9M old, to pud or not to pud…..?

[ShleepyMumma]

In the depths of weaning, hating it!
Never the less, we crack on. If my 9 month old eats fairly well at the meal, lunch or dinner, I offer a milky pudding (Greek yog or maybe an Ellas kitchen rice pudding thing).
My question is, would you offer a pudding if she doesn’t eat the dinner?
Tonight she was given a piece of chicken, piece of potato, parsnip fingers, and then some mashed up chicken stew. She had some parsnip, and some of the stew spoon fed (7 baby spoons maybe). She put chicken in mouth but took it out and wasn’t fussed. Didn’t try the potato. To get the stew spoon fed in I gave a slice of avocado and some blueberries as they are like safe food and thought it might encourage her to try the other stuff. Don’t want to be doing that, but sometimes you just think oh I give up! Anyway, all in all very little actually eaten. I didn’t give dessert as I want her to know that it won’t be given if she doesn’t eat the main.
Is that right? Is she too young to even recognise that? Would you have given it to just get something in her? Guaranteed she would have eaten yog or rice pudding, always does.
What do people think? She will have a bottle
of milk before bed but we are in that interim time between dinner and bed she’s not happy!

I give a pudding to my 12 month old, have done for a few months. But it's something fairly healthy- always fruit and a dairy substitute (my LO is dairy intolerant) like baby porridge or soya yogurt, or Ella's kitchen rice pudding. I think it's useful to have something you know they'll eat and can fill up on if they haven't eaten much of the main course.

Also a tip I heard for fussy eaters- always give them something healthy, something new to try, and something you know they will eat. I think that was meant to be at each meal time. Although trying a new thing every meal is a bit much. Basically if you're LO always eats yogurt but sometimes not much else, I would keep giving the yogurt personally. And keep trying with the rest.

DD is 8 months and eats anything tbh. If she doesn’t like a meal or only has a little bit, I still give her pudding (an orange or banana in this house). I’m happy for her to eat anything regardless of what it is. I don’t see it as pudding tho, I just see it as her dinner altogether if that makes sense

@ShleepyMumma

I don’t use it as either of those. Just wanted some advice if giving it will prevent her from trying new things because she loves Greek yog and will eat it over anything else, or is giving it ok. I simply don’t want a baby that only eats a few things and currently we are kind of in that area, so just don’t want to make it any worse for us. She hasn’t taking to weaning amazingly, so it’s not always as easy or as black and white as offer it, don’t offer it etc.

She's only 10 months, your little one sounds normal. As you've already alluded to, instagram makes everything seem perfect. However, perfect doesn't have to mean eating and liking lots of every type of food. You sound like you're doing great. You're trying, you're persevering and that's great. Don't think too much of it at this stage. Her appetite and her likes and dislikes will grow with age. Give her pudding if you want to, or don't. Just do what's right for you and your little one!

Ok. You said in yoir OP whether to withold "pudding" if they don't eat their dinner. Nery everyone has said dont base pudding on eating dinner (ie turn it into a "reward") which did answer thay question!

Lots of great replies on this thread ♥️

Lots of different opinions: offer it, don’t offer it, keep it with the other food, keep it separate, don’t do it every day, don’t withhold it. Complicated issue hey!

Haha yep VERY complicated. Probably because not one of us is an expert on child rearing (not even the ‘experts’-if they were they wouldn’t keep changing their minds every 5 minutes). So we all just muddle through the best we can, sharing tips that worked for our kids but which may not work for yours. For what it’s worth with my kids I DID offer pudding as a reward for finishing their dinner, and my puddings were, shock horror ‘proper’ sugar laden ones, not the healthy ones I give my grandson now. My kids are aged between 20 and 29 now and out of the 5 of them only one is a bit overweight (but that’s because he’s lazy more than anything). So there you go, even though I did it ‘wrong’ they have mostly grown up to be healthy and with no eating disorders so……

@ShleepyMumma

I don’t use it as either of those. Just wanted some advice if giving it will prevent her from trying new things because she loves Greek yog and will eat it over anything else, or is giving it ok. I simply don’t want a baby that only eats a few things and currently we are kind of in that area, so just don’t want to make it any worse for us. She hasn’t taking to weaning amazingly, so it’s not always as easy or as black and white as offer it, don’t offer it etc.

Try not to worry ahead of time - if you read all the advice from the NHS they explain clearly that milk is the primary source of nutrition until 12mo.

The best thing you can do is offer healthy meals and let the child do what they want with them until at least 12 months old.

Worrying about what they are eating now is going to increase the likelihood of issues and probably be wasted energy anyway!

None of us are experts - our parents and grandparents who were using pudding as a bribe to get us to eat our veg were just doing what they thought best according to knowledge available at the time.

FWIW both of mine have been under a dietitian for early weaning, and each time we have been told that there’s no perfect diet that suits every baby, you have to take into account their individual needs. So both of mine have had yoghurt with most meals to replace the milk they refused. Baby porridge served a purpose at the start for both as it was a vehicle for getting more milk in. 6mo DD2 had a sugarless pancake and a bowl of yoghurt for breakfast this morning because that’s what she would eat and she had refused milk since 6pm last night.

If your DD is a good milk drinker OP then you don’t need to worry too much about how much she eats. If she isn’t, then lots of yoghurt won’t do her any harm. In thirty years time I’m sure our children will be scoffing at our approach to weaning!