Food is fun until you are one? He's one next week...

[YuleingFanjo]

I have been doing BLW since 6 months. My son is still breastfed and since he went into Nursery at around 9 months he has fed more at night and particularly in the mornings between 6 and 7 am when he seems permenantly attached to my breast - we co-sleep. I intend to breastfeed for as long as I can or as long as he wants to.

Anyway, At the Nursery he regularly eats all his food - they tend to put the food on the highchair table for him and he eats with his fingers, or they spoon feed him things like porridge and yoghurt. However at home he really doesn't eat that well. He will help himself to a few shreddies and eat the odd bit of fruit and veg but refuses a spoon and still throws most stuff on the floor.

I have never managed to get him to eat a 'full meal' at home. Is this ok?
Now he is one should he be 'getting' food a bit more or could it be that because he knows he can get breastmilk from me he just prefers that?

I've just done a food course and the dietian basically said we should work towards 3 meals and 2 snack covering the healthy plate by the time children are five. She was more nuanced then that but kept reminding us that children will eat different amounts on different days (this is good as it means they eat to hunger). She also thought having two staged meals was good. either a first and a main course or main and desert (yoghurt ect) as this give the child a chance to eat again.
also her is a link to WHO about complimentary feeding
which says that an on demand breast feed 1+ would have approx 35%-40% of their calories from breast milk

Opps a bit epic can you tell DS is sleeping :o

" demand breast feed 1+ " umm what ...
what i was trying to say is a a child that is breast feed on demand who is over 1 years old.

and in case you had have enough of me already
if you look at the bit by Truthsweet calories thread it helps too

I would say that DS, when he is with me, is getting about 90% of his calories from breastmilk. He is now at home with me until 3rd January (as in not at nursery where they say he eats) and has hardly eaten anything. He refuses a spoon unless he is allowed to hold it and then he mostly just ends up waving it about and rubbing it into his clothes. He puts huge chunks of food into his mouth , chews then spits most of it out. he has seven teeth and has recently been given a bit of cows milk which he enjoyed

Can anyone who also does blw reassure me that I am not doing him any harm? I am finding the whole thing really stressful now.

One is just a quideline. All children reach their milestones at different times so some will be eating really well at 10 months and some might be 18 months.

You're certainly not starving him and as long as he's exploring tastes and textures, I would try not to worry too much.

Peer pressure can help a lot so when he's back at nursery, he'll probably be fine. I remember my niece eating hardly anything until she started to stay at nursery for lunch and she was 2 years old by that point.

My DS has always eaten better at nursery - he's now 2 1/2 and there's still things he'll only eat at nursery. He was on bottles from 6 months, but had dropped them all (except bedtime milk) by 12 months, but was still very hit and miss with how much he would eat when he was at home. I always worried about the same thing - that he just didn't seem to be eating - but I'd find he didn't incrementally eat better, each leap forward took me by surprise. Keep going, he'll be fine in the end.

Hello YF :) remember me? Your DS sounds just like my DD, she has never eaten a full meal and is still a little milk monster. I do worry about it but she is definitely not under weight and is happy and developing well.
I think I won't see a change in this until she is night weaned (still co-sleeping too) I originally thought that she would start to eat more and then gradually reduce her milk intake but it isn't happening and I think if I want her to eat more food I'll have to cut down on the milk.
She goes to a CM 3 days a week and is there 9 hours a day with no breast milk but still doesn't eat very much. I was thinking on cutting down the night feeds whilst I was off work over Christmas but she has been quite ill so it hasn't happened.
I hope your DS had a lovely birthday

Thank you BabyBouncer, since I posted he has started eating more - probably because I have spent more time just sitting there offering him a variety of things and waiting.

Hey there Kitty I am guessing that my son will still be feeding at night well past two at this rate. The last few days I have been trying to hold off breastfeeding in the day until he's eaten and it has worked ok so far. hope you are well :)

ok, so he is now almost 14 months and apart from a rare day where he eats fairly well he is still not eating much and has started just spiting things out. is this normal?