what does your 9mth old have for tea, and how much??

[alibo]

could do with some more ideas for ds's tea please!!

I give DS his protein at lunchtime so tea is a veggie affair.

Avocado + couscous
Pasta + veg + cheese
Mild veggie curry + rice

Starting on finger foods now so things like felafels

Annabel Karmel has some decent veggie pasta recipes - see also Cooking for Coco , and the Baby Organix website .

Mostly I make one or two veggie meals for DH & self a week, or take the veggie content out of a meat casserole, and freeze a few portions for DS's tea. I don't make anything for him from scratch, except something instant like avocado & couscous.

Does that help?

Obviously I cook without salt, chilli etc. for DH & self now - add these later if necessary. DS eats what we eat - sometimes blended, usually mashed, sometimes eaten with fingers (e.g. big bits of pasta, broccoli florets)

Oh, and fruit / fruit + yoghurt/fromage frais for dessert.

Re. amounts: as much as he wants! Varies a lot.

thanks for reply, any more?? also, what time do you give last solids??

DS has tea about 5.30. Bedtime is 7.

ds2 is 11 months, but menu hasn't really changed in the last couple of months (except that he likes to eat more of it with his fingers!)

Pasta - with cheese sauce or mushroom sauce or tomato sauce etc etc
Risotto - with veggies (spinach or peas/sweetcorn)
Red lentil slop with rice
Mashed potato with mashed root veg or grated cheese
Generally always served with finger food veggies (carrots, beans, peas, sweetcorn, broccoli)
Puddding - either greek yoghurt with fruit puree or mashed banana or packet cereal with fruit puree.

Quantity - varies but generally around 6 big ice cubes equivalent main course and a medium sized dollop of pudding.

err, thats about it. Don't seem to have time for expanding his horizons! Need to do more finger foods as he is becoming mroe resistant to spoon feeds. Tend to stick to the meat/fish at lunch and veggie evening meal but sometimes do it the other way round. Eat at 5.30 - 5.45, bed at 7pm. He only has about 3-4oz milk before bed.

cockle, does your lttle one take bedtime milk ok, after tea at 5.30? elliot, thanks for suggestions, what does your rissotto consist of?

Yes he breastfeeds for half an hour!

alibo I make it like an ordinary risotto with proper risotto rice - fry onion, add rice, add stock (low salt!) gradually while stirring, add butter/parmesan at the end. I mix in veggies afterwards. This is something I do in bulk and freeze (though people tell you not to freeze rice, there was a thread about it recently) as it does take a bit of time. But its also something you could do as a meal for all of you.

My 9 month old eats what I think seems loads for a baby. But I have no other experience.

She has the equivalent of a large jar of baby food and it is either shop bought or a puree of whatever we had for lunch or ate the evening before. So pretty mixed. She hasn't refused anything yet.

Then she has a banana whole (messy but amusing) or mango or something like that.

That wasn't very specific was it. Its stuff like: Sheperds pie, curry, chicken stew, chicken and rice, roast dinners, steak and chips (Yeah!! she loves that), bean stew, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon etc.

And we give her boiled veggies to eat with her hands like carrots and brocolli.

And the poor might gets stewed apple with every meal as we've got 3 big buckets to get through.

poor mite even.

And a new one cheese and tomato sandwiches

Houmous (home made)?

Garlic bread (now that flu' season is upon us).

Chicken/fish stock served as a warm drink from a cup goes down well with my Dd (almost 8 months). Freezes well and a good stand by mixer to make a veg puree feel more like a meal.

Pear scooped straight from to fruit to her mouth.

Boiled celery @ asparagus good for sucking but watch for stringy bits.

Mashed banana with mixed spice/cinamon warmed slightly in the microwave

Fennel - could have knocked me down with a feather when she liked it - I was having a bit of a laugh offering it to her

But it always seems to end with a yoghurt!

thanks for ideas; ds has always struggled with tea, and sometimes will only have yoghurt. try and give him something carb. otherwise he wakes at night hungry. would like to try rice dishes etc, but am worried about the whole freezing, and reheating thing. he has been teething badly for nearly 2 months, and his appetite has been really up and down, so it has been difficult to tempt him with new things. finger foods are also hit and miss, depending if he's getting tired. any tips gratefully received!!

Ah! You'll be wanting an electric steamer. Best thing in the world.

For reasons unknown rest of the family eat only pizza and raw meat so Dd always gets stuff cooked just for her. Steamers been fantastic. Load it as follows:

Rics or couscous in a bowl, pour over some boiled water. Plonk some cubes on top. Put the whole bowl in the steamer, and put long beans/carrots/courgettes/broccoli other vegiies for finger food of fork mashing i the second basket or round the bowl on the base of the basket. I put the whole lot on for 15 min, tho' the veg do come out overdone (but easy to mush!). Tend to do it ahead of time, then when I'm ready I've got the whole meal warm and ready to go. I actually find it more efficient than defrosting in microwave, as you don't need to hover over it stirrring and preventing explosions. New potatoes even easier - just steam them with veggies. Love it! Best gadget in the world.

Agree frozen rice dodgy - iandequately reheated rice top cause of food poisoning in UK, supposedly.

ds woke at 5am this morning and absolutly howled till he had his bottle, he was starving!! i'm sure he's not eating enough tea. he doesn't have much for breakfast, but has a good lunch, and small milk at 3pm. not ready for tea till about 5, 5.15 pm, and he usually enjoys some mashed potatoe, but will only eat a few cubes. any more and he seems put off his bedtime milk!! how can i get him to eat more!?

You could just let him eat what he wants and not worry about the bedtime milk - if it doesn't work (i.e. he still wakes up hungry) then you can always cut back again.
I've decided not to worry that ds2 doesn't drink much at bedtime. he can make up for it through the day and he's certainly happy to eat a big tea and at the moment is waking around 6.45.

thanks kif and elliot; what ages are your little ones? do you think cutting back on his afternoon milk would make him eat more at teatime? elliot, when you say your baby eats a big tea, what kind of thing and how much? trying to still avoid wheat at the moment because of fh of allergies, so don't want to give him bread or pasta, which are useda lot in the weaning books i have.

sorry elliot, had forgot you'd repied earlier!

kif, could you explaina bit more how you steam the rice, and what cubes do you put on top of it??

alibo - what time does ds go to bed? If he's not ready for bottle - canhe stay up a little longer?
or I still dream fed my ds (esp if he doesn't finish his 8oz before bed). although I'm in the same boat as you - awake time between 4 and 6 most mornings.

or - I've been meaning to do this too - bring everything forward a bit. It means starting the day at 7 sharp - but then have an earlier lunch, earlier afternoon bottle and subsequently an earlier tea. When ds is at nursery - he has tea at 4pm - this leaves loads of time to build up his appetite for bedtime milk.
Don't know if it'll work - but I shall try (although ds usually goes back to sleep after his 4/5am bottle till 8)

traceyk, i think our two could be twins! my ds has his bottle about 7pm,;once it gets after 7 he's just shattered. but i have started another thread in health about medised for colds, as i am sure this makes him feel sickly. i usually try and hold off giving him milk till 6am ish, count this as his morning bottle, and then go straight to breakfast at 8am. i too have considered starting day earlier, but he never seems ready for breakfast till 8 anyway, and is fast asleep till i wake him at 8. breakfast is about 4 tespoons of rice cereal,mixedwith 2oz milk and fruit. (still avoiding wheat due to dh's allergies ) then he will have a bit of yoghurt. lunch is about 8 small cubes of casserole, eg chicken , bit of potatoe and veg. sometimes a bit of yoghurt or fruit after, but only few mouthfuls. bottle at 3pm. tea at 5pmish, usually rice or mashed potatoe with veg. then bottle at 7pm, usually about 6oz.

what time are you doing lunch?
again, nursery do it at 11.45 am and I'm usually doing it about 12.30/1 as he sleeps till 12.30 and I like to let him have a crawl around/wake up a bit before lunch.
He starts nursery for 5 ams a week in the new year - so I'm just going to go with the flow just now and hope that next year a new routine can start using the nursrey's routine as a base.
It's only been the last few days that I've not given him a mid morning bottle - but it does seem to help him eat more at lunchtime.
what age are we sposed to drop the mid afternoon bottle? ds didn't have one yesterday and was too starving hungry to eat solids at tea time - he just worked himslef up too much and I ended up giving him a bottle of milk to calm him.

ds has lunch around 12 ish, gets quite tired if i leave it much later, as he doesn't nap for very long in the morning. my books advice 18-20oz milk till age 12 months, so they really need the three bottles to get that i think. gf book does say if they start cutting back on milk, make sure it is the afternoon one, so that they take a full milk feed am and bedtime. think at 12 months they can go down to 12oz milk per day.