To think my child's 'healthy' diet really isn't?

[BreadZeppelin]

To think my child's 'healthy' diet really isn't healthy?

My 13-month-old is relatively tall and slim (75th centile height; 55th centile weight) and is always on the go, like the average toddler!
I've tried really hard to give her a varied and healthy diet and she has a mammoth appetite, but the more I think about it the more I worry that her diet is actually not very good.
Here's a standard day's food for her:
Breakfast - 8oz bottle follow-on milk (doesn't like cow's milk!), half a banana and a handful of blueberries.
Lunch - Oven-cooked salmon with sweet potato and courgette; rice. Apricot, 125g plain yoghurt.
Snack - Melon and mango chunks. Another yoghurt.
Dinner - a scrambled egg with grated cheese, sweetcorn and tomato.
And as much water as she wants all day. She probably drinks about half a litre on warmer days.
I think her diet mght be too high in fruit sugar and too low in fat. And probably other bad things that I've not yet noticed! AIBU?

I have a 13 year old. She lives on cup a soups,pizza, chocolate and oreos....enjoy the healthy non fussiness whilst it lasts!

Odd thread!

Defo more carbs & fat needed. My almost 1yo usually has:

Breakfast: 6oz formula, 15g Porridge made with 2oz full fat milk & berries / banana
Snack: Fruit / veg
Lunch: Toast with butter & scrambled egg/tomatoes/cucumber/avocado/cheese & 3oz plain or Greek yogurt
Snack: Fruit / veg
Dinner: whatever we're having if suitable or an Ella's kitchen meal plus sometimes 3oz Greek or plain yoghurt if still hungry.

I do wish he drank more milk but he doesn't like it. Think he's probably about the same as your wee one centile wise though he's not been weighed / measured in a while. If we're on the go or in a rush he has Ella's kitchen snack things sometimes too. I don't worry about natural sugar but he never has anything with added sugar and I don't add salt to anything.

drhorrible don't know what kind of house you live in but there isn't food left lying about on my floor, the bin lid is closed and I tend to eat the same things as my 1yo anyway if I'm having something naughty it's while he's sleeping

My eldest never drank milk after she came off formula i think she was intolerant to full fat HV said semiskimmed was fine as a drink she is nearly 25 and there wasn't as much investigation into intolerances at our gp clinic

@DrHorrible you're trying to be clever, and good effort for that! But I'm sure you do realise that when people talk about a diet for their kids or any human, they mean the regular and intended stuff that goes on the plates, not the random, haphazard stuff that ends up in the mouths because if you don't know that's what people mean in this context, then I can't even.... ??

Sounds lovely, but as pp have said, maybe some more fats and carbs. Add some porridge for breakfast. Lunch already sounds enough. Dinner I would add a small piece of whole meal toast and proper butter, and/or some avocado. The freezer is your friend. But then again my babies/toddlers were massive - now they still eat well but are lean, tall and muscly.

Follow on milk is cow's milk, unless I'm missing something.

Why is mumsnet so obsessed with pasta, rice and bread being essential for kids?!

A 13 month old should be getting about 900 kcals a day, 40-50% of those should be from carbs. There are 4 kcals per gram of carbs so they should be getting about 90-110g of carbs a day.
A banana has 20g, sweet potato has 20g-30g for a small-medium sized one, rice has about 15g in a child size portion, mango about 10g, sweet Corn about 10g for child portion, 8oz follow on milk 20g

OP has a really balanced diet with over 40% carbohydrates already plus her choices contain vitamins, minerals and fiber which is essential.
Swapping any of that to bread or pasta is ridiculous, simple carbs like that get turned into glucose really quickly, have very low fibre content and virtually no vitamins and minerals.

OP that is a brilliant diet plan for you dc keep doing what you are doing, if you really wanted to reduce sugar you could swap the mangos for strawberries or carrot sticks both of which are lower in sugar and would add carbs and maybe as some avocado for unsaturated fat as pp have said but otherwise please dont change what you are doing for bread and pasta! You are doing a brilliant job!

Follow on milk is toddler formula not cows milk ☺

I also have a 13 month old..he eats more quantities than yours for sure! He is also tall and slim (prone to dropping weight if I don't consciously keep him topped well up with calories) today he ate...

Breakfast :8oz of first infant formula (no plans to drop this yet at all as he doesn't yet eat enough variety of family foods to meet all his nutritional needs he really struggled with gag reflex so is catching up on weaning) and an entire weetabix made with whole cows milk

Lunch: a whole meal bread ham and tomato sandwich with the Christmas trimmed off and a small banana

3pm: 5oz bottle of formula and a yoghurt

Tea: either a white fish fillet or similar oven cooked with sweet potato wedges and peas or a cheese and ham and pea/tomato omelette etc or a HIPP or Ella's kitchen toddler meal and a fruit pouch.

Bedtime: another 8oz bottle of formula

He eats a lot more quantity I think? But I struggle with variety as there's not that many things he can (or will!) eat yet hence having to fall back on toddler meals sometimes and fruit purée pouches as he just plays with fruit mostly except bananas! He's at a funny stage as gone right off being spoon fed things so pasta etc is out at the moment and curries as he wants to feed himself but can't comprehend cutlery yet!

Haha! No idea why my iPad thought crusts should become Christmas!

Sounds fab! Better than I did today.

My 10mo DS had:

Breast milk
Porridge
Fruit puree
Cottage pie from a jar
Breast milk
Cheese stick, bread stick and raisins
Toast, strawberries
Breast milk

In comparison, my 3yo had:

Pancakes
Toast
An ice lolly
More toast, strawberries
Bogies

You have nothing to worry about OP - sounds like a fab diet and one a lot of parents would envy

Please disregard the post advising white bread/pasta against wholemeal - it's processed crap and not beneficial in any form. Wholemeal is so much better

Has anyone tried the nars orgasm liquid blush or lipstick? What do you think? Not had the chance to try myself yet in the shop!

Oh shit I'm so sorry on the app. Wrong thread! I'll try and delete.

She could benefit from a little more fat but her diet sounds brilliant. Restarting the porridge is a good idea, maybe try her with mashed avocado on seeded bread on warmer days? The fat will fuel her until lunch x

No such thing as empty carbs for growing children! Your baby's diet is great but needs more bread, pasta, cereals

Ps fruit is chock full of vitamins. Mine have loads

One usually finds they get very fond of carbs during the toddler phase! And I've never met an older baby who didn't mainline fruit. It's like catnip to them.

I would've said that was ok, mine weren't too dissimilar at that age, one of them had very big portions though. You could make sure all the dairy is full fat, add a bit of oil to food if you're not already. As she likes porridge, that's a good habit to keep at. I wish mine would still have it now, so I'd definitely be restarting that for as long as she'll let you. And you could give a bit of ordinary potato alongside the sweet potato? Very high in Vit C, and actually still quite a lot even if you take the skin off.

Some of the stealth boasting comments were a bit sour, but the point about her probably also scoffing stuff from bins, floors, dog bowl etc was well made. That is the way of 13 month olds.

I agree with other posters about more carbs - our hv said wholemeal bread (as it's hard to switch back from white) and white everything else.
The other thing to think about though is getting used to a wide range of tastes, and seeing them as normal. I'd go for as wide a range of food as possible, importantly including vegetables that aren't sweet and not a sweet snack every time. Despite going off things and on again my ds eats everything I gave her when she was this age and struggles with things I didn't

@Mightymidge29 thank you for saying what I was thinking.

Bread, rice and pasta are not essentials, carbs are available in fruit and veg. I think in the next few years the advice generally will be to move away from seeing these as good choices and to move towards a low carb high fat diet (even for children)

The OP sounds like she's feeding her DC a perfectly good diet that just needs more fat - perhaps another egg at breakfast and some real butter and more cheese added!

Why do you think the advice will change fliss, is it your area? I'm interested.

Babies need calories so they're not empty for them but you can give wholegrains. All kinds of beans, cheese, bread, pasta etc. But you know it's a healthy diet!

Your child doesn't seem to be eating enough. The percentiles should be the same?

Not sure how she can be on the go all the time, as how would she have enough energy?

Be careful not to turn her into a picky eater.