Struggling with meals for 1 year old

[Shannon9955]

My little girl was 1 last week, so she's a fresh one year old and I feel like she woke up on her birthday a teenager😂

Anyway, we are now on cows milk which she loves. She's taken to it straight away. But meal times, I'm struggling. I don't know if I'm feeding her enough or to much. I'm overthinking each meal at this point and it stresses me out.

So I've taken on the "give what you eat" but she can't always have it and when I do give it to her it's just thrown on the floor or a couple bites and she's done.

What meals do you tend to give your toddler? Even snack wise I'm struggling. I feel like I give her the same thing and it's boredom for her.

A normal day for her -
Yesterdays food
7:30am - 7oz bottle
8:30am - toast. Always a yogurt to follow
10:30am - 6oz bottle
2pm - creamed root veg and sweetcorn sticks
3:30pm - nap
4:15pm - Some skips and pear
5:30pm - ham and cheese pizza (homemade) she had one slice and a bite of another. Had all her pear with that and rusk and also had some of my mash
8pm - 8oz bottle and slept till 7am

I had a child who used to love throwing food on the floor! I actually ended up giving her another bowl which was empty and it somehow stopped her throwing food on the floor, and she would swap her food from her plate to the empty bowl 🙃

In terms of food, pasta with cheese/pesto/tomato sauce/ bolognese.

Salmon or cod cut into manageable pieces with soft veg

Mashed potato

Homemade potato/fishcakes

Banana pancakes cut up into small pieces

Risotto with peas

Roast chicken dinners with everything cut up small

Finger sandwiches with ham or cream cheese

Grated cheese as a snack

Grapes and Berries cut up small

Casseroles cut up small with mash

Baby crisps and hummous

Porridge/wheetabix with mashed Banana mixed in

Omelette with cheese, ham and veg, cut up small

Scrambled/boiled egg and toast

Homemade cheese scones, cut up small

NHS advice is to stop bottles and move to a cup at 12 months.

If you google NHS toddler meals there are loads booklets full of meal ideas and recipes.

She was asking about food not bottle if she still wants a bottle then that's what she can have not all baby's like to drink from a cup

Does she has her own bowl and spoon and fork? She might be ready to feed herself so she might need food that she can do that with. My daughter at 12 months became obsessed eating with spoon so only had mashed up food for like a month (that's the only thing she managed to put on her spoon so she didn't wanted anything else). Lentil pie, fish pie, cauliflower cheese are always good for this purpose. She's now 15 months old and still refuses small cut veggetables- she only eats it if its mushed up.
Also , as @TravelDazzle recommended, they love to move the food in and out of bowls so giving her more than one can be also helpful.

@Iminthemoneylife she does have a cup for her water. She just has bottles for her milk. She's literally just turned one so taking a bottle away is least of my worries currently

@Tina8800 yes, has all that. She's really good at feeding herself, just also really good at throwing it on the floor. Only thing I spoon feed her myself is yogurts or porridge

I tended to do:

breakfast - non bread ( so can use for easy lunch). Porridge, fruit purée, diced banana, homemade pancakes, Greek yogurt, scrambled egg. Something, not all at once

lunch: toast or sandwiches ( easy to take out also). With cream cheese or avocado. Cubes cheese, fruit, sometimes soup at home, or leftover bits from dinner with some finger food. Yogurt if none at breakfast.

Dinner: main meal. Whatever we had or slight variation. Cream cheese salmon pasta, scrambled egg,

My 13 month old has most of his meals at nursery which is a relief from me having to think up so many meals! It’s hard going. Especially because he always eats better there even if I make the same thing at home.
At home he has meals like spag bol, little roast dinners, jacket potato with beans, homemade sausage rolls so just chicken mince with an egg and bit of oregano put in a sheet of puff pastry, stir fry with noodles, wraps with various fillings even mackerel pate that takes minutes in a blender with some yogurt on toasted pita bread.

Maybe you could try reducing her milk feeds to just a bottle in the morning ot evening? It might be filling her up.

I would also leave more of a gap between milk and breakfast as mine wouldn't have managed it all so close together and he's a big boy with an appetite! Just a suggestion as you know your child though.

In terms.of food, I tried giving him food to feed himself and he just didn't want to. He hated lumps and chewy food. So I made a good variety of food but usually with mash or sweet potato mash to help him eat it. I couldn't afford to waste food by him just throwing it on floor or not eating it and he needed filling up so I just found ways to feed him that he liked. I wasn't bothered it wasn't the current baby led weaning craze.

From memory his diet was something like this at 1 year:

Cup of milk on waking.

8am breakfast: porridge with raspberries and peanut butter.

Snack - mini cheddars/banana

Lunch - cheese on toast/sandwich/crepe.
Blueberries.

Snack- cake/scone/banana if not had one.

Dinner - mash with mixed veg (chopped up) with chicken/pork/roast salmon. Or beef stew. He wasn't keen on pasta and rice. Yoghurt for pudding.

Maybe a cup of milk before bed too.

I did lots of picky food at this age rather than cooking so extra can be put out if needed. So cheese cubes/lean meat/egg, then some carbs so fresh popcorn/buttered bread/cracker/bread sticks and then lots of fruit/veg. Although you are giving her creamed veg, this is not a long term option. If is worth trying to get her to eat fresh fruit and veg in its naked form at each meal and snack, so slices of banana, cucumber, carrot sticks, peppers etc.