What do you feed your 13 month old?

[maggie75]

My 13 month old is a pretty fussy eater. She has gone through non eating phases since weaning. She will now pretty much always eat sandwiches (avocado, cream cheese, humous), bread sticks, yogurts and the dreaded Plum Baby pots but anything else is v hit and miss.

Ive always home cooked her food (apart from the PB pots in desperation) - think a lot has to do with texture. She has just recently started picking up bananas, strawberries and satsumas and eating them with gusto which is brilliant but struggling on savoury - meat, fish, pasta, veg etc.

She has been at nursery 3 days a week for 3 weeks now and almost always refuses her lunch and will sometimes eat her tea if its sandwiches or another bread type product. The curry/casseroles/pasta etc get an out and out no.

Am worried because the times she will eat its something like a pasta sauce with 'pasta stars' not at all what a 1 year old should be eating.

All ideas gratefully received.

Well, whilst you might not want her having it every day, there's no reason IMO why a 13 month old can't eat pasta & pasta sauce. You just need to make sure you don't put salt in, and it's a great way to get lots of veggies into them. Also, red lentils can be added to pasta sauce: lots of protein and fibre and they cook down to invisibility.

I do sympathise though, having gone through major fussy stages with two of my children. My dd still isn't great with red meat but tbh, that's not really the end of the world.

If she's picking up fruit and eating enthusiastically, it might be worth offering other finger foods alongside prepared fruit on a plate - even things like homemade chicken nuggets, or strips of cheese. I used this book with some success.

Or (although this is pretty faffy, I admit) you could always finely shred some cooked chicken and mix with her favourite Plum baby pot and a bit of rice or sth to try and move closer to a casserole type meal.

My biggest piece of advice though (and I do know it's easier said than done) is to be really calm about the whole thing. She's eating food from all food groups so getting a balanced diet and eventually she'll get there. Not sure if this is your first child, and really don't want to patronise you, but when they get a bit older (3ish) and maybe have a friend for tea, they're often influenced by what the other child eats, e.g my dd wouldn't touch shepherd's pie until she saw her friend eating it and wanted to be the same.

Mine isn't as good an eater as his brother was at this age, but he does eat from most food groups, and he's a healthy, well developing boy.

He eats toast with cheese or Ready Brek for breakfast (sometimes just a couple of bites, sometimes lots) This morning he sat and ate a whole banana, which is possibly the most i've seem him eat ever.

He likes peas and sweetcorn, pasta, garlic bread, yogurt, sausages, fish fingers with the coating removed, rice pudding, pizza, chips and soup. He also likes pittas and crumpets.

Sometimes he might only eat 2 or 3 bites of a meal and that's it, but he won't starve himself, and i'm conscious of not giving him food issues by trying to make him eat or insisting he finish it all.