Please reassure me about what my 13 month old eats

[CosieRotton]

My DC has always had a big appetite, always drank more than the recommended formula and that’s continued through weaning.

Today he ate:

7am - 2 Weetabix before nursery
9.45 - tortilla wraps and milk
12.30 - soup with bread fingers + banana
16.30 - vege mince & rice + custard
17.30 - satsuma before dinner at home
18.00 - lentil shepherds pie - pretty decent portion!

And that’s a reasonably typical day. Nearly all his food is fresh home cooked, very occasionally we might buy toddler snacks with the weekly shop, he has fish fingers once a week, and frozen veg every so often.

I’m always amazed he can put so much away at home for dinner after nursery when he’s recently had tea there but he always seems ravenous when he gets in. I’d say he eats less on the weekends with us.

I wouldn’t describe him as fat but he’s pretty solid, still got wrist bracelets. He’s always been around 90th percentile for weight and 75th for height. He’s currently in 18-24 month clothes.

He’s not walking yet but is fairly active crawling and cruising.

I guess I just want to sense check as every now and then I think wow he eats a lot, and then I have a little worry that we’re setting him down a path of weight & eating problems!

He having 2 dinners, so it seems quite a lot, but I’m guessing the nursery portion is tiny? Or would toast and a milk drink actually be sufficient, but you’ve automatically been giving him what you are having?

Wow lovely chunky boy! I so wish mine did. He eats so little some days I don't know where he gets his energy from. He's 18 months and in only just 12-18 months clothes but he's slight and short. He's still decently chunky for his size and runs about daft so he's obviously fine but he's picky and it does aggravate me.

Example: chicken curry for everyone, he eats the rice and poppadoms. Or scrambled egg on toast he only eats the toast. Drives me daft but I just keep offering him a variety of things and hope for the best.

They all have different needs and unless you're handing him a greggs sausage roll of a morning and a slice of chocolate cake for dinner then I don't think you can really over feed him at this age. So long as it's all healthy, nutritious food then they eat what they need.

Enjoy that he's not a picky eater as that's another stress! The more mobile he gets the more he'll stretch out and burn all that much-needed energy.

It’s hard to know exactly how much they’ve eaten at nursery though, the portions won’t be big. Why the wrap as a snack though? Was that at nursery? I would just be giving fruit as a snack.

My ds was a chunky baby, until he was able to walk, then he suddenly slimmed down.

Yeah the wrap was a nursery snack. I don’t really have a good sense of their portion sizes.

I suppose we could just give him toast at him but that seems less nutritious than proper cooked food. Or offer him less I suppose but he mostly polishes it off so I guess I assume he’s hungry and needs it.

He'll likely slim down when he starts walking. I also find my son's appetite is never stable. It's up and down. Sometimes he eats really well and eats a lot. Other times (mostly), not so much.

I imagine he knows when he needs the extra calories for a growth spurt or developmental burst.

I notice that some babies the same age as him never seem to stop eating but they all look roughly the same size as each other and all very healthy 🤷🏻‍♀️

I reckon it must balance out over time.

my 18month is the same... and eaten like that since before a year. he was bf before that... so never really got a sense of how much he fed/drank

Nursery always comment how much he eats but then he come home and asks to get in his high chair and often has a second tea with us. I dont really have a sense of how much they do actually give him but I think it's less than they make out based on what he eats on the days at home.

He is active and solid but not overly chub.

Generally I let him eat all the savoury food he wants and just limit anything sweet and fruit.

I'm just really pleased he isn't a fussy eater and meal times at the moment are fun.

I wouldn't overly think it for now 13m is still very young and they are growing quickly at that age.

DS was the same. He was a vast blob of a baby at 1yo. He was EBF, completely insatiable and was 97th centile for weight by 6 months, again with height roughly 75th centile.

He still eats well but it slowed down a lot when he was around 2 and he became a bit more fussy. He’s 3 now and his portions haven’t really increased in the last few years. He’s still solid and still has a bit of a toddler tummy, but his legs, arms, face and neck are so much more slender than when he was a baby. His weight has slowly trended down to the 90th centile. If you are giving him healthy food that’s high in protein and good carbs I wouldn’t worry too much, assuming he’s not still having vast quantities of formula alongside that.