to ask what you feed your 1 y/o?

[cjt110]

I am beginning to wonder if we are feeding DS too much and this is why he has begun being fussy with foods. We try to replicate the same scheudle daily and changed it from Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and then tea to Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, a small tea then cereal (porridge/weetabix) for supper.

He has become fussy and point blank refuses some meals now, even his faves and if I offer a yoghurt/fruitpot he sometimes wolfs that down or refuses too. He has approximately 18oz milk a day. (He is CMPA btw).

What are your schedules?

From experience, lots of babies go through a fussy stage at around 18mo. It's all part of the oh-so-fun 'asserting my independence' toddler stage and it passes. DS2 is at this stage now. I find the best way to deal with it is to not make any sort of fuss or comment, I put the food out at the start of the meal and I take it away at the end whether it's eaten or not. If he hasn't eaten very much then around an hour or so later I offer a snack. I wait the hour so that he sees it as a seperate event rather than giving him something immediately afterward as an alternative to the meal he refused.

We have breakfast, sometimes we have a morning snack if he seems hungry or we've been very busy, then lunch, afternoon snack sometimes depending on whether we had a morning snack/whether he ate any lunch/whether he seems hungry, then dinner. If he doesn't eat very much dinner or its been a very busy day then I offer supper around 45 minutes before bedtime, some Weetabix usually, but this is the exception rather than the norm. He also has three BFs a day too.

Thats good to know that your feeding pattern is very similar to ours DontTellThePrincessBride which means I cant be that bad a mother!

I did consider whether its worth just giving 3 meals a day - breakfast, a small lunch and a bigger tea? With ricecakes/crackers/fruit as snacks if needed.

My DS eats a lot, but then again so did my DD at that age but still managed to be fussy. My DS will eat anything and likes a lot of variety so if he eats something he doesn't want to eat it again for 2-3 days.

Yesterday he ate:
Yogurt for breakfast
Lentil soup for snack
Pasta with tomatoe sauce and carrots for lunch
Breastfed in the afternoon
Fruits for snack
Lamb chops and tomato and cucumber salad for dinner
Breastfed overnight

He has not started being fussy yet but I remember DD spending months refusing all meat, then eating nothing but meat, etc. she's four now and eats pretty much everything. I think fussiness is normal and it's best to go with the flow and give them whatever they are willing to eat.

Booboostwo Thats a good example. He usually eats quite a bit but yesterday didnt.

Yeah, I think at this age fussiness is a stage. It's a pain but it happens!

My DS has his AM bottle around 8.30am, breakfast is a piece of toast, a croissant at the weekend, or shreddies, a banana or something like that.
I don't really do snacks but his midday nap is awkward timing for lunch so pre-nap he has a piece of fruit and after nap he gets a cereal bar or quavers or cheese and oatcakes. So we don't have a "proper" lunch. Pre nap he won't eat loads and after if he had a big lunch he wouldn't eat his dinner.
Dinner is whatever, pasta bake and galric bread, chicken enchiladas, curry, chilli, that sort of thing.

If he seems hungry between meals I will give him some raisins or a small biscuit or fruit (depends what he's already had that day) but I don't give snacks usually. As I say, if I did he would eat less dinner when I'd rather he had a bigger dinner.

Oh and before bed he gets another bottle of milk 8oz again. The rest of the day is water in a cup and 1 cup of squash. So he still has 2 bottles a day at the moment.

I find it best to look at what's eaten over the course of a few days, or even a week, rather than any one day. DS2 has days where he can't be filled and days where he survives on fresh air and dust, of I look at them in the context of a whole week then it all balances out.

DD only gets snacks if she seems hungry and she's a very robust 16mo, so it's certainly not doing her any harm! She has breakfast at 9 (blueberry wheats, while milk and tinned peach slices this morning) lunch at about 1 (broccoli and stilton soup today) and tea at 5 (will be potato waffle with sausage and beans today as I'm having a lazy day and know it'll get eaten). She then has around 9oz of warm milk at 6, bed at 7. Today she had a snack at about 12 of a banana.

• whole milk

mine became a milk refuser when I stopped breastfeeding at 1 year so probably eats quite a lot.

we do something like this:

breakfast
snack
lunch
snack
tiny supper to keep him sweet until dad gets home
supper

he's completely unfussy and eats everything with enthusiasm but I don't suppose that will always be the case.

At this age I think you can also notice growth spurts. Both my DCs went through a week when they would eat like crazy, they would begin to look rounder and fatter than before and then they would grow taller. Teething may also affect appetite on and off.

Thanks for your advice everyone