What does your 16month old eat in a typical day?

[Romilly70]

I have always given 16 month old DS too much milk, (say 3 or 4 180ml bottles a day) as we have travelled a lot and he is not a great eater or sleeper and I have been too lazy and disorganised to try harder

Usually he has a bottle in the morning then not keen on breakfast, apart from a few bits of cereal in a snack pot. (I have tried prrodge, fruit puree, bits of toast etc) Only when he has been active, he will eat a reasonable lunch, pasta, some chicken and vegetables, cheese cubes. (He is learning to use a fork and is quite keen, as he is really independent and has fed himself since he was about 8 months and not keen on being spoon fed, although in the last week, he has been trying to use a spoon himself)

However for the last couple of days he has had some kind of vomiting bug, so i am keeping him off milk and dairy for 24 hours. I also think that this is a good opportunity to try and get him eating a bit more.

So far today he has had some diluted lucozade in the night. (DP who has 2 older DCs recommended this as an alternative to diaralyte which DS hates)
This morning DS wolfed down 3/4 of a bit of toast and marmite and drank a bit of water from a soft spouted beaker.

I am thinking, in a couple of hours try him with some apple & banana slices and a breadstick for a snack. Then noonish his usual sort of lunch, snacks again in the afternoon then a dinner.

Just keen to hear what other mums give their toddlers and when. Also how much milk do they have and what does your toddler drink it out of?

many thanks!

dd2 is 16mo, eats loads and is very fat chubby. she eats with her fingers and makes little attempt to handle cutlery.
she has a sippy cup of milk on rising at 7ish. then breakfast at 8 which is normally a weetabix.
10.30 she sometimes has half a slice of toast, or some fruit.
12.00 she has a sandwich (1 slice bread) with egg or tuna or something, veg sticks, a few crisps if i'm having some, and a piece of fruit.
2.30 some dried fruit, a buttered cracker or chunks of cheese
5pm dinner - whatever we're having. tonight will be bacon, pea and feta frittata with wedges and salad. she won't eat the salad but i stick it on the plate anyway. she eats a lot at dinner. more fruit, or a pudding if we've one in.
7pm more milk.

on nursery days she eats more, as they serve tea at 3pm (pitta bread, dips, fruit, that sort of thing) , and then she still has dinner with her sister at 5pm.

TBH i don't think 3 bottles a day is loads at 16mo

Depends if he's on a growth spurt or not.

If he's growing, he'll spend 2 or 3 days eating something about every hour. By something I mean: A banana (or other fruit), a bowl of porridge, a portion of cheese cubes/a babybel, a 1 slice of bread sandwich, two biscuits, half a tin of ravioli, a child portion of whatever we're having for lunch/dinner and pudding, a hot dog sausage, yoghurt. - it's an unbelievable amount of food really, and I dread to think how it'll be when he's older.

Also 2 or 3 of cups of juice or cows milk.

If he's not on a growth spurt then that'll string out to 2-3 hours between similar sized meals (so breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus 3 or 4 snacks).

Plus about 1 milk feed during the day, and about 3 overnight (bedtime, middle, morning)

My 16 month old twins each have (on a typical day, can be more or less some days):

6am breastfeed
8am 1.5 weetabix plus half a banana, made with 3 oz formula OR half an adult sized portion of whole oat porridge with half a banana
11am ish breastfeed if I'm with them, biscuit and cows milk if I'm at work
1pm ish stew/bolognase/meat, potato and veg type dinner. Probably 150ml ish. Pudding of fruit or cake with yoghurt or custard
3pm ish breadtfeed or cows milk with rice cake/biscuit or nursery tea of toast and fruit
5pm ish tea of egg on toast or homemade fishcake or similar, with fruit/cake with yoghurt/custard to follow.
7pm ish breastfeed
twice more in the night breastfeed

They have water or cows milk with meals, but rarely drink more than a few sips. I think the night feeds would cut down if I could get them to drink more with/in between meals, but I've not cracked that yet!

If your baby is happy and healthy, they will pick up eating skills if you keep offering

They also

All these other babies eat a lot more than mine...
Eg:
Usually he starts with 210mL of milk at about 5am
3/4 tbs of porridge for breakfast
Cheese on toast for lunch followed by a mandarin. Usually another bottle of milk here.
A small portion of what we are having for dinner followed by a yoghurt
210mL of milk when he goes to bed.
He does sometimes have a biscotti or two or some of those Organix crisps.
He refuses to drink out of a cup when offered and just plays with it and generally gets water everywhere. He usually has about 4/5 bottles in a day.

DD is 17 months (but hasn't changed what she eats in the last month). She is mostly fed in nursery and has the following:
Breakfast - beaker of milk, shreddies, cheerios (a handful) or rice crispies (2 handfuls) with milk plus half a slice of toast or a whole slice without crusts.
Midmorning snack - fruit & water
Lunch - a two course lunch (I wish nursery fed me too) with water
Mid afternoon snack - biscuit and milk
Tea - two course meal with water.

Nursery tea is at 3.45 so she has eaten all of that by then. She. She gets home she has a beaker of milk and a snack. If she hasn't eaten all of her nursery tea she has a bigger snack. I try to include fruit and protein in her snack as she loves both and sleeps well if full of protein.

So she has milk 3 times a day plus in cooking and other dairy products. She isn't chubby despite all of the food as she is a very active child. I wouldn't worry about how much milk your DS is having as they are meant to have a pint and it is really good for them. Much better than lucozade. Are you sure you are meant to cut out dairy with D&V? If you want to cut down on milk then you could swap from bottles to a beaker as there may be some comfort sucking. Even just during the day if the bedtime bottle is part of his settling routine.

15mo DS:

6.30am breastfeed
8am breakfast - 1.5 weetabix in cows milk plus a small yoghurt/fromage frais
9.30am 1/2 piece of toast (stolen from my plate )
11am breastfeed
1pm lunch - spag bol; chicken/veg/mash; stew
2.30pm couple of pieces of fruit/cheese
3.30pm breastfeed
5.30pm dinner - breaded chicken pieces, potato, sauce of some kind, peas (he LOVES peas)
7pm & 11.30pm breastfeed

He drinks water throughout the day from a sippy cup. I've tried to give him milk instead but he just looks at me like this and throws it around everywhere

My 15 month DD varies from day to day. Sometimes she just isn't that interested in anything but the bare minimum and other times she just wants more and more and more of anything and everything. A normal day would be

Milk on rising - around 180ml
Breakfast - a weetabix with milk or porridge with milk. Sometimes some yoghurt or berries if there are any in the fridge. Sometimes instead of cereal she has greek yoghurt and fruit puree. Often a handful of dried cereal as well (Shreddies or Cheerios). Just depends

Snack - some baby rice cakes or dried fruit or maybe some bits of cheese

Lunch - I do one proper cooked meal a day and it can be lunch or supper depending. But lunch could be a boiled egg and soldiers or cheese on toast or bread, ham and cheese followed by strawberries or yoghurt

Snack - bread sticks or melba toast or more rice cakes

Supper - chicken, mashed potato and veg. Something like that. Or pasta with a home made veggie sauce and cheese. Or shepherd pie etc etc. Followed by custard or yoghurt and raspberriers or strawberries

6.45 - A bottle of milk - 180ml

That's it. I often wonder if she is getting enough. Some days she doesn't really want any snacks. Other days she eats hardly any supper. But she is growing well and is very bright so I have to take my cues from her and assume she will eat more if she is hungry.

If i can add, as long as it is not excessively one thing, or sugar, please please dont worry about it or food in general. In my family, the one parent who had food issues herself passed it on to her kids. My son eats well sometimes and terribly other times. Sometimes he only ate bread for a month. As long as kids are pooimg and peeing take it easy please!!! Someone once said to me, a hungry baby will eat! It is true!

i have a 15 month and he has a cup of milk with breitiva cerael stuff mixed at 7,40ish, a banana or fruit pouch at 9ish, sleep, then lunch at 12ish mash potatoe and mince or pasta then a yogurt or fruit. then tea is at 3ish, fish, chicken or whatever can make and what he will eat then yogurt or fruit. cup of milk at 6ish. bed before 7. sometimes he will have some crisps or banana during the day he also drinks lots of water. feel though he doesnt eat enough and half the time wont eat also.

I give my 16 month DD:

A beaker of milk when she wakes up while I make myself a cup of coffee and potter around the kitchen.
Breakfast no.1 which is normally at about 7am and consists of half a slice of my brown toast and a banana.
Breakfast no.2 which I try to leave as near to 8.30-9am as I can but obviously depends what time we need to leave the house and consists of an enormous bowl of readybrek/porridge
Lunch between 11.30am and 12.30pm which is normally pasta or soup and bread etc followed by a piece of fruit
A beaker of milk when she wakes up from her nap and a cracker/cheese/biscuit if she asks for one (by asking a mean banging on the cupboard doors in the kitchen shouting cheeeeeese!).
Dinner at about 5pm and it'll be the usual main meal type of thing - whatever I have cooked for us and frozen her a little pot of - spag bol, chilli, chicken casserole, fish pie etc. and yoghurt for dessert.
8oz bottle after the bath and before bed so sometime between 6.30-7pm

As for drinks apart from milk I listed above she has water in a beaker throughout the day and some diluted apple/orange juice if we have any and I am drinking some.

I would emphasis that this is what I give her to eat and she does not necessarily eat it all. Some days she loves her porridge so much that she'll eat a huge bowl and then not really eat much of her lunch. Other days she'll pick out all the fruit and veg and leaves everything else, other days she'll only eat the carbs. I put the food in front of her and let her decide what she wants and it seems to be working at the moment! It is the same thing with milk - some days she'll drink all of her 2 beakers and a full 8oz bottle but other days she'll refuse it all. Ah well, I figure it all balances itself out in the end.

I do however want to move her dinner to 6pm so we can all eat together but I'm a bit worried that it'll mess up a system that works very at the moment! Can't decide about that one!!

My 17 month old doesn't get any milk to drink and only has it on cereal(weetabix usually) in the morning and before bed. He gets yoghurt for snacks most days and has cheese if it's in any of his main meals but he has not had regular drinks of milk or formula since I weaned him from the bottle at 12 mos.

I was lactose intolerant from birth so when I had DS I looked into the benefits/drawbacks of drinking milk. From what I read I don't think it's as important as everyone says. I'm not anti-milk by any means but I just don't worry about it. There is calcium and other good nutrients in lots of other foods.

his day:
7am: 2 weetabix with whole milk and beaker of water
10am: yoghurt and biscuit and bit of fruit or, bread and peanut butter with fruit and a beaker of water
12pm: spag bol, sandwich, (regular lunch stuff)
3pm: spaghetti hoops and toast, yoghurt or toast and a biscuit or something like that
5:30pm: curry, risotto, spag bol, chilli, pasta and cheese plus fruit cup for pud
7pm: 2weetabix with whole milk and beaker of water before bed
7:30 - BEDTIME!

TBH I think I feed him too much at snack time because he isn't interested in lunch or dinner most days. Looking at what others feed their kids I think I'll cut back on snacks and see how he goes with main meals. I may start his day with a bit of milk though as he is sooooooooo hungry when he gets up that he makes our first 30 minutes of the day very stressful.