me advice on how to fatten him up.

Anyway, it was all a waste of time. He's 13 now, has always eaten just to fuel himself but really it was just pointless worrying. He eats a good range of food, doesn't over eat. I'm sure this isn't true of all babies with a good appetite but I have one particular friend who always used to go on about all the food her baby ate (she would eat anything put infront of her). She's also now 13 and really very over weight.

Keep doing what you're doing.

Thanks all I'm going to try and relax. For dinner she had a bowl of fruit and some cheese. But it was a decent amount so I'm happy.

That's great, just keep up with plenty of variety, even if it all ends up on the floor. We ended up doing BLW too as DS wouldn't be spoon fed.

My eldest did too, until she snatched butter chicken off my plate like a little baldy crocodile and I realized that this whole baby food malarkey wasn’t her jam. She became like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors. (But cuter.)

My friend had a baby that she was told needed to gain weight. Similar age.

Do give new flavours textures etc but include things that are generally eaten as well.

In her case I suggested pushing in dairy fats. Eg extra butter in mash. Offering cheese if liked, a fair bit. Bananas have plenty calories etc.

See what they say about weight for height etc though before you decide problem.

My DD ( now 8) was exactly the same, in fact she still is.

My 2 year old dropped to 0.5 centile as a baby which was v stressful - but has eaten for England since she was 1 and is still a tiny build - I added extra fats etc but she has hollow legs! I can see she's healthy and happy so I use my own judgement now, more than I did when she was little. It's hard when it's your first and other babies are much chunkier.

What are her nappies like? I kept complaining mine don’t eat at allllll but then realised their dirty nappies were actually getting more and more solid so they must be eating enough for their little belly x

When are you offering solids? Could it just be that's she's full from milk and therefore just happy with a snack?