Am I feeding DD too much?

[DwayneDibbly]

So my DD is 13 months old. Very healthy appetite, will have a go at most things but doesn't like everything. My work colleague expressed real surprise when I told her what DDs daily meals look like, so I'm now wondering if she eats too much? Example:

Breakfast - half a slice of peanut butter on toast, 2 peach slices, half a banana. I do try her with Ella's Kitchen porridge some mornings as well as the toast, etc and she'll occasionally eat a full baby-sized bowl.

Lunch - fishfinger, potato waffle. Steamed cauliflower, broccoli and carrot. Petit Filous for dessert. Again, I try her with fruit to start or perhaps a rice cake whilst I wait for food to cook/cool.

Dinner - steamed mixed veg, Ella's Kitchen pouch, maybe another yoghurt or a small baby dessert.

She does have cows milk between meals at her nap time (she has a morning and afternoon nap). She then has a formula bottle before bed, but will only usually have two or three ounces out of that.

Is that excessive? She doesn't really snack, is constantly on the go and is quite tall for her age. For context, I'm 5' 8" but am overweight - combination of baby weight and rubbish portion sizing. I don't want to put that onto baby too!

Sounds fine from what I remember. Is her weight ok?

I wouldn't necessarily give a petit fabulous twice a day, maybe one every other day and give more fruit if she likes that but otherwise sounds great.

When you say an Ella's pouch for dinner, is that a meal pouch or pureed fruit? I'd want to start working away from pouch meals and into more solid food, like you're doing at lunch.

Oops petit filous, not petit fabulous!

It's a lot more than DD would have eaten at that age, but she was a dreadful eater! I think there's a significant variation at this age in what they'll eat. She sounds like a pretty good eater, but if her weight is roughly fine then I wouldn't worry. It doesn't sound excessive - though may well be more than others have been used to with their little ones, if you see what I mean.

Sounds fine to me!

Sounds fine. I have a 13 month old who will happily smash a full sandwich with fruit and rice cakes for lunch and then demolish a dinner of equal proportions to his primary school aged siblings. And he still puts away over a pint of milk.

He doesn't snack though, some kids will eat smaller portions and then have two snacks.

Is she slim or chubby? That's what you need to consider.

Lunch and dinner are fine, breakfast is a lot though.

Sounds about right to me. My kids used to eat loads compared to others. All perfect sizes. I remember once going to a friend's for shepherds pie and she made them in ramekins....my kids portion would normally be 4 times that size. However, my kids have never really drank lots of milk - all BF till old enough not to be...then went straight to food with only a small milk at bedtime. They are older now, still good eaters and good size.

Sounds fine to me - I think my DD would probably have eaten more, volume-wise, on a typical day at that age. By way of comparison, my DD is 23 months, fairly slim and average height, and a typical weekend day's food would be:

Breakfast: 2 weetabix with milk, a bit of whatever toasted thing I am having, a bit of fruit (she seems to wake up absolutely ravenous)

Lunch: either a sandwich (if we're out and about), some sliced red pepper and a banana, or a hot meal e.g. veggie cottage pie, pasta bake.

Snack: boiled egg with some steamed broccoli etc and possibly a bit of fruit

Tea: Hot meal or high tea, depending whether we had a hot meal for lunch. Might be chicken tagine with cous cous, or tomato soup with some pitta bread and cheese.

I think the best way to keep an eye on her intake is to give her modest portions at first and encourage her to eat them at a sensible rate, so that she has a chance to feel a bit full before she gets more. (Sadly DD has inherited my 'clear plate at all costs' mentality and propensity to wolf down food, but you may have more luck!)

Sounds fine. DD is 18m and would definitely eat all that plus more probably. She’s 95 percentile for height and weight though and my DH and DS are very tall so I guess she will be too

Some friends kids barely eat a thing. Some are like mine and eat loads. Their weights remain on their curves, so as long as it’s mostly healthy stuff then I don’t worry about it too much

I think that sounds fine (though is she getting much in the way of carbs or protein at dinner?)

My DD would have eaten that, and probably more, at that age. She’s now 3.5 and perfectly average weight-wise.
By comparison, DS would maybe have eaten a third of that, and he’s an 18mo chunk.

Sounds ok. There's a lot of processed food in her day, is there a reason she can't eat more adult food, either with you or leftovers?

In particular, if she's a good eater I'd swap the petit filous and baby dessert for plain Greek yoghurt, maybe with a bit of fruit on top. We learnt the hard way with ds1 (good eater as a baby, pickier and pickier as he aged) that it's much easier to start good habits early, now my younger 3 are great eaters.

Instead of pouches give here proper food like you would have. She be more full let babe share meals with you.

Brilliant, thanks for all the tips! I think we've just got into a bit of a bad habit with the pouches; plus my evening meal usually happens after she's gone to bed. I've been banging on for weeks about meal planning in advance but I never seem to get round to it. I think she's quite podgy around the middle at the moment but she does have tremendous growth spurts, and she is quite tall for her age I believe.

Dwayne, just thought I would pass on something which works really well for DD (and which I thought your daughter might like if she likes pouches as the consistency is similar): I make her gazpacho (a tin of tomatoes, some olive oil, white wine vinegar, half a red pepper, a chunk of cucumber, a slice of brown bread and half a clove of garlic whizzed up in the blender). With a bit of bread and cheese/Kallo lentil ricecakes/a boiled egg, it's a really easy, healthy meal (and uses stuff you probably have in the fridge anyway), takes under 2 mins to make and you can keep it in the fridge for 2 or 3 days so you can have some too.

@irecitethegruffaloinmydreams That sounds delicious, thank you; and we do indeed have all that stuff already.

it sounds quite a lot to me, DD wouldn't have had anything like that much at that age.

I suspect her appetite will balance out once she starts properly getting used to drinking water from a beaker, and my getting the balance of protein, etc right across her mealtimes. Conversely I had a day yesterday where I wondered if I was underfeeding her, and my friend just sighed at me in exasperation. I have dreadful PFB syndrome.

Sounds like loads to me and quite processed sorry

Sounds fine to me

As you've mentioned, she doesn't eat much for snacks so has more square meals. If she's growing well and the HV has no concerns about her growth and following the lines on her charts, I wouldn't worry. I'm a big believer in a child knowing their own appetite (barring any medical reasons).

My son is 26 months and weighs about 13kg but he perfectly in proportion for height and weight, and growing lovely. He's tall and 'solid' but has been that way from birth, hasn't got any fat in him and doesn't bloody stop moving. He eats loads for breakfast, always has, a lighter lunch, main meal at dinner with fruit and yoghurt, and perhaps a snack if I know he's hungry.

For example:
B - porridge with berries, slice of toast, more fruit if still hungry
L - cheese sandwich (one slice of bread), fruit and perhaps some rice cakes or small handful of toddler crisps
D - family meal so spaghetti Bolognese for example. Fruit and yoghurt for pudding every evening.

He was most of his food, especially his favourites, and is appears nto have hollow legs!

Some kids just have a hearty appetite but very active so burn it off.

Sounds ok to me!! How much does she weigh? Maybe give her more fruit and veg and less petit filous? I wouldn’t worry about it though x

It's so subjective, isn't it? I think I definitely need to ditch the Ella's Kitchen pouches - they're the ones for 1 year+ and I used to use them just on evenings I was working/she was at nursery, but it's become a bad habit during the rest of the week too.

Thanks to the PP re: Greek yoghurt, definitely a better option than the Petit Fabulous!

I've no idea at the moment what she weighs, she has her 15 month check-up shortly and we'll see then, but she doesn't seem too chubby; she's so strong and she's constantly on the go. But I do have my PFB goggles on a lot.

That sounds a similar amount to what mine ate at that age.

I'd get her weighed by the health visitor and see where's she's tracking in terms of centiles and if she's where she should be then carry on!