can you indulge me and tell me what your one year old eats?

[oranges]

I have a 19 month old baby who is not fussy as such, but eats in tiny quantities.
On a good day, he'll have - half a weetabix with milk,
six bites of pasta and brocolli, vanilla yoghurt,
6 bites of a blueberry muffin,
half a little bowl of chicken casserole with potatoes and carrots.

He used to eat an actual plateful of food, but hasn't done for about 4 months. Still drinks milk though. When he's sick, he won't eat a thing.

isn't it absolutely darling? i wish i could leave my favourite foods...

my folks were okay as well, we always had good food but we were pretty skint so it was important to my mum that we didn't snack (couldn't afford snacks) and just bloody well ate our dinners Because She'd Cooked Them. now, as it happens i pretty much agree with that because it's mannerly, but we should want our kids to want to be polite about food that has been cooked for them, not break them at 11 months on the matter. but i do truly wish that they hadn't made me clear my plate.
we didn't have food battles, i should say, the clearing the plate filled with delicious food just created four greedy kids who love food a Leetle Too Much.

It is fascinating to think about your own relationship with food. I grew up on a bunch of processed crap, and while I know I had plenty of other control isshoos going on exhibiting themselves through fussiness, that my mum could probably not have helped... I do think, if we had never had any chicken nuggets etc in the first place, how would we have chosen them? Wouldn't I just have chosen to only eat peas or potato or something?

We are the Little Chef generation, actually - remember the lollipop for clearing your plate?
where's my travel report? Call yourself a journalist?

Just skimmed the thread:
agree with hunker, aitch et al, but...

think that many of us have felt panicked, at times, by a child's feeding, I think because of own issues, sense of failure, sense that everything in life is spiralling out of control (even this - this food that I've cooked to show how much i love you)

Some of us might respond to this panic by grabbing the reins even more tightly and yanking.

It's not right, and neither, imo, is anything that puts so much emphasis on rules at 11months.

But perhaps starlight might have been more receptive if she'd been made to feel slightly less .. defensive, right from the get-go?

I do think that there's a lot to be said for just not having crap in the house. Not that it doesn't bug me at half ten at night when I am gagging for a Twix...

it it fascinating, isn't it mummymagic? and tbh i think that starlight was treated fairly reasonably, certainly i toned down my responses HUGELY.
and i know about the travelogue, habs. but every time i go to write it i feel bad about being on the internet and Go to Do Some Work. i've hardly been on the blog forum at all, there are so many wee newbies to welcome (well about five) and if i start i'll never finish. it was bloody brilliant, though, and we would deffo have been going back had we not mentioned it to a pal of dh's who has revealed that he has A FLAT IN LOWER LARGO that we can use any time!!! REEEE-SULT!

Get you with your landed gentry friends...

Food and nutrition and eating in your little ones is such a difficult subject though, tempers will run rife. (as in the bf vs ff argument/debate). Kids will always test boundaries in every aspect of their lives, but food is the most difficult to define to ourselves let alone in simple terms for a toddler/pre toddler. e.g. behaviour wise 'don't hit/bite/kick' - simple.

You draw on paper but not on walls/floor/sofas/self - fairly simple.

You go wee wee in nappy/potty/toilet not floor/big pants/bed - slightly more complex but definable.

You eat because you need fuel and minerals and fat and vitamins (all in varying qunatities), but don't eat too fast because your brain can't process that you're not hungry any more. There is also the exception that some foods don't provide much in they way of the above but they taste good and we can have them occasionally as a treat. Also food is a social activity and about talking/drinking and relaxing . . . can you see where I'm going with this?
Personally I think Starlight's avacado chase was a little extreme, but I do understand her motives and she wasn't as cruel as I've seen and heard from other parents. I think there is a middle ground. God knows I don't always reach it, but that's part of being a mum - we're human just like our darling kids.

well the 5 foods thing seems fine to me, but obviously only when you can explain that to a child. imo, 11 months is far, far too early to be getting into all that stuff and it sounded like it was deeply unpleasant for both of you. have a read of that book, starlight, i'll be interested to see what you think.

would he have drunk milk to deal with his hunger, starlight?

I think refusing food is a developmental thing Starlight and I think children should be allowed to refuse food if they want. It is good, as you mentioned before, that they are exhibiting/understanding control over their environment (and that he does it at one is v good IMO ).

I do agree with you about not providing unlimited alternatives if they are being fussy/toddler-y but I think you can teach that lesson at mealtimes (and just after). I don't think one year olds have enough long-term memory to think 'aha I didn't eat that avocado at lunch but now I am being offered an apple 3 hours later, I WON'

tbh i don't even see what the problem is with offering an alternative at that age. dd used to be very good at pointing to a banana rather than an apple, she seemed to have very firm views even then, so unless you'd asked him if he fancied an avocado i think it's not unreasonable to offer something else nutritious as well.
mind you, this is why i liked BLW, cos dd used to get what we were having. a salad might mean some veggies, tuna, olives, egg, bread etc, she could take what she wanted from that. without me having to worry. obv if i noticed on a rare occasion she had bread only then i'd knock up a bean stew or something un-bready for dinner.

I'm not even super-keen on the 5 foods thing, to be honest. I don't like "rules" about food. Social graces, yes! I like good table manners, eating together and chatting, being polite, helping with cooking and washing up (she's 13 months - I can dream!). Starlight, I think you've been caught up with other issues, but I would like to hear your take on the social aspects of food and eating - you seem very focussed on the nutritional aspect, and if you were balancing breastfeeding with ttc then I can understand why that would be uppermost in your mind. I just think that children learn best by example - they like to copy you, and so if he simply sees you eating and visibly enjoying good food, that will probably pique his curiosity enough to do it himself.

well i'm not super-keen on it either, but i think we've already proved that we are hairy-toed lentil weavers of the highest order in this area.

i do see starlight's point about formula vs food, tbh. it's a really interesting area (particularly wrt topping up before 6 months) but the idea of having to stress about their nutrition when they are only just getting the hang of eating, well, it would have been too much for me to handle without getting a bit screechy about it.

speak for yourself. I shave my toes.

okay, following my calm and rational post..

5 foods to put on your dislike list, but you have to eat 2 of them? Thats just mental!

why would you say express yourself 5 times, then I'm going to stamp on .. say.. 2! of those self-expressions. Because, well, you know, I can, because I'm an adult.

the only thing I ever, vaguely, cajole/bribe ds 6 to eat is brocc bcs he doesn't like ANY of the nutritional alternatives. And that's once a week.

Last time I try c or r.

hurrah! we can solve this problem easy-peasy! are you near an ikea? get the antilop one, it's £12 and BRILLIANT. seriously. easy to clean, like a bucket seat for wee babies so no slumping, and lovely and white and i-poddy so no design horror.

there are only four highchair choices... svan or tripp-trapp (expensive) or the argos one or the ikea (cheapo). nothing in between. well, apart from the fisher prive booster chairs.

oh, and the ikea one goes right up to the table too. i love ours, can you tell?

i think all the ikea ones have removable trays so can be pushed up.

c'mon starlight, get an antilop