How are you meant to feed a 1 year old?

[ChunkyKitKat123]

I've been doing a mix of traditional and baby led weaning with DD...she's now a year old and is becoming resistant to being spoon fed, but there are still very few finger foods she will eat. She'll have soft fruits, toast and baby puffs, but anything else gets chucked on the floor. Anything I cook and mash up is rejected, she'll only eat shop-bought jar food, reluctantly. Help!

What do you give at this stage? The baby books suggest all these fancy recipes that she just ends up gagging on and spitting out.

Neither of mine liked mushy food.

Did things like pasta, omelettes, pizza, quesadillas.

Just feed her what you eat, with no pressure. Give her free reign to explore the food. Don't make fancy meals or mash things up, there's no need!

Just persevere with family meals. Now she’s 1 family meals are fine. She might not eat them initially but let her play about with them. A few mouthfuls here and there might go in and eventually she’ll just start eating normal food. Don’t stress too much about the amount.

Casserole, omelette, roast, pastas, fish and rice.

Mixture of spoon fed, letting them learn to use spoon and hands.

Just feed her what you eat, with no pressure. Give her free reign to explore the food. Don't make fancy meals or mash things up, there's no need!

I agree 100% I never once bought baby food for my children. They always ate what we ate.

Just give her whatever your having. My DD at that age loved anything with pasta and she just ate it with her fingers (we used fusilli because it was easiest for her to pick up).

*you’re. I blame DD waking me up at 5:30 for that.

I second giving whatever you're having and leave her to it. I remember tearing my hair out when all the special food I'd spent ages preparing ended up on the floor. I gave her a spoon/fork herself so she could practise and she seemed to have fun doing it herself, so may be worth trying? I'd also set up a little mirror in front of her at the table so she could watch herself eat (mostly to help her aim for her mouth!) but it also worked as a distraction of sorts to stop her just throwing food around for the fun of it. It's a really frustrating time, but they'll get there - eventually...

At this age they can tell you what they want or not - of you don't already, how about putting her food on a plate where she can see it but not reach, and her own little plate if you're using one in front of her. So that she doesn't have reach of ALL of her food at once.

If she doesn't point or tell you what she wants on her own , point to them one at a time and encourage her to nod or shake her head. This way she can see what's on offer but only has what she actually wants to eat. Hopefully that will stop her chucking so much on the floor and they like the control.

Agree with everyone else above, no need to make anything special. She can manage whatever you're having and don't sweat it.

How much milk is she having through the day?

Don't worry. I had one that would reject everything suspiciously at one and one who would inhale anything even vaguely food-like. I didn't really do anything differently with them. It just seems that the spectrum of normal food behaviour in one year olds is hugely varied.

If you're breastfeeding, keep feeding on demand and don't worry, she'll get there.

@ChunkyKitKat123 I am going through the same with my little one. Other than puffs, rusks and wafers, oh and porridge, she only eats one smooth jar and all else she gags on and refuses. HV just said to keep trying. Veg offered gets squashed and thrown on floor. I tried blending the lumpy foods so it's a thicker mixture. Spoon goes on and she uses her finger to crawl it off her tongue and makes herself gag

Literally just whatever you’re eating. Mine is older now but last night we had chicken in pitas. So I would have done small bits of chicken, strips of pita, hummus and plain yogurt for dipping, cucumber sticks and olives. I never really made any special meals. They have to learn to eat at some point and she’s figure it out, but it does take time.

Honestly just do whatever feels right at any particular mealtime. Always offer your little one her own spoon and fork (I usually keep several on the table so when they go on the floor you can just say never mind here's a other one). Let her try to feed herself with the spoon if she wants. Otherwise let her try with her fingers. Let her try to feed you too and let her steal off your plate. If you have your own spoon too, you can often then sneak a spoonful into her mouth, when her own attempt fails.

Does she eat at the same time as you, at a table? I think that's really important - she'll copy you, and you can give her bits of food from your plate too. If she sees you eating, she'll want to eat it too.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll persevere with the "normal" food. Tried to give her chicken and potato bake last night, she just played with it and threw on the floor but ate the banana I gave.
Thing is when she eats literally nothing except a bit of fruit I worry she won't be getting all the nutrients she needs, so I end up topping up with baby food.

I'm not breastfeeding, we're now transitioning to cow's milk and she has that no problem....about 400ml a day.

We eat lunch together but not dinner...we've always been in the habit of eating late (7pm earliest but usually about 9pm). Obviously that's too late for her so she gets her dinner at 5.30. My husband is still working then. Not sure how it will all work when I go back to work. We'll have to work out a new routine.

Mines 17 months now and other than the first few months of weaning so I was making my own purée; she’s just eaten what we eat mostly; although we don’t always have lunch so When we don’t have lunch I’ll make her something else like pasta with tuna/sweet corn and cheese. Wraps, picking snacks.

But yeah mostly I just cook for 3 now. She’s a brilliant eater.. nothing she won’t eat yet!

I’m not 100% but 400ml seems like a fair amount of milk? Maybe she’s filling up of milk and not that hungry?

It's 2 bottles of milk, one first thing in the morning and one at bed time, after dinner.

You do have to stick something in front of them a fair number of times before they decide they’ll actually pick it up and eat it. So if you stick some cooked pasta, broccoli and bits of cooked salmon on the tray, they might only chew on a broccoli and eat a bit of the pasta for a while, but eventually after the seventh or tenth time they’ll start putting the rest in their mouths and chewing on it!

Agree too to give them a few spoons and baby forks to play around with. Doesn’t matter if they’re eating yoghurt or purée by dipping their fingers in.

There’s a lot of food wastage and food on the floor at that stage, sadly. But at least you get to eat your own meal while they do it.

DD liked chunky stuff with soft veg - clumps of (low salt cooked) mince with pasta, salmon, broccoli, clumpy rice, cooked carrot batons. Chunky porridge. The baby led weaning cookbook has some good part-mushy part-solid food recipes.

Also sometimes they eat more than you think they have. I remember giving DD some frittata pieces with green beans one evening and thinking she hadn’t eaten any. Later that night she chucked up all over the bed (she had noro, but that’s another story!) and the amount of green beans and frittata in it was astonishing given I thought she hadn’t had any!

I think 400ml is about right, I'm sure they're supposed to have about that at a year old.

Don't worry, she'll let you know if she's hungry :)

NHS says "at least 350ml".

Does she feed herself with the spoon if you give her a spoon to eat the mushed up food you make?

Both of mine went through a stage of wanting to do it themselves. Give her the mushed up food and a spoon and let her feed herself. Most of it Will go in her hair at first probably so embrace the mess.

The 350ml, forgive me if I’m wrong; also includes milk cooked into their diet, cheese and yoghurt.

I’m happy to be corrected though!

No, the spoon gets chucked on the floor and then she uses her hands to smear the mushed up food on her face and the chair. I suppose it's to be expected. I do end up feeling bad about the food waste. She also doesn't ever signal that she's hungry but does then eat a decent amount, with encouragement.