Food and milk for 8 month old - does this sound right?

[newmum234]

He’s having 840ml of formula per day at the moment, split into 4 feeds (so 210ml per feed). He’s also on two meals a day (breakfast and lunch). Today he’s eaten the following:

Breakfast: 1 Ella’s Kitchen prune pouch (he’s only pooping once every 3-4 days ATM so wanted to encourage him...!) plus 4 chunks of watermelon.

Lunch: 1 piece of wholegrain toast with cream cheese (he probably ate about 75% of it, the rest went on the floor) plus a few pieces of nectarine (again, only half probably actually swallowed).

What do you think? I’m aiming to move him onto 3 meals a day and cut the formula to 600ml soon, but does this sound okay for now?

It's entirely up to you. Personally I would introduce a third meal but only because I think eating together at the table has loads of benefits, even if they only have little nibbles of your food.

We all eat together at 5:30pm but I appreciate that wouldn't suit everyone. Honestly, do what works for you. As long as he's trying a range of foods and textures, there's loads of ways to approach it. We didn't drop a bottle until 9 months but ate 3 'meals' a day from 6 months.

Try to alternate the sandwich with some veggies, such as broccoli, and why not prepare a soup. Constipated babies need liquid. Also Ella's prune is so so sweet, cook a pear in alternative. Diced a ripe peat, put in a small pot, add water enough to cover pear and a bit more. Cook for 15 min, blend the whole lot.

@Kaiken I do give fresh pear as well, but the prunes seem to be most effective for the constipation. I’ve tasted the prune pouch myself and it doesn’t taste sweet to me - just not very nice (I hate prunes) but DS enjoys it. On the ingredients it says it’s 100% prune and nothing else, which seems good.

Soup is a good idea though - I will have a go.

I wish DS would drink more water but he doesn’t seem to like it. He’s barely getting any, which is a worry.

You could try fennel seeds tea if he doesn't like water. Helps with constipation as well.
Also, if the baby is constipated, avoid dairy which makes it worse, so try avocado on toast instead of cream cheese.
Read the ingredient of your cream cheese. The ones in supermarkets are often heavily processed, with thickeners, and other food additives, which you want to avoid as first foods.

@Kaiken oh no, I gave him Philadelphia cream cheese as I read somewhere it was a good first food - but on reflection it may not be?! Will look into fennel, thanks

Orange juice is good for constipation as well. A couple of table spoons will sort him out!

I think first good foods are real foods not industrial ones. Nothing bad happens with Philadelphia or other brands, but take this opportunity to offer the most varied diet. A processed pouch for breakfast and a processed cheese for lunch is not ideal every single day.

You can make your own prune puree. Dried prunes in boiling water, let them soak for half an hour, then blend if you want the puree or use just the juice. You can make the puree more or less watery.
Pouches are usually pasteurised at high heat and it alters the taste.

When picking your bread at the supermarket, read the ingredients. Legally, manufacturers can write wholemeal or whole grains on the label even if the main ingredient is wheat (white flour) as long as they add some bran in it.
Choose a bread that has wholemeal or whole wheat as the first ingredient and not white wheat or just wheat flour. Added bran can actually be irritating for the bowel.

Orange juice is good for constipation as well. A couple of table spoons will sort him out!

I thought about offering juice, but then I read that it’s bad to give them juice before 1 because it can harm their teeth?

@Kaiken thanks! What I don’t understand is the difference between doing the prunes yourself and giving a pouch? I don’t get it because the pouch says the ingredients are 100% prunes and that’s it - so isn’t it just the same as giving fresh (apart from maybe a slightly different taste as you mentioned)? Sorry, I should probably know this but I don’t!

I think it's good to consider how much processed food to give, but I also don't think any parent weaning their baby should feel guilty about using some pre prepped pouches etc alongside fresh food.

At 8 months my DC was also on 2 meals, moving to 3 at 9 months. Baked sweet potato sticks (literally just sliced SP roasted in the oven), steamed broccoli trees and avocado on toast were all big hits as was greek yoghurt with any fruit going.
You can also give them a bit of whatever you're eating so long as it's not too salty which also helps cut down on the prep time (I used to give DC what I'd had for dinner as lunch the next day).

Honestly? My DD would have been staring at me wondering where all the rest of the food had gone if I'd given her that. I gave her small portions of our dinner so she'd have pasta & sauce, fish with veg & potato wedges, curry, omlettes, stir fry. She loves plain Greek yogurt as her pudding. I'd do things in batches like savoury muffins or porridge fingers (these were brilliant for rushed mornings) that I could freeze and just get out as I needed. We still have little picky plates for lunch or snacks - so cream cheese sandwich or hummus & bread sticks with some cucumber sticks, cherry toms and fruit. Yes, there's a processed element but it's quick and easy, especially at lunchtime - I was always racing to get lunch ready before DD needed her nap.

I'd try and get something resembling a more rounded diet down him and then see if that changes his pooing habits. Some veg might help things a long a bit.

@Ticklemynickel OMG - so do you think I’m not giving him enough food? I thought I was giving too much as he ate a whole sweet potato the other day (puréed) and I thought that was loads!! Really struggling with this, I don’t know how people do it!

Just keep it really simple and think what you would eat. So breakfast (porridge/Weetabix/toast etc.), Lunch (some carbs, some veg, maybe some dairy like a yogurt) and evening meal (small portion of whatever you eat, just no salt or whole nuts etc.).

It's really so much easier if you all eat the same stuff because they eat such tiny portions that making different things is a waste of time and effort. Also, as pp said there is nothing wrong with the occasional pouch - they are not the work if the devil!

I found books like 'Young Gums' and 'What mummy makes' really handy for easy meal ideas that suit everyone.

It might be the right amount for your DS! I have big babies with seemingly huge appetites, I was always trying to find more food for DD1 who would polish off all her dinner within minutes so I might have it wrong too! My point is that you can try them on loads of different foods - unless you're giving them a maccies every day you're unlikely to be doing it wrong.

Some really good advice here. @newmum234, I stressed So Much about weaning and salt levels and food groups and textures and amounts and in hindsight I wish I'd just trusted that they were trying foods, liking some and not others and were clearly growing and thriving. Just aim to offer a variety, don't worry if they play with it/reject it/wolf it down because the next time might be different any way. I think I said before that at that age my DC loved avocado, now at nearly 3 they claim to hate it (without trying!). At the stage you're at, I also found it helpful to remember that as an adult, I'm sometimes in the mood for pasta and sometimes not, and I get to choose my food because I can either make something else or ask for it. Our babies just have to deal with what we give them because they can't ask and so sometimes they might just not fancy it, no big deal just try again another time.

With regards to a whole sweet potato, it's not a problem that they ate that, but maybe consider that if you gave 1/4 (freeze the rest!) you could then add some cherry tomatoes/breadsticks/cubes of cheese/bit of pasta to make the same volume of food but with different flavours and texture.

As a pp said, think about how you eat and adapt it a bit for a baby in terms of salt/size/texture.

Seems fine, everyone does things differently. If its working for you then thats ok. My DS's food intake per day looks like this -

0630 - breakfast bottle 8oz
0830 - breakfast (usually porridge with some stewed fruit or nut butter in it)
1200 - lunch (yesterday it was pasta in hidden veg sauce)
1400 - bottle 5oz
1630 - dinner (yesterday it was cod in parsley sauce, potatoes and carrot)
1830 - bedtime bottle 10oz

Hes only just started to be willing to feed himself, so I offer chunks of stuff along the way.

My 8 mo the old eats more I think. 3 meals a day, of similar foods to us. Some puréed , some finger food

He’s breastfed. Around 7-8 times per day.

Breakfast this morning was- small bowl baby porridge are with formula, with 1/2 pot HiPP apple/ peach purée. 1/2 banana as finger food.

I think he would be hungry on just fruit purée alone

I say he eats that. This morning he had 3 spoonfuls of scrambled eggs and bread and then refused anymore. Content to maul the bread and his sippy cup though. Grrrrrrrrr!