Ideas on food for 9mo

[Madonnaquintessential]

Hi all
Hv visited this week to do 9 mo check up. My dd is in the 91-95th percentile for height and weight- so she big girl, but perfectly proportioned...
All went well, however hv recommened I cut milk down from 19 oz (8 in morn and 11 at bedtime) I know it is a lot, but dd is big- i could not breastfeed so I feel like i am over compensating bu giving her loads of formula still- i know its silly. She rarely gets ill though - I think the milk has something to do with this (plus lots of fruit!)
Anyway I have cut the milk down to 14 oz a day. Mealtimes, the hv has said finger food is best now. No/ less pureed meals or jars. She has plenty of fruit finger food and toast but lunch and dinner were always pureed. Yeaterday I gave her toast with cheese - plus a baby bel for lunch and she didnt eat much of it an the mess was everywhere haha!!
My question is- is it ok to still give her a pureed / lumpy consistency tea- and lunchtime just give her more adult type food- as she still seems so young, the mess is shocking (ocd lol) and she seems to chuck more of it than actually EAT it!?

I'd ignore your hv for a start as the amount of milk you were giving was fine. A minimum of 20oz is recommended up to 1year. If you feel she is not taking as much food in when doing only finger foods then give finger foods alongside the purée meals so that the purée can be phased out as she takes more finger foods e.g give finger food with the purée meal as well as purely finger food meals

Completely agree with pp regarding ignoring your HV. Your baby is doing fine, she's only 9 months old, she'll drop her milk intake when she's ready.

Given that she's been mainly on purees until now, I think it'd be cruel to suddenly stop that (she needs time to adapt and pick up the skills for eating non-pureed foods) and as pp said, offering both at every meal will give her more practice and will let her drop the purees as she gets more interested in different textures/flavours (will also give you practice at cleaning up the mess .

I'm doing BLW with my 8 month old (so slightly different route to the same destination) and we're still offering him 'basic' finger foods that we always have (long slices of fruits, steamed veg, toast/porridge fingers, baby rice cakes with peanut butter, soft dried apricots/figs etc) but in the last few weeks we've started giving him a dollop of what we're having too (along with his other finger foods)

This was primarily to let him play with it (very messy!) and learn skills about picking up different things, but he really took to it and started eating it (fun seeing him pick up fistfuls of fusilli pasta and then nibbling at it in his fists :-)

The best fun so far was spaghetti bolognese, which I had no plans of him eating as it is far too tricky and he didn't have a pincer grip, but he had such fun (first time he has laughed all the way through his meal as he pulled at the spaghetti . Mind you, DH wasn't laughing so much when he had to clean up the floor....

'food is fun until they're one' some babies take longer to switch from milk to solids (DS1 was definitely more of a milk monster) but they all get there in their own time, when they decide, not when your HV does...

Thanks ladies.. I shall increase her milk once again. :) to be honest i am already kinda doing as you suggest, which is pureed food plus blocks of cheese/ carrot/ tomato/ rice cakes. But I will deffo try a more varied route now- the spag bol sounds fun! Incidentally she did have some ours last night- not the spaghetti though! I agree it is fun to try out different foods with them- despite the mess... I better had just get used to it!

Sounds like you and your lo are doing just fine. Just keep in mind that 'food is for fun' still at this age, up until the age of 1yo the main aim is to just encourage lots of tastes and exploring with food rather than be too concerned about how much gets eaten. All babies are different, some prefer finger foods, others are quite happy being fed from a spoon. I did both with dd2 - she had finger foods to pick at and play with and I spoon fed her a variety of pureed meals. Favourite finger foods included grated cheese, breadsticks, halved slices of cucumber with skin removed, buttery toast fingers, banana. She loved pureed meals with plenty of flavour such as bolognese, irish stew, mild curries, roasted root veg and lentils with a little harissa. She liked pasta as a finger food too. Yes it is very messy! Keep on as you are though, IMO. Dd2 is now 15mo and still has 7oz full fat cow's milk morning and night, and an extra 4oz mid-morning.

Thanks mummyxtwo. I will def try the cucumber and breadsticks! Also comforing to here older babas still having lots of milk :)

My 2 year old still has between 18 and 24 oz of milk per day! (ok, in our case it is diluted yogurt in the bottle, but still a milky drink!) Until 1 year milk should be theie main food.

I agree about the milk.

Definitely avoid actually pureeing, just mash any big lumps. So dd 9m is eating things like scrambled egg on toast by herself and morrocan lamb with cous cous mixed in off a spoon, i just use a fork to break up the lamb a bit.

If we have a Sunday roast she has all of it, just cut into hand hold appropriate lumps.

We have a tiled floor but friends us a shower curtain over carpet.

Embrace the mess!

Barberry rice pud will give dd a roast this sund :) she does eat more lumpy food than pureed, i barely mush a lot of it to be fair. She has weetabix very lumpy most morns- or toast. So to be honest i am quite happy she is eating avout right for her age- a good mix of spoon fed and self feeding. The shower curtain sounds good idea! Embracing the mess... Not so easy , ha!

Have upped her feeds once again by the way ladies- she back on 16-18 oz :)

My dd is 10 months

She drinks 22-31 oz a day

She also has

Breakfast - cereal with cows milk
2 snacks - fruit or rice cakes
Dinner - some meat/fish with potatoes and veg
Tea - pasta or sandwiches
2 puddings - yogurt or baby biscuit or fruit

All of her meals I just give her as they are, chop up fish and meat but she eats the rest as an older child would and she only has two teeth

She is on the 75th centille and has been since birth

Buy a dog not a shower curtain. I've never had to clean the floor it's done for me!

yy, dogs are an essential tool in baby weaning!!

Mum of 3 thats fab! You wee one has a good appetite like mine :)
Sometimes my dd has an extra bottle too, so she can have up to 26 oz . (Like today!)

Dont tempt me on the dog ladies!! Dh has sad no... Not for now anyway. I may have to change his mind!

Some of my dds milk intake is a bottle in the middle of the night

She still has one about 50% of the time

It's deffently hunger as she cannot be bought off with anything but milk

Yh i will give my dd milk if she wakes and wint go off.. Thankfully this is rare! She eats so much in the day i think she is stodged up haha

Agree with everyone else, 29 floz should be the minimum between 6 and 12 months. Ignore your HV and if you want to add a bit of variety have a look at the Mn weaning recipes section, the weaning talk, the blw website and I found this book from the library useful

Ds2 didn't like being spoon fed so by this age he was eating all sorts with his hands.

Shreddies briefly soaked in milk (then pour the excess milk off in case the bowl goes flying!) are brilliant finger food for breakfast.

Roast dinner as already mentioned - in fact any meat/fish and 2 veg type meals. Omelette can be cut into strips. Twisty pasta is good as the sauce clings to it. Ds attempting mild chilli and rice with his hands was memorable

Little sandwiches are great too. Bits of pitta with houmous.

Have fun!

Sorry 20floz not 29

My dd has milk in cereal too so she def getting 20oz a day :) thanks jilted !
Shoewhore soaked shreddies = genius ! Will try this too! Have loads of weaning books to get through too. Thanks :)
All these ideas are so handy xx