Should I feed my 13 month old dd less??

[MillionPramMiles]

Sorry this is a bit long, I?m really getting worried that my dd is overweight and will end up an obese toddler. I?ve no idea if I feed her too much and would really appreciate others experience as a benchmark.
She was born on the 25th percentile but is now somewhere around the 99th. She was ebf until 6months but had already shot up to the 80th percentile by then. I?m 5ft and dp is average height, both of us are slim so there?s no genetic reason dd should be so big. She isn?t very tall so the weight is all around her tummy and thighs.
Most 12-18mth clothes are snug on her already and some don?t fit over her tummy at all. She isn?t walking by herself yet but is crawling and cruising and is generally quite active.

Dd attends nursery 4 days a week and I?m confidant the food there is healthy and she eats the same amount as others her age (though she does finish all of her meals all the time!). On non-nursery days I feed her:

6.30am Breakfast ? 1.5 Oatibix with full fat milk.
9.30am - 6oz full fat milk before nap (sometimes doesn?t finish this). If I could get dd to nap without a bottle I would try to cut this out.
11.30-12ish lunch ? half piece toast with either hummus or soft cheese + something like mashed home made veg (about 3 ice cubes worth) with half a pouch meat based Ellas or pulses based soup. Sugar free yoghurt or fruit pot or fresh banana for pudding.
3.30/4ish ? if seems hungry then rice cake or breadstick to snack on.
5ish ? Tea similar to lunch.
7pm ? bedtime bottle 8oz full fat milk. Dd still sometimes wakes up during the night and wakes early (by 6am) so I?m worried if I cut down this bottle her sleep will worsen.

Dd only drinks water (not juice) and only has treats on rare occasions and in small amounts. I?m thinking of starting to replace the full fat milk with semi-skimmed which I know goes against advice but I don?t know what else to cut back on...

Don't think you need to put her on a diet but from the day you've given us, she doesn't seem to get much fruit and veg. How about adding raisins, chopped banana or berries into her oatibix? For the afternoon snack you could try something like chopped grapes, carrot sticks and hummus or just a piece of fruit.

I wouldn't worry too much about her weight though. I certainly wouldn't worry about her weight centile without taking her height centile into consideration. If you are concerned, could you up her activity? We do this with DS as he has a good appetite too so we try to do lots of things with him. At your DDs age it was swimming or playgroup and lots of trips to the park and getting out in the garden. Now he's older we still do the swimming and make sure he gets outside as much as possible.

Have you thought about giving her more variety in her main meals too? What does she have at nursery? She would probably enjoy some soup and bread. There are some food ideas here. If you do fancy upping her veg how about trying corn quasiddilas? We all love those. The vegetarian moussaka on the blw website is good too

I try and put veg in most things I do though, it doesn't have to be meat free. DH is a bit of a veg dodger and like DS has a tendency to be a tad over what they should be so if I cook almost anything I bung a load of veg in, even my cottage pie is about half veg to half mince.

Another thing to consider to is that she will probably slim down once she is walking. Also, as soon as I start to think DS is getting chubby, he goes and grows and slims down again. Could she just be due a growth spurt?

Don't get too worried about centiles. Is she tall?
Do speak to your HV for advice but agree with above, lots of babies get chubby and then shoot up.

Fwiw DS was born between 2nd and 9th centile. Shot up to 50th within a couple of weeks and stayed there whilst EBF til 6m. Then up again with food to 91-98th, where he as remained. He continues to be at least half a head bigger than contemporaries and is quite slim now but had chubby times too as a Pre-walker.

Please don't switch to semi milk or put her on a diet without getting some advice first.

Please don't switch to semi milk or put her on a diet without getting totally agree

From what you've listed here I don't think she's eating too much at all. I agree she could do with some more fruit and veg, and perhaps don't rely too much on the Ella's - she'll soon be ready for cubes of chicken etc., which will give her more good quality protein (there's actually very little meat content in those pouches, I find).

I don't think you are over feeding her - in fact my DD eats much more and is only two months older! DD is also quite high on the centile charts and tall with it. Her thighs are simply enormous However, everyone says she's just found her level for now and will slim down when she next has a growth spurt.

The process of skimming milk reduces the nutrient content, and babies really do need fat, so I wouldn't change that either. Enjoy the chub while it lasts!

Thanks all for your responses, I didn't realise semi-skimmed milk had less nutrients, I just assumed it had less fat. Does anyone know how much milk they need at this age?

Dd isn't tall and isn't likely to be (not surprising as I'm only 5ft and dp is 5ft 8").

I've been relying on the Ellas a bit for meat or fish as dp and I are vegetarians so we don't cook meat (but we didn't want to bring dd up as a veggie). I do try to get veggies into every meal, we batch cook and freeze non spicy veggie curries or ratatouille etc and always include some of that.
Dd isn't very keen on fresh fruit apart from bananas, which she has most days. I keep trying her on other fruit though.

I think I became worried because we'd just bought some new clothes for her and none of it fit. Then we went to a friend's one year old son's birthday party and she was so much chubbier. There were a few comments of 'oh she's still got her baby fat' :-/

Just ignore the comments! If you think that's bad just wait til she's 2 and tantruming in the middle of asda - lots of helpful comments then too.....!

DS was a massive porker as a baby - he had about 4 chins.

As soon as he started walking though, the weight fell off him and I have to buy adjustable waistband trousers because they just fall down otherwise

So I wouldn't worry :)

Yep, ignore them and just enjoy her as she is. There's very little chance she'll end up obese if you continue to feed her a healthy diet - it tends to be excessive sugar and lots of empty carb-based meals and snacks which can cause issues, which it sounds like she's not having. She'll just even out over time.

It's tricky to do meat if you are both vegetarians, but if you want her to get meat protein there's only about 6-10% meat in those pouches which really isn't much (ends up about 10-12g and if you are doing half a pack, that's just 6g per meal. They are mostly veg and carbs if you look at the ingredients list). If you could bring yourself to make a meaty casserole once a week or so, blitz it a little bit and freeze that down in batches it's both convenient and much more nutritious. You could also try adding some cubes of chicken breast or lamb to your curries etc. when you are simmering them which takes away the need for the Ella's as you've got a complete meal.

Could you bear to handle fish? My DD loves salmon and the Omega 3s are brilliant for health (as long as you have no concern about fish allergy)

Thanks all. Afraid I don't think we could face trying to cook meat, I'm not confidant we'd even know how to. Dp does cook fish for dd sometimes though she's not too keen on it.
Dd does get 2 proper meals a day at nursery which are usually meat based. I do try to include pulses in her diet at home too. We've also tried to get dd to eat eggs (not very sucessfully so far though covering them in cheese helps!)
I think I'm using the Ellas pouches to pad out her veggie meals at home a bit. And to be honest cause there's only so much cooking I can face doing at the weekends :-/

I've read that dd only needs 10.5 oz of milk at this age so what I might do is reduce her bottles as at the moment she has about 16oz (plus yoghurt/cheese etc and plus milk on cereal).

If she's not keen on fruit don't worry, just keep offering and make sure she gets loads of veg

The minimum amount of full fat cows milk she should have a day is 300 ml which works out at about 10.5 floz. So its fine to cut out one bottle a day, should you choose to.

Haven't really got any advice on the meat and fish thing. How would you feel about cooking things like salmon fish fingers? There's no need to only offer her the mild curries you eat too, if you think your food will be too spicy you can always stir through some natural yoghurt or creme fraiche. If you look on the vegetarian society kids pages there are some good recipes that should help with adding veg and protein to her diet.

Xposted. There's no need really to do extra cooking for dd, can't she have family meals?

Sounds like the right amount of food & milk to me for the age. Her weight will level off once she is mobile. Please try to relax, she'll only eat what she wants to & until she's full. I spoke to my hv last week because I thought my ds wasn't putting on enough weight but she said all babies have troughs & peaks in their appetite & weight, that's why the centile lines are so varied. My ds went up to the 75th but now back down to 50th now he is more active.

If you and DP are both veggie and healthy then I'd stop trying to get meat into her at home and stick with healthy (veggie) meals that you all share at home and let her try flesh out and about.

Sounds as though you know how to make healthy food but, with presumably the best of intentions, are trying her on less home-cooked/assembled options than yourselves.

FWIW, I read your menu and thought it had plenty of veg in it. Maybe not so much fruit but it's both that matters, and green veg has vitamin C (as you will no doubt know, being vegetarian).

Generally I think give them what they want at that age... my cousin's baby is fucking massive, but he is a beanpole and his wife slim and shapely - she said (to other family members, I should make clear) that she was also very chunky as a baby.

I'm not a nutritionist but I'd say you'd have to be looking nearer age 3-4 in terms of assessing the risk of childhood obesity.

My DD looked like a sumo wrestler at this age - she was vast. She was a late crawler and when she finally got on the move she slimmed down.
My DD won't eat meat, but does like fish. A friend of mine used to give his DS cooked mackerel mashed up with potato as weaning food and he loved it. I wouldn't worry too much about meat if she is getting plenty of pulses and the odd bit of fish. A balanced vegetarian diet is fine for babies.

Hasn't lost her baby fat.....isn't 13 months a baby any more?

She will slim down when she walks. Dd1 was a pie until she walked Nd now she's a svelte gymnast

I would ditch the baby pouches she's too old for them plus also purée stuff is much quicker to eat - it won't encourage appetite/intake regulation in face quite the opposite! It's processed rubbish anyway. You don't have to feed meat but you do need to feed protein and iron. Dd1 wouldn't eat meat and I can't be cooking separateky for dd2 so I just do fish. 8 month dd2 feeds herself fistfuls of tuna and haddock its easy fish fingers are v easy finger foods too.

I don't think your DD eats much at all. This is what DD eats at 17 months and she is tiny. Wears clothes in 9-12 months.

Breakfast: Porridge with banana and blueberries
Snack: Raisins, breadsticks
Lunch: half a big soup bowl of veggie soup, 1,5 slices of toast and hummus
Snack: Oat bar
Dinner: whatever we have, we're veggies, the healthy kind, includes probably 3 portions of veg, generous portion of fruit

She also still breastfeeds twice 1-3 times during the day and loads at night.

She was quite a chubby baby but the weight dropped off when she started walking at 8.5 months.

So I think your DD doesn't eat too much and will slim down once she's running around.

Oh yes, ditch the purees at 13 months!

hux I wish my 5yo would eat that much

Julie, it's all about presentation with DD recently, it's hilarious. She insists on having a selection of her Duplo animals on her high chair tray and every spoon/fork full she eats, all the animals have to try first!

Mind you, she also insists on taking an animal each time she brushes her teeth. They have their own tooth brush!

Dd sounds normal but I've have a serious word with the person who bought duplo animals a toothbrush

Thanks all. Was feeling a bit despondent again after dp told me the nursery staff said "what a big tummy, what have you been eating this weekend?" when dd was dropped off. Good job she can't understand them!

Sometimes dd does eat some of what we're having unless we're having salad or something crunchy she struggles with (she's only got two teeth). Also as she eats much earlier than us, if we've been out and about all day we might not have got our act together in time so I like to keep something ready in the freezer.

Fish fingers are a great idea, don't know why I didn't think of that before. Will try them out this weekend. I might try omelettes too with some veg tucked in. I'll try tinned fish too.

Can you handle meat, if it's cooked?

My daughter loves the ready roast chicken packs from M&S with a bit of rice and cheese of top.
That way she can nibble at some meat and you don't have to do any cooking.

I also second scrambled eggs with cheese...

Vegetable soup with toast?

I don't think you need I worry about her being obese at 13 months. I bet as soon as she starts walking/running/climbing, her weight will even out.

Keep offering her a good variety of veg/fruit and she might end up eating some. I do that with DS and sometimes he eats them, sometimes he doesn't.

Your DD doesn't need to diet though, she needs calories to help with all that growing and learning. Just make sure you don't give her 'empty' calories like crap biscuits too muh.

Try not to worry too much and ignore the idiot comments