Tips needed please on food to offer my dd - thanks!

[MammyShirl]

I have posted many times about my dd and the trouble I have and still go through with her feeding. I breastfed her until she was 8 months. When breastfed she was just not intertested in solids at all. I tried many times and she always refused. I wanted to wean her off the breast anyway so my hv suggested dropping feeds to make her more hungry which i did and sure enough at 7 1/2 mths she slowly started to become intertested in food. She is now 10 months and still not that interested, she never gets excited about food except for fruit - she loves bananas! I have spent many hours making her food using all the best ingrediants from baby books - she spits it out! The only thing she likes is Heinz Mums Own "Sweet & Sour Chicken" - but she has this week decided she has had enough. So now Im lost and not sure what to do. I know babies her age are eating mashed dinners, she did start late but I cant beleive she is not skinny, she hardly consumes anything in a day.

Breakfast - a few baby spoons of Readybrek/weetabix, few bits of banana and juice

Late morning - 5 ozs of milk

Lunch - She did eat a 4mth pureed jar of Heinz Sweet and Sour. Greek yougurt with pureed apple (but has now gone off that too) and juice

Late afternoon - Pureed fruit or banana bits or orange bits / cheese sticks and juice
5ozs milk

Night - 6 ozs of milk

To me that looks like nothing and some days she will only have 2-3 mouthfuls of it all.

I have been encouraging her to eat lumpier and hand food. She only likes sweet things. I give her dried apple rings, bananas, sticks of cheese, toast (which she never actually eats just plays with)....

I want to try and make her a dinner today with food she can pick up and nibble - any ideas?

also can she eat tinned pineapple rings? i looked on the tin and it said pineapple in its own juice - can babie eat this? i was thinking of adding it to some chicken - she will eat anything with fruit.

in babies books, they suggest cottage cheese and pineapple but all the cottage cheese in sainsburys and waitrose have salt in them, do you if you can get no salt?

Sorry for the long mail - I need to get this sorted out soon.

Of course, DS is nearly 3 so should perhaps be eating a little more Twiglett. Our main problem is avoiding a mealtime battle. Its fine if its just me and DS, but he knows he can wind DH up.

thanks everyone!
my dd has never been a chubby baby, people always say "oh, isnt she tall" i hope they are not thinking "poor child looks thin".

her weight has always gone up steady on the 75th percentile.

i work wed/thurs but on friday i am going to make her some dishes.

i bought some chicken breasts, what do you think of this:
chicken breasts boiled
brown rice
in a pan onion, yellow pepper, pineapple
mix it all up and puree half and mash half - ill see which she likes best?

it needs to be sweet. someone told me i should deprive her of all sweet things inc bananas and offer veg for a while. i dont think i coul dnot that.

thanks everyone!
my dd has never been a chubby baby, people always say "oh, isnt she tall" i hope they are not thinking "poor child looks thin".

her weight has always gone up steady on the 75th percentile.

i work wed/thurs but on friday i am going to make her some dishes.

i bought some chicken breasts, what do you think of this:
chicken breasts boiled
brown rice
in a pan onion, yellow pepper, pineapple
mix it all up and puree half and mash half - ill see which she likes best?

it needs to be sweet. someone told me i should deprive her of all sweet things inc bananas and offer veg for a while. i dont think i coul dnot that.

last sentence should say
"i don't think i could do that" :0

Sounds good to me, MammyShirl, except that if it was me, i'd give white, preferably basmati rice, s brown rice is quite a chewy mouthful, and I think the advice is that babies don't need to be filled up on fibre.
Also, don't worry! If she is getting protein from milk, and has lots of fruit and little mouthfuls of other bits and bobs, she's fine! Stick with the Heinz Sweet and Sour, if she likes it. I always found that I got worked up (or had to struggle not to get woked up) when fresh food that I had lovingly prepared was rejected, and that just makes a big unhelpful issue of the whole thing. DS was very keen on the Hipp Organic range when he was 10 months...even tho' I was forever mashing and freezing delectable recipes!

Mammashirl, don't beat yourself up that you have to get her to eat a big variety now. My DSs were wonderful eaters at that age, ate a big range of veggies (DS2 prefered them to meat!) but they just got really picky later instead - DS1 is OK now (at 6) but sometimes I think DS2 lives on nothing but fruit and cheese on toast.
As your DD gets older her tastes will change and she'll start to enjoy different flavours and textures.

75th percentile sounds good - how tall is she? Personally I'd keep chicken in a fairly smooth form at this age, mixed with something else quite wet (if you know what I mean) as all meats are pretty chewy for babies. If you are keen on rice how about butternut squash risotto? Plus AK has a recipe with courgette, chicken and grapes blended together. If she likes something (like Heinz Sweet and sour), mix it with (fairly soft cooked) rice to add texture or mashed potato.