How much (in terms of solids) does your 8 month-old eat a day?

[ChateauMargot]

DD is breastfed and has been on solids since 6 months. I'm wondering if she's eating 'enough' - she's always been small but recently she's been looking even more petit compared to some of her friends. On an average day she might eat:

• a third of a banana (the rest ends up on the floor)
• about 5 tablespoons of oatmeal/porridge
• about half of an Ella's Kitchen meal pouch, say lamb tagine or chicken and rice (or en entire one on a hungry day)
• perhaps five or six baby handfuls of scrambled eggs (the rest on the floor)
• two pieces of steamed pear (the rest on the floor)
• a few baby handfuls of grated cheese (the rest all over the floor/chair/clothes)
• a Plum pot of fromage frais

Does this sound right?

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Compared to what my DS was eating at that age, this is loads!

Children all have different appetites - let her eat as much as she likes, but don't worry if she eats more or less than other children. Just let her experiment with lots of flavours and textures - the bulk of her nutrients should come from milk until she's 1.

Babies are really good at regulating their own intake - trust her to know what she's doing. No child will starve if food is offered.

That sounds like a decent quantity to me, assuming that she is still drinking enough milk (was never scientific about this myself, but I think the advice is that food should not be taking over from milk at this age, it should be in addition to milk for now).

I would just say that 5 tablespoons of oatmeal/porridge sounds like a lot - that's as many as I would eat for breakfast myself! Assuming she has this in the morning, maybe she's still too full for the rest of the day to eat more than she does at lunch/dinner? Perhaps you could try cutting this down to, say, 3 tbsp and giving her a toast finger or something with it, then seeing if she will have more at lunch/dinner?

My son is 11.5 months and will eat something like this:

Breaky: one slice toast with butter or one weetabix with cows milk. Will sometimes eat it all will sometimes take a few bites and his done. Sometimes he will have a piece of fruit not often though .
Mid morning snack: I offer fruit only as a mid morning snack . It's often banana or tinned peach or very ripe pear. Again sometimes he will eat it all sometimes only a little.
Lunch: often a bowl of porridge (he loves this for lunch) can only manage half a sachet of oats so simple though. Which I understand as one whole sachet leaves me very full. Normally with plain yoghurt and berries (black currants, strawberries are favs).
Or he will have half a sandwich and a yogurt. It varys. Doesn't always eat it all.
Mid afternoon snack: half a slice of toast if no bread through out the day with Philly cheese. Cheese cubes (just cut from a block of cheese) fruit etc. doesn't always want anything.
Dinner: I try to give him what we are having but he sometimes just takes a few bites.

A healthy child will not starve them self and will eat when hungry.
Different babies eat different amounts I don't think their is a normal as long as she's healthy :)

Thanks for the reassurance!

Detox, the porridge is just the amount that the instructions on the box produce (I think it's 4 spoonfuls of oatmeal with 10 of milk, or something like that...). I did wonder if this was intended for a certain (more advanced) age, or if the amounts are supposed to increase incrementally...

Oh, and she breastfeeds about 4 times a day (and a couple of times during the night, too... I think mainly for comfort, though).

My ds is 8 months. (Just) !

He has 5 bottles of formula during the day of 8oz each... he has porridge or weetabix for breakfast, hardly anything for lunch as he is only interested if it's a yoghurt or a fruit pot baby thing (!!) And he eats well at dinner ... usually a whole pouch or something like that, and a small dessert like a rice pudding thing or whatever.

He flatly refuses to pick anything up himself so he sits there with his mouth open at regular intervals and I shovel it in !

Oh well.

Ha ha... yes, there are times when mine waits for the spoon with open mouth, and others when she'll only eat if allowed to get stuck in with her hands (this had applied to oatmeal, too!)

I think they're all different. I'm learning that as long as ds is smiling and gaining weight and being active etc it really isn't worth worrying about how much he eats.

I keep reading about all these babies eating toast and all kinds of finger foods and ds will only manage a nibble on an organx carrot puff and then look at me in disgust as if to say "you think I'm eating THAT !?"

I am sure he won't be on ellas pouches when he's 18. Or maybe I'll be packing him off to university with a few..... !

I have 4 dds and I can honestly say what each of them ate regularly at 8 months was all completely different. One was certainly a milkholic and ate very little variety of baby food (wouldn't entertain real food) another one was on 3 decent meals per day and hardly any milk!

Try and relax and trust her to self regulate

Thanks, all. She's smiley and active, so I'm not really worried about her wasting away... just have absolutely no benchmark to compare with, as I'm completely new to this!

I see people post that their LO had 'spaghetti bolognese' for lunch, for instance, and I picture a huge bowl of pasta and a chunky hearty sauce.... next to which five mouthfuls of fromage frais and a suck of steamed pear seems pretty paltry :)

Hah! My DD (7 months) 'ate' spaghetti bolognaise for dinner the other day - she sucked on two pieces of pasta and managed to get a couple of spoonfuls I'd pre-loaded with bolognaise in the vague vicinity of her mouth before dropping the spoon in amazement when she actually managed to get the tiniest bit in there, spent a minute moving it around her mouth before spitting it out. I'd still say she had spaghetti bolognaise for dinner though!