What do 1year olds eat??????

[pugsmum]

my ds is 15 months and at thats fussy in-between solids,purees,i wanna do it all myself stage.!!
He has never really liked "lumpy food " it either has to be completly lumpless (Puree) or finger foods.
I started giving him a plate of finger foods to occupy him while i shoved a load of mega healthy puree in his gob so i could judge how much food he has actually eaten!

However he is starting to get to grips with using a spoon , cup ,fork etc and gaining a little indapendence which i encourage but now he just wants to do everything himself .. distraction worked for a while but doesn't seem to work any more i even dumped him in front of the TV while i shovelled in tubs of food which worked amazingly for 2 days but that was it. (which i am kinda glad of because i dont want to get into the habbit of dinner in front of the telly )

He Now wont let me feed him anything ! he will eat his finger foods but its very hard to see how much he has eaten and how much he has thrown on the floor, against the wall or stuffed in the lining of his hi chair .
What do i do ? do i just give him his food and let him get on with it (as people keep telling me " babys wont starve themsleve , when he is hungry he will eat") or do i keep fighting to get this food down his neck at the table at the correct time ?

and how much should he be eating ?

He has breaky , lunch ,dinner , 2x snacks and 2x bottles before bed and in morning .

he is ver active , been walking since 10 months so a pro at it now and we walk to shops or at least half an hour a day plus generally runnin about the house and climbing up and down the stairs a few times a day ( supervised)

Does it matter about seeing how much he has eaten? He'll soon let you know if he's hungry again.

As for healthy foods, pretty much anything can be a finger food (I just found a great couple of videos of DS eating spaghetti bolognese with fingers, and then pasta mixed with peas, green beans and cream cheese.)

Don't get into the habit of dinner in front of TV! It's a really hard one to break and doesn't make much of a difference longterm to what they eat anyway.

No, don't fight him. Just let him feed himself what he wants. Make sure you offer a variety of foods and let him get on with it. They can do a lot for themselves at this age given the chance and practice will make him better at it too. Let him eat to his appetite, I have let mine and they are both self-regulating and good weight for their age/height, pretty slim really.

My DD never let us spoon feed her- or hardly, maybe we were allowed to do yogurt but that was about it even from when she was weaning she was a finger food baby. She didn't starve . I think you have to offer enough milk as well at this age so they get their calories from that as well as the finger foods, I think DD was drinking about 3 cups at this age- still drinks 2 cups a day now age 3.

i like to be able to see what he has eaten ... so i can see if he has eaten enough . I know a healthy baby doesnt starve but what if he is an unhealthy baby ' so to speak'
i worry that he is too busy to eat properly. for example if dad or gran walk through the door at feeding time he gets exited and dinner time is forgotten.
i give him all sorts of things to eat with his hands we do all of the above .
anything we eat we chuck him the scraps so he can sit at the tble with us.
i dont think there is a food left to try. and he will usually try anything put in front of him out of criosity but just doesnt seem to eat very much.

I am starting to swap the morning and evening bottles for a bed time story as part of his bed time routine. but am concerned about where i will replace the dairy and that he will be getting enough. he is not quite there with drinking from a cup ....we are still practising with that one .
if i give him milk with his meals it may fill him up to much to eat whats on his palte .but cant seem t o get him to drink it. from either beaker , bottle or cup at times trough the day ..

sorry .... beginning to think out loud now lol

am just wondering what other mothers do with these minor query' s as i dont have a lot of mum friends. so its hard to see how it goes on a day to day routine basis

He will eat enough (one year olds' food requirements are still varying wildly from one week to the next - they don't need a 'regular' amount of food at this point), and he may be more interested in chucking food around because he never gets a chance to get really hungry. Believe me, if he's hungry, food will go in! I would definitely ditch the bottles, as they'll be filling him up too.

My 14mo eats two weetabix with milk for breakfast (feeds himself with a spoon - a new development in the last week), then has a piece of toast and jam at snacktime. Lunch will often be pasta and home made sauce (my chance to get some veg and more dairy in), perhaps followed by yogurt. Teatime is something like a hot cross bun or some homemade cake, supper is sometimes soup and bread, or risotto, followed by fruit.

You really don't need to keep tabs on how much he's eating, otherwise you're just setting yourself up for worry when he suddenly eats less than half the usual amount at a meal. You really shouldn't be feeding him at this point - you need to take advantage of his desire for independence, otherwise you'll still be feeding him when he's five! Let him get on with it!

weetabix is a good food they can spoon themselves, sticky enough to get on a spoon and mine loved it,was great spoon-training substance and he will still eat it at 27m now even when not hungry for other things. Mashed sweet potato also! Banana is a good finger food, yours might try veg sticks like pepper or cucumber (mine only likes cooked veg within pasta sauces but I have seen other kids eat cold veg sticks and dips!). Mine likes small bowls of things, they only have small tummies so they don't need as much as you think, and people are right when they tell you that your child will tell you when they're hungry! Mine likes pasta shapes (tubes mostly) as he can spoon them or pick them up one by one if the mood takes him. If I do a tomato based pasta sauce I dice up onion/red pepper/mushroom/courgette/garlic into it and add cheese. Scrambled egg is quite a good baby food if yours takes to the taste, they don't all like eggs. Slices of omelette can also be good finger food! a HV suggested peanut butter to me when mine was yours age as he wasn't eating much and peanut butter has the good fats in it a toddler needs to grow, and hes loved peanut butter on (wholemeal) toast ever since. a fishfinger can be some kids fave hold-in-the-hand food, also breadsticks, crackers... try putting small amounts in front of him at a time so you can get an idea of how much he has eaten, mine never liked loads in front of him at one time, so I bring out the next course once he seems to have had enough of the one in front of him... too much choice seems to end up in not much being eaten... :) try not to worry too much, its all change at this age and best not to get too het up

I second the comments saying stop worrying about how much he's eating. DD is a great eater, we just let her eat when she wants, plus we have set meal times too. Some days she eats constantly and other days she'll just pick a few bits. Even at 2 years old the intake varies from day to day.

Humans are designed to graze, not to have three meals and nothing else around those. If you do want some kind of food routine I'd go for three meals and two snacks mid morning, and mid to late afternoon.

Unless there is a medical reason, children won't starve themselves.

I think it's part of being 1 to get distracted at meal times and for it to go to pot. I think the key is to be a bit flexible, but to have routine- so you do breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, tea. That then gives them several opportunities to eat and if they've got distracted at one meal you can give a better snack etc etc.

I know some parents can't seem to help it but if you can just forget about how much he is eating, you will have a sense of it without having to think about it I promise you. They up their appetite at about 2 and then it seems to go up with growth spurts and down in between.

In regard to the milk, I think you have to go with your instinct. Both my kids were milky children but managed to still eat well, or well enough. It's only really at 5 that my DS seems to have quit drinking milk. He will have it on cereal now. My 3 year old still really likes it and has some in the morning and evening (small cup). I don't let her have it before meals, or with meals (we have water with meals). They get better at using the cup the more you do it. I only quit bottles with my DS at 2, whereas DD never took a bottle (she was BF and then a cup).

I really don't think you should worry.

At times I did wonder if we were too laid back about food (laid back/just too darn knackered to worry about it), but actually now I think the attitude we've had has done 12mo DD a huge favour - I have no idea how much she eats. She's always been fiercely independent - she's been flat-out refusing mush since about 9 months (unless it was sweet ;)). Absolutely no spoon feeding from about 10 months (she'd spit it out and throw the spoon back at me because she'd want to do it herself). Now she eats really well with a fork and spoon. I've never gone down the route of making special Annabel Karmel-type baby cuisine, and although I admire greatly the mums that can do it, I still can't fathom how you'd ever have the time. She just has what we have, when we have it, and if she doesn't like it, tough! But, to our absolute delight this has resulted in her eating everything - even salad.

In terms of weight, she's bang on the 25th percentile, as she was at birth. We've never had a problem. Maybe we're just lucky with her, I don't know, but I do think this has been one success. (Getting her to sleep though the night was another story, mind!)

I just think it's never too early to establish healthy attitudes around eating. It should be fun. And messy! The last thing you'd want is for a little one to pick up on any stress surrounding food. Christ, that could last a lifetime. For what it's worth - my advice is to take a leap of faith, stop worrying about quantity and just let him take what he wants.

Sorry - just read through that and it sounds like she eats loads. She doesn't. Some mealtimes she doesn't seem to eat hardly anything. It's all on the floor/in the bib/in her hair/mine hehe. But the point is, we've given her the chance to eat a big meal, and if she doesn't want it, fine. We trust that she's getting enough over the days to balance it all out.

At 15 months old he should just be eating what you eat surely, unless he has allergies.

Children's appetites can widely vary from week to week so please don't be forcing food into him.

Both my sons can go a week or so hardly eating anything (or so it seems) then weeks eating me out of house and home.

Put the food in front of him and let him get on with it. Ditch the puree's so he can do its himself.

Both my boys from 6 months old have eaten Roast Dinners, Lasagne, Cottage Pie, Toad in the Hole, jacket potatoes and beans/tuna/chilli, beef stew, home Made burgers and wedges, chicken drumsticks. Everything.

Always put cutlery out for your son and get on with eating your own dinner. He'll see you using the cutlery then and start using it himself too.

I also think you need to chill out a bit.

shoved a load of mega healthy food in his gob

Judge how much he has eaten

dump him in front of tv as distraction

Really, you're going to stress him out and put him off food altogether if you don't just step back a little and let him get on with it.

My 15 month old also eats what we eat - mainly pasta, curries, chilli, fish pies etc as that is what myself and DP like! He's also not keen on spoons, but just this week has started wanting to hold one himself, although not much food goes in his mouth. I am also a bit guilty of wanting him to eat "properly" despite all advice to the contrary, and when I'm feeling a bit control freaky I tend to let him eat what he wants( ie pick out the veggies) whilst I spoon feed him the rest. In my defence, he was a terrible sleeper until quite recently, and I can't quite get the hungry=no sleep for me association out of my head.

FWIW, I have a DS1 aged 3.5 who was not a great eater at age 1 and used to point blank refuse loads of my offerings ( which were a lot more Annabel Karmel- like in those days as had the time). He used to eat well at nursery though ( I worked 4 days a week), probably because they were a lot less stressed out about it. When DS2 came along I had to leave him to it a lot more at mealtimes, and he suddenly changed into a much better eater..... He is now eats a pretty wide range, not managed to get either of them to consume salad though - v impressed with that-although DS1 did have some Japanese seaweed at the weekend.....

I completely agree mealtimes need to be fun and messy. I always put music on and don't serve up until they are both in a good mood/ looking hungry ( well until at least one of them is) . I speak as a terrible eater in childhood and have bad memories of sitting at the table on my own for ages until I finished- and I didn't eat salad until I was about 25 :0
Good luck

Thanx guys - all brilliant advise -has really helped.

I definatly need to 'ease up' on him and let him do it himself . but we are on the right tracks in general as we are already doin all the other things sugested; he eats ALL of the above but when he wants too .
He has all the finger foods , fish pie .. loves his pasta and we are never afraid to get a bit messy and hose him down (joke lol ) .
I do also have a freezer full of annabella karmel style homemade frozen foods . it is generally all stuff we eat too but i do a massive batch and freeze the rest in baby tubs for ds or all of us to eat at the later date or puree it ..
that way i am never out of ideas .
(i will now use these as pasta sauces etc so they dont go to waste )

Today ; I gave him his breaky an let him eat it himself , didnt eat much because of his morning bottle (which i will start to wean him off of at the wknd .. not on a work nitght!!!), He now gone into the kitchen and indicated that he is hungry ... i made him half a peanut butter sandwhich and small beaker of milk I had the other half and a cuppa with him at the table and he ate almost all of it..

(He has also been saying the word finish for a while (in the form of ...nish/lish/fish/ inish etc) and hands me his plate which we taught him because he started throwing food on the floor .
But to be honest i didnt give him enought credit to really understand what it means .. so when he said finished i told him to carry on eating .)

Today however i see he had eaten a substantial amount so when he lifted his plate up and said 'ilinish' i took his plate and gave him a good boy and a kiss .

DInner = 'brocciflower cheese' (cauliflower and broccoli) cheesy pasta with veg tonight, a knife and fork.... and no interferiance from control freak 'eat your dinner or else parents ' lol

thanx every one think i just needed some wise words to put the situation into perspective and confidence know how i should be aproaching it correctly . ..

p.s i agree squifflybobs i too cant get it out of my head that he wont sleep if he hasnt eaten enough .....

last nighti worked but dad let him stuck to all his advise and he slept really well .

So glad it's going better! If the waste bothers you then I can recommend a wormery. You bung it all in there then six months later you've got an endless supply of liquid feed for the garden!

DD2 (13 months) has never eaten pured food and we do a mixture of spoon feeding, feeding herself with her hands and now and then she grabs the spoon and does it herself.

Today she had Shreddies for breakfast which she feeds herself with a mixture of hands and spoon (mainly hands!) then she had a weetabix to copy dd2, lunch will probably be a cheese and tomato sandwich which she will do herself (pull it to bits, eat some, suck some, throw some on the floor), an afternooon snack will be carrots dipped in houmous, which she will do herself and dinner is lasagne with salad,we might feed her a few spoonfuls,she will dig in herself with hands/spoon, spit the salad out and throw it on the floor in disgust!

To start with she used to throw the bowl on the floor so we used to put the food directly on the highchair tray for her to pick up (chasing peas, blueberries etc is great for devolping fine motor skills). Now we can put the bowl in front of her with an appropriate sized portion and then she eat what she wants and if she shouts for more we give her some.

I have no idea how much she actually eats, she judges her own appetite. When she wants a piece of fruit she stands at the fruit bowl shouting and I giver her a peeled banana or a peeled satsuma in a bowl and she gets on with it.

I'm hoping she starts to use a spoon more but I think this will come in time.

This is the way we fed dd1 (4yo) and she is a fantastic eater. Will try anything and stops eating when she feels full. The worst thing to do is to start pushing a child to finish what is on their plate.

Just relax and let your ds lead the way. He can do far more than what you think

Google BLW and you see images of babies, younger than your ds, sucking on pork chops

Brocciflower cheese?? I'm coming round to yours for dinner - sounds lovely.