What does your 18month old eat in a day ?

[goldsparklyChocolate]

I’m interested to know how much others 18 m old eat ?

a typical day for us is one of the following for breakfast
-porridge (made with 2oz full fat milk) and porridge oats (not kids as she prefers it runny!) with berries
-1 scrambled egg and 1 slice toast (50/50)
-small banana and greek natural yogurt (2-3 dessertspoons)

lunch (always the same!)
-sandwich (2 slices 50/50) with houmous (prob 1-2 teaspoons ) grated carrot OR chicken with
cheese chunks (half a matchbox sized piece and often gets left) and 1/4 of avocado (this is often thrown!)
a small apple and 2-3 strawberries

dinner is something like chicken curry (portion size is 1/3 of a chicken breast not always eaten), broccoli, chickpeas and spinach in the sauce. Rice mixed in this is usually 1-2 dessertspoons
OR (like tonight) half a piece of salmon , sweet potato chunks (approv half a potato) , broccoli (4 florets) , green beans (about 7)

other dinners and portion sizes are jacket potato (half a potato) with tuna (one of the little cans) and chopped up salad.
blueberries or raspberries or a satsuma sometimes after (but often not wanted)

had formula up till 13 m but refused cows milk so we try to use yogurt and cheese to get calcium in but it’s a bit hit and miss
only drinks water

Should say loads not kids !!

Mine are teens now, but always ate well. Grew up on a farm. But even for us, those amounts seem a lot for a child not yet two years old. Eg, the little tins of tuna are quite a lot of protein and therefore filling, before you add an entire half jacket potato. Plus salad!

On another note, don't these meals take a long time sitting at the table to consume??

Or, you're a troll and I've fallen for it 🤦

Today's was:
Breakfast - cup of milk, Weetabix, satsuma
Morning snack: 1 slice of toast
Lunch: cream cheese sandwich on seeded wholemeal, chunks of cheese, a couple of Ritz crackers, a banana, cherry tomatoes, cucumber
Afternoon snack: yogurt & berries
Dinner: pasta with mushrooms & courgettes mixed with cream cheese, leftover grapes and a breadstick stolen from his brother, 1 digestive biscuit
Cup of milk before bed

It’s the small 60g tuna in water little cans I have no idea how much protein is in them though !!!
half a potato but they aren’t huge potatoes and she doesn’t eat the skins .
the salad is usually a couple of chopped cherry tomatoes , cubed cucumber (prob a 2-3cm piece that I chop), some chives cut up

it doesn’t take too long to eat , she’s quite good at feeding herself but a bit goes on the floor 🤣🤣

I wish we could get dd to drink milk, I do worry about calcium .

she LOVED formula but just wouldn’t transition to cows milk as hates it 🙁

Maybe it's the lunch that seems a lot. Many adults only have 2 slices of bread in their lunchtime sarnie. Add half a matchbox of cheese, or/ plus hummus, plus chicken - again, that's lots of filling food for a one and a half yr old.
It's a good variety, but maybe add more veg / fruit / pulses and cut some daily bread / cheese / meat, particularly if the lunch is the same 7 days a week.

But really, it's your child and you will know if they're hungry. Maybe be wary of putting too much out on the plate to begin with? Mine always knew there was fruit / bread and butter if they were still hungry after the meal. I understand yours is younger.

And an idea - mine loved feeding themselves a handful of frozen mixed veg from the highchair tray - a perfect starter whilst I made the rest!

AND - another idea - if you want to reduce the amount of bread, make the two slice sandwich and then use cookie cutters to make interesting shapes easy to pick up (by Y5 I was still using a massive circle for the school lunchbox!!)

Maybe it is a lot to have a 2 slice sandwich but I was worried as dd doesn’t eat snacks or drink milk , that’s why I thought I’d see what other 18 m old eat

really good idea about mixed veg I might try that

My two year old eats less than that. He has half a cup of semi skimmed milk for breakfast with cereal.

Lunch is one slice of bread as a sandwich (usually marmite or ham) or breadsticks, some cubes of cheese and cucumber chunks. With his lunch he'll have melon, an apple or a few grapes

Dinner is just a small portion of whatever I am having, tonight was a couple of spoonfuls of shepherds pie with some carrot sticks and some green beans. He had a small fromage frais.

Just before bed I offered him another cup of milk, he drank about a quarter of it.

I don't give him snacks at the moment as he doesn't show me he is hungry between meals.

A third of a chicken breast is more than he would eat although he could happily polish off half a jacket potato.

Their stomachs are about the size of their fist so you might be better off giving less food but more frequently?

Mine usually had

Breakfast
1 weetabix

Lunch
1 crumpet or
Sandwich- 1 piece of bread folded over or
Half a piece of bread as toast & beans.

Dinner
Baby portion of adults meal, usually a meat, carbs and veg ie chicken curry, spag Bol, beef casserole.

Fruit after lunch and dinner and sometimes as snacks.

Other snacks, rice cakes/ baby wafers/ veg sticks but a snack usually once or twice a day.

Tbh at 5 it's not that different!
Still 1 weetabix or cereal in the morning.
Nursery snack of an apple or banana at 10.30.
Lunch is 1 folded piece of bread and meat/ cheese. Cracker/ mini rice cakes or 1/3 pack of crisps. Veg sticks, yoghurt, small fruit (lime grapes) and a biscuit.

Snack is healthier at home than school- school give waffles/ pancakes/ toast/ wraps. At home it's fruit or malt loaf or meat snacks.

Dinner is same as ours but not much more than had at 18 months! Then fruit or sometimes ice cream or some chocolate.

Mine doesn't drink milk and weetabix is great for soaking up milk! Pour on and mash then 5-10 min later you can pour more on!

I have 17m old twin girls and I think they eat a lot 🤔

today’s meals and snacks (each):
breakfast - 1 and a half weetabix with ella’s kitchen smoothie (about 1tbsp) mixed in + half a banana + water

snack - 2-3 rice cakes

lunch - 1 scrambled egg, half a slice of toast with cream cheese + a quarter chopped avocado followed by half a soya yoghurt and some blueberries

snack - rice cakes and raisins

dinner - quorn bolognaise pasta (sauce made with tomatoes, carrots and celery) + 3 broccoli florets. Half a banana and some raspberries. They still seemed hungry so gave them half a slice of toast (whole meal bread) with peanut butter + a bit of honey and they wolfed it down! Water to drink

about 4-5oz oat milk before bed (they have CMPA so can’t have cows milk)

I don’t tend to do proper snacks between meals, just rice cakes if they ask for it or we’re out and about and they’re getting whingy haha

Breakfast - most of a banana and a wafer he stole from his changing bag

Snack - two rich teas and most of a pear plus a bourbon he found at playgroup

Lunch - leftover chicken dinner

Snack - gingerbread man and a lick of an apple slice

Dinner - half a crispbread which he dropped in the bath