breakfast difficulties - porridge?

[Portlypenguin]

Hi,
My 7.5mo old DS is very small for his age (just 0.4th centile in red book) and I am desperately trying to find things he likes to eat and encourage him along. For milk, he was EBF until weaning and now is combination fed with formula - I have been trying to switch to bottles pre returning to work but he is not reliable at taking them yet. I am doing purees/mashed foods followed by finger foods at each meal, with finger food snacks mid-AM and mid-PM.

Breakfast is a problem..I can't get him to eat any of the 'baby cereals' or weetabix or porridge/ready brek. Tried making up stewed fruit and baby rice combos but those were rejected too. THe only things he will eat are fromage frais (sometimes) and heinz mums own porridge jars (expensive and sugary).
I give him toast with butter and 100% fruit spread afterwards and he chews/sucks those.

What do you give your babies? Any porridge secrets to share to make them eat it? Do you use full sized oats or grind them up?

Any breakfast ideas or tips very welcome! I do a bit better at other meals as he likes more things, although some meals (eg this lunchtime) he just refuses to eat anything.

Thanks!

Mostly

1. toasts or rice cakes with spreads like cream cheese, fruit jam or peanut butter.
2. cereals like shredded wheats and cornflakes

I put a small amount of jam in the porridge or mash in a banana

i really wouldn't worry too much!
he is only 7.5 months, if he doesn't fancy much/any breakfast it's not a big deal.

breastmilk or formula is way higher in calories than any breakfast product you can offer, so if he is happy to have milk for breakfast then go with that.

if your son has always been small and has roughly been sticking around the same centile then there really is no reason to worry... he might just be small! someone has to be down there :)

if you're concerned then maybe see if you can get a copy of "my child won't eat" by carlos gonzales

also, don't know if you've considered this, but you can continue to breastfeed, if you want, after you go back to work? just do morning and evening feeds and he can have formula or EBM during the day

DD is 2 and still loves ready brek (with gold top milk to maximise calories) with a good squirt of ella's kitchen or similar fruit puree in. Banana and apple or peaches and bananas are her fave. Plain porridge is a bit grim really

Have you considered french toast? (or Eggy bread if you're common like me) So long as the egg is cooked through properly I think it's safe to give, alternatively scrambled egg (again cooked through) or beans on toast? We've also had mashed avocado which went down well (my dd is 7.5 mths too)

I used to add all sorts to porridge or readybrek to get my fussy DS to eat it:

a little dollop of jam
mashed bananas
a little spoon of cocoa powder
honey or even a bit of maple syrup
fruit puree or those Ella's Kitchen pouches mixed in to porridge

There is loads of sugar in the readymade baby breakfasts and desserts (hasn't Petit Filou got seven teaspoons of sugar per pot or something stupid?), so it is probably better to just add your own sweet stuff to things yourself.

I'd go along the cooked breakfast route - eggs probably the easiest, or fruit with plain yoghurt over it. Pancakes go down well if you can be bothered - crepes or drop scones.
My 9 mth old really isn't interested in food til about 9am - he has milk (bf) around 6, and then munches on my buttered crusts while his older brother has toast, and then about 9 both boys have cereal. We often then have a fruit snack before lunch.....
We also vary the bread - crumpets, english muffins, bread.

Thanks for all the thoughts. I think I'll try the cocoa powder tomorrow! I've tried loads of different fruit purees (homemade, bought etc) to no avail. I was putting off giving honey (or peanut butter on toast/rice cakes) until a year.
I will try the cooked option on days when I have time - just that everything still seems to take me so long!

DS was initially on 25th centile at birth and gradually dropped off. He has been on 0.4th for the last 3 months and pretty much staying there. We are under the paediatricians and he has had lots of investigations for why his weight gain has been so poor. Luckily nothing has turned up so it is likely he is just mini.

Will report back!

Its only honey that you can't give because of botulism. The shredded wheats I use are the ones with fruity jammy things inside so they are sweet. Have you tasted the porridge with the fruit purees? It's probably not sweet enough as I do cook porridge myself and I normally add sugar in addition to fruit (or use stewed fruit I syrup).

My DS loves normal porridge oats made up with full fat cows' milk, microwaved for three minutes. Have you tried warming the Weetabix?

Can I just highlight that honey should NOT be given to babies under 12 months!

If he's happy with finger foods then porridge fingers go down well here. They're best when mixed with fruit (usually grated apple) so I usually do 3-4 tablespoons of oats with same amount of milk and about a third of an (eating) apple grated in. Mix together in a flat bottomed bowl so the mix is 0.5-1cm thick and microwave for a couple of minutes. Leave to cool then cut into pieces.

Have also mixed in blueberries but it's very purple and messy :-)

The other one we do is mash some banana up and then stir in some oats, and sometimes some baby rice, until it goes stiff. Roll into small balls (like making truffles!). Sometimes I mix a few blueberries into this as well.

We had great success with porridge fingers (from baby led weaning cookbook) after months of trying to get our DD to eat breakfast cereals from a spoon. Use 3 tablespoons of ordinary rolled porridge oats, add the same amount of milk, and cook on high for 2 minutes in the microwave. Once cooled, cut into fingers. Just in the last few weeks, we have started to re-try her on weetabix and adult-like porridge and she's doing much better than before.

Good luck!