Coming up to 1yo, where should we be?

[brokenmummy]

Hi all

Just wondering if my son is eating ok, variety and quantity.

He doesn't eat a huge amount and often refuses food or throws on the floor ( never refuses yogurt or fruit. Or breadsticks.) I think he's getting too much milk but not sure how to cut down. Also he's getting very fussy and starting to refuse spoon feeding which rules out so much of our family food - fish pie, shepherds pie, soup etc. All previous favourites.

Also he's quite funny about most carbs except bread - doesn't seem to like the texture of rice, not big on pasta and until recently loved mashed potato but now he won't take it as its spoon fed! This evening was half spoon fed half self fed - he would spit out exactly the same thing if it came on a spoon but happily eat it himself. I'm fine with that but need to think of more meal options!

Here is a rough (very good) day:

6am bf

830 breakfast - eg 1weetabix w cows milk, or equivalent amount porridge. Plus fruit - eg half banana, handful berries or half fruit pot.

10am - bf or 100ml cows milk (just introduced this week)

1230 lunch - eg 1egg cheese and broccoli omelette and half slice toast, or 3/4 stage 3 Ella's pouch, or 2xfalafel, half avocado, hummus and salad. Followed by frontage fraud or fruit.

230pm - bf

5pm dinner - eg 1x fish cake and roasted Veg, or 2-3xtbsp shepherds pie with peas. Followed by yogurt/fruit.

Bedtime 630pm - bf

Night - 2 night feeds.

Often if he refuses dinner I try and get some weetabix and yoghurt in him to fill him up for longer into the night. I desperately want to nightwean but that's another story!

So what do you think - is this an ok place to be at at 1yo, and what about the milk situation - too much?

Thanks!
I

Sounds fine to me - although if dinners not eaten I've never tried giving cereal to 'fill up a bit' - I just assumed that DD wasn't hungry so didn't want anything.

Also there's very little that can't be eaten with hands - that includes fish pie, Bolognese, stews...even soup - just put bread in the bowl first and pour some soup
on top. Worry about spoons later

DD 1 is one next week, She has bf when first wakes up although generally takes little and sometimes none, she then has:

Breakfast (~8am)- different selection from blueberries/raspberries/strawberries, cheerios, shreded wheat, porridge, scrambled egg, cottage cheese, yoghurt sometime with quark added generally flavoured just with the fruit. (It depends if me or DP is giving her breakfast and if I'm eating) All of it self fed, with her currently putting the spoon back in the bowl for yogurt, she can't fill it herself - and she'll try and drink from the bowl and get it all down herself as well as in her mouth.

Snacks - banana, apple, cheese, raisins, lassi. Sometimes bf

Lunch (~1pm), some leftovers from a previous nights dinner, or whatever we're having, although when that's sandwiches she tends not to eat them as she's not a fan of bread at all, and she'll just eat the filling - salad, tomatoes, cheese, ham etc. Also often have bean salads, or noodle salads or similar things like that.

More snacks offered and taken generally. Sometimes bf

Dinner (~6:30pm) will be what we're eating, if it's shepherds pie or similar she'll probably eat 4 or more heaped tbsps, she's been self feeding it with her hands since 6 months, scooped it nicely, likes cheese dishes, mince dishes, things which are easy to scoop, also potatoes always go down well, but we just give her what we're having and don't really worry how much she takes.

She tends to go down at about ~8:30pm with a breast feed, and wake maybe once or twice a night with a feed.

So quite a bit different, she sometimes goes all day without any bf'ing and minimal calories in drinks (just the Lassi, which tends to be given when DP is out so bf is not an option, we've stopped expressing at all now - and doesn't have a bottle now) but obviously eats quite a lot more during the day.

Are you sure he's not throwing food on the floor just as part of learning about throwing and your reaction, rather than actually having finished? In any case he sounds fine, currently still drinking lots of your milk, but that's nice and nutritious so should be fine, it's not too much, but more food is probably good - maybe start offering snacks alongside the bf's in the day?

Ok so more snacks. What sort of thing? Fruit? Crackers?

Should I just star by replacing a b with a snack, or offer both, and if so which first?

I'm not sure I could handle the mess of him eating shepherds pie with his hands. And I'm fairly certain he would t eat it, he'd throw it. He doesn't seem to enjoy mealtimes that much :( he does feed himself, but never with a smile or with huge excitement - he seems to take it very seriously! An when he's had enough, he shouts and whines until I take him out of he high chair!

I'm very sure that he is throwing food to annoy me as well as to learn about gravity! Am trying so hard not to be anxious about food but it doesn't come naturally...

I think the seriousness is just a sign of concentration. My dd is the same and I think she's just concentrating on new tastes and how to eat things .

Can you get over your thing about the mess, since it can always be cleaned up. Being relaxed about however your ds decides to use food will no doubt help him eat more and enjoy it

Honestly, he won't be doing anything just to annoy you. It may feel that way but babies are not capable of that.

brokenmummy my just-turned-1-DS very similar to yours - he enjoys the same stuff (but I am impressed with the amount yours eats!). He's just started refusing the spoon and wanting to feed himself - beef stew with rice this lunchtime, and I just have to chill as I watch him spread it around his face, into his ears, down the wall...

I think you could do with a cleaning-up procedure to get your head around being messy being ok (it's the only way he's going to learn I think). Eg long-sleeved bib and no trousers for feeding, a pile of cloths to clean up afterwards and a mental note that you'll repaint the kitchen when he's four.

And I agree with the others - he's concentrating on being a Very Clever Boy, learning to feed himself...

forgot to say re milk: DS cut down himself to one 210ml mid-morning and 240ml at bedtime (sometimes another 150ml during the night). If yours still taking a lot (and won't take water instead) he probably needs it...

sounds fantastic to me; wish my LO would eat anything like these ranges and amounts of food! Keep going.

Thanks all of you. I get really anxious about this and I know I shouldn't. I wish I'd been laid back enough to do BLW. Babies who are blw seem to have so much fun and really enjoy their food. DS really loves fruit and slurping from an ella's fruit smoothie but other than that he rarely smiles during meal times. But you're right - he is simply a Very Clever Boy and concentrating very hard!