Is my 8mo eating too much?

[marti2]

So basically, my 8mo loves food and has done since we started BLW at 6 months.

I have a very healthy diet and it's important to me that I always offer fresh, healthy foods for him. But he eats everything on his plate (not complaining about this I'm really happy and aware it may change so just enjoying it whilst it lasts).

My question is, that if your baby ate everything on his plate would you offer less food at a time? I'm a first time mum so any advice will be appreciated.

For example he may eat -
Breakfast - porridge and fruit
Lunch - rice cake with peanut butter, pepper sticks, cucumber sticks, raspberry's and grapes.
Dinner - salmon with sweet potato, broccoli, peas.

He also has about 24 ounces of formula per day (he couldn't latch properly so I exclusively pumped for 5 months but it all got on top eventually so switched to formula. He also is dairy intolerant hence why I have no dairy involved in his diet).

Should I cut down on the amount of food or just let him enjoy it?! Am I over thinking??

Could you weigh him and check he’s following his centile line?

Personally, I would let him eat and enjoy

It doesnt sound excessive.. Obviously I don't. Know the amount of each food but if he's happy and growing well all good

Grapes, cucumber, berries have very little calories.
It depends as pp says on whether he is following his centile line. If you are worried I would weigh him weekly for a while.

@OverTheRainbow88 I haven't weighed him, I hadn't thought about that. I will do. He doesn't look big he looks the right weight for his size but I'll deffo check!

@Hyacinth88 thanks for your reply 😊 I think i will just let him carry on. Just didn't want to be over feeding him 😂

I think that sounds ok

@yikesanotherbooboo this is my thoughts, that's partly why I give him lots of those sorts of foods so he can feel like he's eating a lot but not high in calories lol. I should get some scales so I can check!

If he was finishing everything, I'd give more. Babies can self regulate pretty well. I used to make sure I had things like oat cakes, rice cakes, cream cheese, hummus, yogurt in so I could give DS something after his dinner if he still looked hungry or was pointing at the snack cupboard! I think it helps prepare them for toddlerhood when they just survive on chips and air.

DS only learnt two signs - one for more and one for finished/all done - could be worth a try to help understand if that's the right amount of food for him.

I recently made some baby friendly flapjacks. The recipe is;

120g oats
2-3 ripe bananas
30 stewed apple

Mix it all together and bake for 10mins. They come out with sort of a cake like consistancy. They've been a real hit in our house.

That's about the nhs guideline for formula for his age and I'd say the food sounds about right - there are no portion guidelines for babies really because their appetite can be so variable over time and they're pretty good at self regulating.

I have a 7.5 month old and I keep offering her food till we get to the stage where she's messing with it more that she's eating it. Yesterday she had 1 and a half weetabix with grated apple and yoghurt and still screamed when the (empty) bowl was taken away so I gave her some banana too. I had a bit of a wobble that she was eating too much but then remembered that she hadn't had much dinner the night before (and as it turned out she didn't have much lunch afterwards either) . She actually did shoot up a couple of centiles when we started weaning but we saw the HV who measured her and shed gone up in height a lot too so they weren't concerned.

Babies need tons of calories please don't worry about keeping calories low! SR nutrition is great to follow on Instagram and she has a blog too, she's a nutritionist who is weaning her baby at the moment so it's good to see what sort of things she has and get ideas.

@Potterythrowdown such a good idea with the sign language! I'll deffo look into this and try it. Thanks

@Letsallscreamatthesistene they sound amazing! Thank you!

@AliasGrape nice to hear your lo is a big eater too!! I don't know anybody else with a baby who eats so much! I'll deffo follow on Instagram, thanks!

Mine is the same - he was on 3 meals and 2 snacks a day at 6 months with about 32oz of formula a day until he was about 18 months! Now, at 2, he still eats massive portions - he probably eats more than I do. He’s skinny and tall and energetic though so I’ve never worried. Apparently DH was the same as a child. Like a pp said, if he’s following his centile he’s doing just fine.