Anyone know how many calories a 1-year old needs?

[mybabysinthegarden]

DD has been off her oats for several days so I was delighted at supper when I managed to squirt a whole one of those squirty fruit and veg purees into her-- then I read the packet and there's only about 50 calories in each one.

She's never been a big eater but I didn't worry about it too much under a year as I understood that babies get most of their nutrition from milk up until then. However now she's 1 the not eating is driving me spare, especially as she has some kind of tummy bug at the moment (perhaps why she's reluctant to eat?) so the little I do poke into her seems to zip through undigested.

About 800 kcalories a day is recommended, but it would obviously depend on their size and activity. I am sure mine ate more than that... I think that at this age they tend to do quite well at regulating their energy intake but when they get ill it can be a different story! As long as it doesn't go on too long she will be fine. Maybe try giving lots of little bits throughout the day like plain crackers or toast?

Oh that's good to know, she must be getting about half that from milk at least. I'm trying to give her little bits and pieces but she's doing this thing where she puts them in her mouth, chews and then spits them straight out again; that's why I resorted to the puree squirt.

If she has a tummy bug stop pushing her to eat, because it will prolong the misery for her. Let her decide when she is ready to eat, and offer gentle starchy foods like plain mashed potato, or toast. Fruit and veg puree is a bad idea if she has diarrhoea.

Oh dang. How about porridge? Mash and toast not too popular at the moment.

Porridge should be ok - but i'd make it with her milk, not cow's

Also I should have worded my op a little better as I'm worried you're visualising me holding dd down and squirting puree into her mouth like filling the car! I gave her the packet to feed herself and she pretty much sucked it dry.

You mean formula? (I'm not bfing any more). I pretty much moved her on to cows' a few weeks ago.

Oh I see, probably doesn't matter then. Have you tried her with yoghurt?

(is it all because she wants to feed herself and not be fed? Ds2 was like this!)

Yes, I've been combining spoon-feeding with letting her self-feed for a while and she is starting to get quite opinionated about the spoon-feeding. Strangely her aversion to it evaporates when I offer something like a sugar-laden petit filou.