Just want to check doing ok - and ideas please! 10mth old

[janethommo]

Hi Ladies

Just want some moral support that my little girl is doing ok and some ideas to vary her food a bit as feel we're at a crossroads! She has just turned 10mths and weight is not a problem as she is on 91st centile for height and weight.

We've cut the morning bottle so she has 150ml formula at breakfast and 200ml at bed time with occasionally 150ml at 3pm ish if she hasn't had much cheese/yoghurt that day.

She is now on very thick purees/fork mash consistency which I use for one of her meals a day with lots of homemade veg/meat contents. She holds a spoon and plays with it with occasional loaded spoon going in and I use a spoon too so that she gets some!

I've tried lumpy food but she refuses big lumps and is better at finger food so she eats mini sandwiches, toast soldiers, cooked pasta shapes, broccoli, cucumber, grated carrot and cheese.

I've tried loads of other cooked veg sticks but she just hates it and drops them like a stone. Equally fruit is a challenge so we resort to mashed banana and custard (a fave) and fruit purees.

Does this all sound ok? Any ideas for more finger food etc? Just feel I keep offering the same old thing as new things don't go down well despite many tries! Is it ok to still use puree for fruit pots/pudding type things?

Thanks
Jane

I think she's not getting enough formula. Until they are one I think the recommendation is for 20 fl oz which works out at around 590 mls. At this age it is far more important to get the milk into them than the solids, so I'd concentrate on upping the milk for the next month at least. Once she is one the recommendation is for around 350 mls of cows milk per day.

If she's good with finger foods, have you had a look at the recipes on the BLW website?

Not saying that you should try BLW but if she manages finger food ok it might give you some ideas for trying different ones .

Will come back later to discuss, so really just marking my place, but been thinking about this for my 10 month old too.

From a milk perspective, he's still bf, so I don't know how much be gets, but he has a feed at night, then probably two more overnight and a morning feed (unless his last feed was 6ish) I will occasionally feed him in the day if he seems keen or I'm desperate for him to sleep and he won't any other way

Will be back!

Blast if you are tired, have you tried offering more bfs during the day? By tanking him up during the daylight hours he may sleep better at night. Also, until they are one the advice is to bf (or formula if you are ff) about an hour before solids so have you tried that too?

Have a read of 12 alternatives for the all night nurser and reverse cycling as I suspect that this is what he is doing with his bfs.

Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution too?

Hmmm re the milk amount, I went to local feeding clinic a couple of weeks ago as had stopped BF so wanted to know the recommendations now that we were on formula and HV said 500ml per day but it can include milk, cheese etc?! confused!

Will make sure she has the afternoon bottle then as tried to give her more first thing and she can only manage 150ml so will make the pm one 150ml so she gets 500ml per day.

Jane

Jilted - that was a really useful link with regard to reverse cycling - thank you. I'm fairly sure that is what he is doing. I'm back to work in three weeks, and aware he will only be able to be fed twice a day (three max) albeit it only three days a week. But he often isn't interested in the day if I offer, and is more keen to be off. He is easily distracted!

I read the no cry sleep solution with my first ds, and may have another look at it. It was very helpful, but I've forgotten a lot of it.

Tbh, although I'm not delighted by him waking so much, I just bring him into bed with us, and it's not too disruptive. He's about to go into his own room [sob], so hoping that might help... We'll see! I'll bring him back if it makes it worse!

jane

I'd say ds is on thick purees, and will have small lumps such as pasta, and has bread, toast, those heinz biscotti, grated cheese (not sure any of that goes in though), and rejects broccoli etc straight out. I will try grated carrot and mini sandwiches and see how that goes. I do pasta sauces with those tiny pasta stars.

I have recently made Annabel Karmel's fish fingers as finger food which went down reasonably well. I remember making apple and chicken balls and salmon footballs for ds1 and them being rejected out of hand after all that work - soul destroying!

YY to fruit pots and yoghurt for almost every pudding (but was inspired by your banana and custard tonight - went down very well!) - I think that's fine. He also has one in porridge for breakfast.

With ds1 I went and bought some shop bought pots to see what consistency I should be aiming for and found it quite helpful, but there is quite a lot of variation even in those.

I'm going to have a look at those BLW ideas for some finger foods I think too.

Is that helpful?

Blastoff - thanks for moral support, sounds like your ds is at a similar stage then!

Think i'll have a go at some homemade fishfingers or burger/patties too.

i'm going to check out the BLW recipes as suggested by JiltedJohnsJulie above - thank you!

Jane your HV is misinformed. They need 500ml of formula or they need to be supplemented with multivitamin drops. See

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/vitamins-for-children.aspx

This is the same for BF babies. The reason fully ff babies don't need the drops is because it's already fortified.

Well technically is vitamin D drops, but I haven't managed to find any in the shops that's only vitamin D.

Thanks - will make sure she gets 500ml. Stupid HV!

Just gave her 150ml before her nap so she has exactly 500ml now plus extra calcium each day from yoghurt/cheese.

Scrambled egg? Omlette?

Sadly many HVs don't give out information that is inline with NHS guidelines.