To ask for advice on my 13 month olds diet?

[Starryspacetrip]

She doesn’t seem to eat very well at all and it’s worrying me now she’s no longer really taking formula.

She eats porridge for breakfast, and sometimes a yoghurt.

At lunch time I made her a ham and cheese toastie, she ate a few bits of ham and refused the rest. Then she had a fruit pouch. She ate some of DHs pizza.

Then for dinner a bit of spaghetti.

Can anyone give me any pointers? She doesn’t seem to have a very varied diet.

Sorry, that last sentence barely made sense.

They won't go off and they will keep their nutrients

@Starryspacetrip

She eats much better at nursery!

Her centiles are spot on so reassuring. She won’t drink cows milk so she is on the toddler milk - cow and gate.

Maybe she is picking up on your stress and anxiety about her eating? IME nurseries tend to make food and meal times fun. Could you maybe put some music on, sing to her, have a picnic on the floor. Mine still had the odd jar of baby food at that age too.

Are you worried about her not eating enough or not eating enough of the right food? With my DD she had porridge made with formula - with lots of blueberries squashed into it. I would repeatedly offer vegetables even if she doesn't take it straight away. My DD wasn't that keen on meat until she was around 2 but we offered her salmon which she liked.

Natural yoghurt was also a big hit for us in the early days. Lots of protein in that and you can add in fruit.

I don’t think I’m particularly stressed, although it isn’t very pleasant to flip it back and make it my fault somehow. Of course I’m going to want her to eat a slightly more balanced diet than a piece of ham at lunch, that doesn’t mean I’m standing over her wringing my hands.

@PanicBuyingSprouts thanks. You’ve been really helpful and I appreciate it.

I’ve sent DH out for a courgette which got me a slightly face but he did it!

I’m worried about both tbh @kirinm. Weaning did not go well, I hated it and looking back I’d have been far more inclined to just go with the flow when she didn’t take to BLW but I got stressed about it. Now breakfast isn’t too bad but lunch and dinner still stress me out no end!

For a quick win have you tried adding fruit to her porridge? A mashed banana or some chopped apple? Ds loves frozen cherries defrosted and mixed in. Also a dash of cinnamon.

I batch cook easy meals (bolognaise, curry, stew - you can use meat subsitute) and make sure to add tonnes of veg and tomatoes - there's always something in the freezer and food for dh and I too. You could make some pizzas with veg on or blended into the sauce?

I found the Caroline Walker Trust brill for ideas. Is your dd on vitamins?

She eats much better at nursery!

That's the bit that caught my attention to be honest. Because she sees what her peers are eating and wants to do the same.

At home, she sees her Dad eating pizza and wants to do the same...

What is your diet like, by the way? Could you sit down with her and eat healthy foods and ask her Dad to eat in another room?

I’m in a very similar position to @MrsR87 - My DS is 13m. Both DH and I love to cook and eat a huge variety of foods. Thankfully, DS will currently eat anything that I put infront of him at the moment.
@Starryspacetrip Firstly, your DD is following her centile for growth so that’s a great start 😊 I’d try to relax a bit about the amount that she eats. Does she seem to be hungry or is it just that you don’t feel that her food intake is enough?

How does she do with a spoon? My DS much prefers eating his meals himself. As someone else has said - maybe she’s just much more of a snacker than having big meals? I agree with others too - staying eating the same thing with her is great if you can. Often DS asks for more veg from my plate when he’s finished.

I second what everyone else has said about blending veggies etc to make sauce. My DS also loves cheese sauce so I make it with loads of grated veggies in for him.
Frozen veg is perfectly fine so stock up on some of that then you don’t need to worry as much about it going off 😊 same goes for things like berries. Frozen blueberries and raspberries work great in porridge.
Here are some of my DSs favourite meals. Hopefully it’ll give you some inspiration.

Breakfasts: Porridge with raspberries & blackberries/ Weetabix with banana & peanut butter/ Sugarfree blueberry pancakes with natural yoghurt/ scrambled egg with spinach & mushrooms on toast

Lunch: Homemade lentil soup with bread or pitta to dip/ avocado & cheese quesadilla/ a ‘picky plate’ with boiled egg, pitta, hummus, tomatoes & cucumber/ an omelette made using last nights leftover veggies or cheese, tomato & mushroom

Dinner: Beef stew with potato & broccoli or green beans/ chicken curry with rice or sweet potato/ spaghetti bolognese/ chicken fajitas/ cod in butternut squash & Parmesan sauce.
I add as much veg as I can to all sauces too.

Snacks: Banana/ mini oatcakes with cheese/ fruit fingers like melon or pineapple/ grapes/ cucumber & pitta sticks with hummus/ spliced apple with peanut butter to dip

If her mum and dad are fussy eaters, its not really surprising that she is as well. Try veg on pizza, or blitzed into pasta sauce. We used to make 'green cakes', which were various sorts of green veg mixed with a bit of mash, and then egg-and-breadcrumbed and fried. My DD really liked those (as did we!).

Looking at other peoples suggestions, and your replies and most importantly, the fact that she eats well at nursery I would say that it is your OHs (and maybe your) eating habits that are influencing how she eats at home. As I said in my previous post, me and DH love food and cook from scratch everyday. We had a high chair for DS that was suitable for newborns and so he sat with us at every meal. It was incredible how much he would watch us! If you are really on board with cooking and eating home cooked food and your OH is not, perhaps it would be beneficial for the time being for him to eat at a different time so that DD can observe your positive eating habits.

As others have said, perhaps she is just a snacky eater and so maybe she would do better with meals like fajitas? What is the meal schedule at nursery? How many meals does she have there? Perhaps she is just not that hungry if she eats loads at nursery?

@Greys007 has given some lovely meal suggestions. I’ll add a few of DS’ favourites too.
Breakfast: toast with butter/avocado/ peanut butter/ cashew butter/ almond butter, crumpets, cheerios and full fat milk, porridge (with banana, berries etc), full English with a bit of sausage, scrambled egg, mushrooms, low salt beans etc. What mummy makes has a delicious recipe for pina colada porridge made with coconut milk and pineapple.
Eggy bread with various fillings. He loves eggy bread topped with cheese and finished in the grill.

Lunch: sandwiches, breadsticks, hummus, rice cakes, pinwheels with assorted fillings, soups, jacket potatoes with cheese and beans, quesadilla with cheese, sweetcorn and tuna/cheese and chicken/ avocado and tuna, omelette with various fillings, leftovers from the night before

Dinner: roast dinners, homemade burgers, homemade pizza, turkey gnocchi, fajitas, various curries (lamb or chicken), slow roasted brisket, homemade chicken kebabs and flatbread, homemade oven baked chips, sweet potato wedges, salmon (with a mild chilli topping) with rice, chicken stroganoff with rice, tarragon cream chicken with rice, cheesy pasta, pasta and beef ragu, meatloaf
All served with a variety of veg but he especially loves broccoli and green beans.

Mine only wants to eat with her hands and it has to be the same color as our food. Try everything, and I mean everything. They mmight like what you don't cook for yourself or something that surprises you. Our DD loves broccoli, parsnips, mashed peas, grated cucumbers and kale with mash. I've never heard of such a young child loving kale... I make and freeze batches of healthy food that she eats and give her that while we eat our normal food (we eat healthy but spicy).

My DS has "helped" with making food from an early age. Doddl knife and being given easy tasks means he gets keen to try things (and samples food while making it). For eating veg the mixed approach works well if you chop everything small (and pre-cook onions, leeks etc so they are soft); savoury pancake with mixed ingredients, or creamy veg pasta, bean and cheese wrap with tomatoes and a little salty bacon or pepperoni. Mixing food means all the range of veg gets eaten, bypasses the silly toddler "I don't eat X" stage and helping chop is good for getting them used to knowing that lots of veg goes in the dish (as well as motor skills). I don't mind a bit of mayo or salty meat either to help the veg go down, as long as it isn't loads and you don't add other salt it's fine. Then you can add a fruit or veg to breakfast or snacks; peanut butter toast or houmous dip or berries in yoghurt, slices of apple and olives with cheese and crackers. Definitely eating together is good; make the meal and add chilli sauce after, so you all have the same.