how much and how often should a 10 month old eat

[sagarika]

i need advice from you all experienced mums. my ds is 10 month, has milk, nuts and egg allergy. he is a fussy eater. so feeding the major 3 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) is a huge effort. i breast feed him as he is allergic to cows milk protein. sometimes i cook and sometimes i give him the supermatket food pots. he takes fruits like banana, mango, apple etc with his emals. in between his meals obviously he takes milk feeds. should i give him solids more often than thrice a day? what should i feed him in between. he takes around 200 gms of food at each meal. is this enough?

It depends how hungry he is, surely? And how much milk he has.

At 10 months mine had breastfeeding morning, before morning nap, before afternoon nap and at bedtime. Three solid meals a day and a snack after his nap. He ate varying amounts, have no idea how many grams.

If he's eating to his appetite and is healthy and gaining weight then I'm sure he is doing fine.

the problem is he will never eat(solids i mean) if i dont feed him. the only thing he wants when he is hungry is my milk. does not want to eat solids at all. i use a lot of distraction techniques to feed him. he still eats pureed food, gags when he finds bits in his food.

i can tell how much he eats in grams because when he eats from the baby food pots it tells u how much in grams (obviously ).

can anyone also advice me on a non dairy dessert rich in calcium?

weightwise he is ok but looks thin apart from his cheeks,they r chubby :)
he is getting taller though

Do you offer meals a little while after breastfeeds? Is he not interested in finger foods at all?

You can get soya yoghurts/desserts.

yeah i leave enough time after milk feeds for his lunch and dinner.

regarding finger foods, he choked on a biscuit before and i got scared, i have to admit i haven't tried since

is it ok to give soya products before 1yr. it seems it contains oestrogen hormone and not good particularly for boys

At this age mine had 3 good meals, plus a snack i think. If he is having a milk feed then probalby why he wont be fussed about the meals?

Mine would have milk feed when they woke and at bedtime at this age and jsut normal food/water inbetween.

Biscuits v. solid...a piece of buttered toast might be a better finger food as it is softer and easier to suck/chew on then a biscuit i reckon.

i have to brfeast feed him enough as that is the major source of calcium for him (he is allergic to cows milk!)

My almost 12 month old still has 4 milk feeds a day so I wouldn't worry about that - milk is a great source of nutrition for them.

Did he choke (silent, airway blocked, can't breathe) or gag (coughing, spluttering, retching until they bring the food back out)? It's very normal for babies to gag when they are learning to eat, as it takes a while for them to work out how much they can manage. My ds gagged a lot at first, even making himself sick sometimes as he was shovelling so much food into his mouth

Gagging on lumps in babies who are used to puree is very normal too. The thing with puree is the baby basically just drinks it rather than biting/chewing - so when they unexpectedly get a lump of something in their mouth they don't know what to do with it! A bit like if you were drinking a cup of tea and suddenly got a lump of something solid.

It is important that babies get the opportunity to learn how to eat solid food though, and most 10 month olds should be eating finger food. The longer you leave it the harder it will be for your ds to gain those skills. Try some soft finger foods to start with - toast is a good one, banana, soft cooked carrot sticks, brocolli, roasted veg sticks. He might be bored of purees now, and lots of babies his age resist spoon feeding, so letting him feed himself could spark his interest in food.

thanks for ur advice. i dont think he choked, he gagged. i do try to put bits in his pureed food but he starts gagging and coughing the moment he detects a different texture. but u r right ritamorgan its about time i start giving him finger foods and gradually wean him off pureed food!

any idea on my query about soya products?

No idea on the soya I'm afraid.

Hello,
My 9MO is also allergic to cows milk protein and egg. We were referred to a dietitian who said that in addition to the splash of soya milk she has on her cereal every morning, she should be having a soya yoghurt every day. This is especially the case because I'm not eating much calcium (mainly because her problems started when she was only breast fed and she got much better when i gave up dairy - she is less sensitive to it in my milk now that she is mainly on solids but i don't eat loads of dairy)

She won't have more than a couple of teaspoons of yoghurt (not as fan of being spoon fed) so the dietitian says she should have calcium supplements. There its lots of bone growing going on so calcium is really important.

Anyway, I queried the soya thing with the dietitian. My health visitor and the paediatrician said she shouldn't be having soya. The dietitian said it was ok to cook with it, have it in yoghurt etc, just not as a drink. She said it was to be compared with semi-skimmed cows milk at this age.
Um - not saying I don't trust the dietitian, but i have been told a lot of bolony by health professionals since having a baby so i do think twice before doing what they tell me!

But i decided that calcium/bone growth thing is important and the Chinese seem to be doing ok, so the small amount of soya she has can't be all that bad. I'm sorting out the calcium supplements too.

Perhaps if you are concerned you could ask for a referral to a dietitian?

ps, if you are going to get soya yoghurt, I'd recommend the alpro natural yoghurt. My LO prefers this to the fruit ones, and it is lower in sugar. It comes in a big pot.

pps The dietitian also suggested vegan cheese - it would be good finger food. However, the 2 i got from holland and barratt didn't mention that they were fortified with calcium. Not sure if there are better ones out there that I missed.

ppps -broccoli - another calcium rich finger food.

Hi,
My DD is cows' milk protein allergic and, as I was not able to breast feed (long story) we were prescribed Neocate - an amino acid based formula that has no cows' milk in it at all. As well as having it in bottles, we use it for cereal and for making fruit "rice puddings" (baby rice, Neocate and fruit purees - very popular!). Neocate is pretty vile stuff and I think you;d have a struggle introducing it to your DC now, even mixed in with food. DD's been on it since 7 weeks and doesn't know any different. However, the Neocate website shows that they do other products for older babies that are flavoured:
www.neocate.co.uk/aaa_neocate/6070-neocate-advance.html
I haven't used these yet, but my HV says you can mix these up with varying quantities water so they can either be mixed as a liquid with cereal or rice, or if you make them up thicker they can be used as a yoghurt substitute.
We get DD's prescribed (it is hellishly expensive). I see no reason why your DC shouldn't be equally entitled to a prescription. Do you see a paediatrician? Could he/she or your GP prescribe?
Please - no one flame me for suggesting that a BF mum introduces a formula product: I am NOT suggesting that the OP gives Neocate products in a bottle, or that she reduce her BFs, rather that they could be used as a food in weaning instead of cows' milk or soya milk.