1 Year old (on Wed) - weaning going badly

[Liskey]

DD will be 1 on Wed. She will eat occasionally but never much and most meals doesn't really want the food - she'll happily come over and try and grab my food and put it in her mouth then chew it and spit it out. I'm trying to cut down her milk as she has about 600mls a day and its higher calorie milk for poor weight gain. She just seems so disinterested in food - any ideas please?

Cheers

Is she having poor weight gain?

She was - seems to be ok now though as she consistently gaining about 2 and a half ounces a week but this is on prescription formula - she is a very active baby and never still.

She now weighs 16 lb but mealtimes always seems a struggle - habe to distract her with something else to get her to eat - wheras my friends babies seem to want to eat!

If she's a busy bee, have you tried leaving out food on the side for her? DD went through a phase of not wanting to stop what she was doing to get into her highchair and eat, particularly at breakfast.

So now we leave a bowl of healthy snacks out for her so she can graze as she goes. Seems to suit her well.

She's always loved sharing a plate of food with me, so I often put our lunch all on the one plate and we just helped ourselves. Made it fun, like pretending she was pinching my food, and letting her feed me and vice versa.

What sort of food does she have? What you're having? Or something different? Pureed, mashed or as is?

She's drinking a LOT of high calorie milk, it's probably that this is leaving her with no need for any other food.

Cheers for the replies.

I've been trying to cut back her milk - problem is she does wake at night and we tend to give her milk/water to go back to sleep. And I worry that i'm depriving her - i know that sounds funny but we had a very bad stage with her not eating enough early on.

I've been tending to give her dinner at lunchtime and i'll have a sandwich at the same time - though she does tend to try mine as well.

I don't necessarily think that cutting out her milk will help. It doesn't sound like she's made the connection between solid food and hunger...she's still going for the milk to fill her up. I think dropping the milk will only make her want more milk as she'll be hungry! This is what DD did up until about 10 months or so, but they're all different.

Personally, I'd just try and up the frequency of meals. Include her every time you eat something. Make meals something to be involved in and enjoy. The more she has fun with food, the more she should eat, and in time she'll realise that the solid food makes her feel full too.

It's kind of the BLW idea really.

Breakfast she always has to feed herself - has a few cherios or shreddies then gets bored and has a blueberry or 2 and might have a nibble on some toast. She always has a snack mid-morning before milk - a puffed crisp thing.

Lunch tends to be half a jar - about 120grams of organix 10month food - she usually eats that and some fruit afterwards - she likes satsumas and sucks the flesh spitting the skin out (at me)

Tea is very hit and miss - usuallu ofer her finger food - scrambled egg, baked beans, baked pot etc. which she might have a few bites of and then fromage frais which usually involves me distracting her for half the pot then she remembers she likes it and wants to eat it.

She just doesn't seem to eat enough I think and I do worry about her weight/height - she's under the paedtrician at the mo for short stature - she's fallen completely off the chart for height - and on 0.4 for weight.

I really do feel like she'd benefit from eating the same food as you. Make it fun, a game for her to enjoy rather than a chore for both of you.

It's worth remembering that some babies are just small as well. There are obviously concerns if you're under a Paed, but remember that someone has to be at the bottom of the chart, just like someone has to be at the top (like my DD!). I just don't want you thinking she should be bang on the 50 centile, and is therefore way behind.

I just worry about her health more than her being on any centile in particular. Tody she loved lunch - ate loads then tea wouldn't even try the risotto i'd made - i try not to get stressed about her eating especially as I went through a stage of worrying far too much about her milk intake and got very stressed.

sounds like she eats tons more than my 16 month old. If she's growing well I'd chill abbit and accept that not many adults live on milk so one day she'll get the hang of it. sorry if that's harsh - i spent months stressing/worrying/crying about my dd's rubbish eating now I accept that one day she'll get it, keep offering try not to stress too much and at 16 month she onlt has milk twice a day (night and morning) and nibbles a bit on solids - I figure small people need fewer calories than big people

That is a lot of milk.

At 12 months DS was having 1 or 2 breastfeeds and sometimes about 100ml of soya milk.

Are you cooking her separate meals to the rest of the family?

DS2 has been eating what we eat since 9 or 10 months old. He also eats his meals with us. I give him his food and then pretty much leave him to it, while we all eat. Sometimes he eats it all sometimes he doesn't. I make no comment, just give him his next meal or snack at the right time. Over the course of the day and week he eats enough.

BTW DD was about 16 or 17 lbs at 12 months of age. She is now on the 50th centile for height and weight.