Baby-led weaning - what does your one year old eat?!?

[Itsmek]

Hi all,

Looking for honest posts on what your one year old eats in a day. I am doing baby-led weaning, so interested in replies from people who have done similar. 😊

I know this could be a bit controversial but just feel I need a bit of encouragement that my little girl isn't eating me out of carrots and broccoli 🙄Genuinely interested in what your one year old eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Thank you!!

Also... Just in case you haven't heard of it, BLW is when you give your child finger foods and they feed themselves rather than spoon feeding purees.

Surely after starting BLW at 6 months, by 1 year old they are just eating normally? Mine was eating normal meals by then - whatever we had.

My little girl isn't 1 yet but 10.5months and she has breakfast, lunch and dinner and still breastfeeding in between.
Breakfast can be anything pancakes, porridge, toast
Lunch is often omelette, sandwich, fruit, salad bits
Dinner is whatever we have so yesterday was chicken, new potatoes and salad. Sometimes chilli, bolognese, curry. Just whatever we eat really.
She eats pretty well for her age but does go through phases where she won't eat much

I did bit of both with both of mine, finger and purée. Dd1 probably purée longer.

Dd2 is 14 months and eats whatever we, or dd eats. Sometimes we have dinner late and they would have that tomorrow

I know this isn't the answer you are looking for necessarily, but 11m old yesterday:

6am breastfeed
7am Porridge with apple and blueberries
10am 1/2 banana and breastfeed
12.30 butternut squash and bean soup, toast fingers, little cubes of mild cheese, cucumber sticks, home made no-sugar rice pudding
2pm bf
5.30pm bf
6.30pm shepherd's pie and veg, mango slices
7.30 bf

We did begin with BLW, but at around 8m I realized that he actually quite enjoyed having a bowl of porridge or purée alongside his finger foods. He's quite a hungry wee guy, still wakes for milk at 10pm, 1am and 4am too.

Interested to see how this compares to babies who have done BLW properly.

What are your meals like through the day @Itsmek ? 🙂

Thank you both for your replies... And did you experience any resistance to vegetables? Seeems however hard I try, they always end up thrown on the floor. She eats masses of fruit, but veg is a real struggle...

Depends on the veg. I make a hidden veggies pasta sauce. Pretty much put any veg I've got into it with tomatoes, garlic, herbs and then blitz it so it's still a bit chunky. Can then put it on pasta or in other foods. It's a great way of getting extra veg into their meals especially if they're not a huge fan

Honestly- she ate whatever we ate... I'm too lazy. I puréed the usual veg etc to begin with to get her interested with food but after a few weeks she had what we had (left out the salt and spice) and I chopped it up. Faves were veggie lasagne, cottage pie, spag bol, chicken pie and veg, roast dinner. I just made sure it was either small enough to swallow if big enough to hold, put it straight on the tray and left her to it.

For breakfast I'd do porridge, fruit or slices of toast with various toppings. Lunch usually reheated dinner from night before or spread cheese sandwiches, crackers, cucumber, fruit, oaty bars etc.

I was still breastfeeding so wasn't bothered how much she ate initially. She's now a fuss free 3 year old- bar mushrooms which I'm fine with

He's not too bad really. Seems like he'll have any veg in a thick soup with some beans, lentils or potatoes. He had celeriac today.

Veg finger foods are hit miss. Think it's a texture thing a lot of the time. He likes mushrooms for example but finds them hard to eat with just 4 teeth.

Thank you all again. Its really causing my anxiety to get worse and means a lot to have replies. I have listed a rough plan of what our day looked like yesterday at the end of this post...

I greatly struggle with my own relationship with food and currently in therapy/counselling for it as I use is a huge source of comfort due to a troubled upbringing. I'm size 14. I know I am therefore more worried about my daughter's relationship with it and want her to have a balanced healthy diet.

And Ive been v honest with the foods and please be kind in your feedback. I know I need to do a lot better.

8:00 Breakfast: Oaty Bar and bowl of berries (raspberries and strawberries)

9:45 Sleep and 5oz Milk Bottle

12:00 Lunch: Brioche finger roll, chicken chunks (either fridge raiders or plain chicken breast slices snipped up), ham, bag of skips crisps and mango slices

3:00 Sleep and 5oz Bottle

5:00 Dinner: Chicken kiev snipped up, chips, broccoli, carrot and cauliflower (all of which where thrown on floor) and roast sweet potato chunks. Grapes and strawberries

7:00 Snack: Plain rice cake

8:30 Bedtime with 6oz Bottle

😊😊

Breakfast is toast, cereal, brioche and milk if she will drink it do whatever we are having really.

Lunch is a sandwich, ham/egg/cheese or veg sticks and hummus or crackers/oatcakes and cheese followed by apple/soft fruits etc

Dinner is whatever I have made, tonight it's lasagne with carrot sticks, some broccoli and peas which she will feed herself then berries afterwards.

She is just one and has no teeth yet but there's nothing she won't attempt to eat.

Not sure BLW weaning is a thing anymore at 1YO, mine eats the same food as his 5YO sister and I wouldn’t say I was doing BLW with her 🤣 He also uses toddler cutlery to self feed, with limited success, but it’s not all hands. Oh and he is a veg dodger too so I feel you. Today mine has had peanut butter on toast with a handful of berries and cows milk to drink for breakfast, snack was an oaty bar as we were out, lunch was pita bread pizza with chicken and sweetcorn served with cucumber, avocado and cherry tomatoes, banana for afternoon snack, dinner will be sausages with homemade sweet potato wedges and peas followed by a fromage frais. Your food sounds fine, maybe a bit too much salt at lunch and there’s a lot of bottles, you should ideally be on cows milk in a sippy cup but I know that transition can take time if it’s important to the sleep routine. In short, I wouldn’t be worried if I were you!

Keep going with the veg. I know it’s disheartening when it ends on the floor but by not giving any you won’t help the situation either.

my LO is 9 months old and at the moment will eat whatever is put in front of him (he doesn’t always clear his plate of course).
do you season the veg? My boy absolutely loves broccoli seasoned with some garlic powder!

Try some hidden veg pasta sauce, or pasta sauce made with cheese and sweetcorn, fish cakes made with peas or carrots mashed into the potato. Shepherds pie with peas in. Homemade veggie nuggets are also good to get them used to veg. Bulk cook and freeze in portions.

My DD is nearly 2 so a bit older than yours. She’s been through phases where she’ll happily eat veg and phases where it’s completely ignored / thrown. I think the important thing is to keep offering and model eating it yourself.

1o month old currently eats

breakfast:
porridge
weetabix
shredded wheat
toast
pancakes
with fruit or yoghurt on the side

lunch:
leftovers from the night before
courgette / brocolli bites
cauliflour cheese muffins
spinach and sweetcorn fritters
cream cheese and grated cucumber (still no teeth) on a wrap / thin / pitta
hummus and softened root veg
rice cakes and peanut butter
fruit / yog too

dinner:
anything we have adjusted
risotto
korma
chilli (no spice)
roasts
pasta
lasanga
noodles etc

My baby is 8 months not a year but absolutely loves his food.

Breakfast options: Porridge with fruit mashed up and mixed in, scrambled eggs mashed with yoghurt, pancakes, toast with peanut/cashew butter, boiled eggs cut up (he eats the yolk but mostly chews and spits out the whites), omelette strips. I spent ages making breakfast muffins that just got smashed to pieces.

Lunch & dinner options : Homemade fish fingers, homemade turkey & avocado burgers, spaghetti bolognaise, mac n cheese, tomato & lentil soup, pork mince with veg & quinoa, salmon, cod, beans on toast.

Veg he loves, in order of preference are sweet potato slices, butternut squash, parsnips, peppers, cauliflower. Haven't had much luck with carrots, he chews on them for a few seconds and then discards them. Brocoli just gets smashed to pieces on his high chair.

Fruits, in order of preference: Banana, avacado, raspberries, blackberries, grated apples, kiwi, mango, pineapple, watermelon.

So far we've only been working with minced meat or fish but I want to start moving up to shredded meat soon. I'd love to get him eating full sized pasta too, so far I've been smashing it in to small pieces before cooking.

Look up on the Solid Starts website for the article about throwing food (basically it's perfectly normal, don't make a big deal, keep offering the food) for what it's worth, I don't think hiding veg will really solve the problem either

I wouldn't bother with the skips personally as they don't really add much nutritionally and they're salty but the rest is all good stuff? Oats, protein, fruit and veg? Seems fine

Thank you so much for all the replies. It's so easy to get stuck in a rut with what you offer and there are so many more options out there.

And yes, I'll keep offering veg but with more taste and maybe in different formats. I haven't introduced cutlery yet either... I just presumed it was too young but that's another brilliant idea as she's fiercely independent and might eat it if she's distracted by the fork.

I guess I just find it really challenging, day on day planning food, cooking food up to 5 times a day and then it just ends up on the floor... Hence sometimes (and too often), I resort to packet foods like skips, mini malt loaves, pre cooked meats and things like that. I guess we just have to do our best right?!!

Mine loves his rice pudding. This is what I do:

100g pudding rice
700ml whole milk
Orange zest
2 ripe peeled pears chopped into small chunks

Butter an oven dish and put in all the ingredients together. Cook in oven at 120° (for a fan oven) for 2 hrs.

Portion up and freeze.

Defrost in microwave, add a splash of milk to loosen it up. Then heat through really thoroughly.

Really cheap and filling 🙂he has it as a lunch time pudding, or as a snack when his Dad is looking after him.

He also really likes roast veg blended up with beans to make a dip. Also really simple. You can leave it quite chunky.

Eg roast a butternut squash, or carrots, or sweet potato. I've also done beetroot, he likes that too. Blend or mash the roasted veg with a can of butter beans and a splash of milk to help soften it up.

Again, I freeze this into portions and then defrost when I need it. Serve with toast fingers, veg sticks etc.

I've just ordered some mini ice lolly moulds and I'm going to try making home made mini milks by blending milk, banana and strawberries.

It sounds like your LO is doing a great job feeding herself with her fingers 🙂

And yeah we all do our best. I'm thinking about taking mine for fish and chips in the park later hehe. He hasn't had them before, I'm hoping it's a treat for him. Without the salt.

Ooh, love the recipe for the rice pudding. I'll be doing that.
I've got an ice cream mould, the nuby one, and it's brilliant. I even do Greek yoghurt with blitzed up fruit and put those in. My DD loves them on a hot day or if she's teething.

@Itsmek I honestly just try and do whatever I make for myself so it's easier than having to really think about planning food too much.
I also keep some of the ellas kitchen pouches in which are handy for days when I'm not feeling it.
But breakfast and lunch just try and do easy things, you can make up a load of pancakes one day and keep them in the freezer ready for another morning. Lots of fruit to go with them.
Lunches of toast, beans, or any leftovers you might have are great aswell cause it saves you having to think about it all the time.
We have some leftover chicken that I'm going to give my DD today and probably just give her some orange wedges and some tomatoes with it.
Even if they just play with the food it's all good as they're getting used to textures.
This morning she just had some yoghurt for breakfast so it was easy and then dinner is in the slow cooker for tonight which is just a chicken casserole type thing so she'll eat that. We do try and load a spoon for her but often just let her go in with her hands.
You're doing a great job and it is so much work so don't be hard on yourself for what you're feeding or if you have a lazy packet food day.
Keep offering the veggies and eventually they'll eat them. ☺️