Why is food for fun before 1?

[benne81]

I see this phrase quoted all over mumsnet and I wonder if it is really correct. I understand that a baby can get all their nutrition from the milk up until one but shouldn't we be encouraging our children to take solids and prior to one replacing milk feeds with regular meals. Children can get c
Kim from many other sources as well. I sometimes think this phrase is misused and makes people think that introducing food isn't as important.

I have an interest particularly in this as my 10 month son just isn't particularly interested in milk and is rapidly dropping feeds but has a massive appetite for food, but this 'food should be fun until one' phrase freaks me out that I'm doing something wrong.

Kim = calcium!

Thanks for replying - if my DS is eating very well do you know if there is a minimum amount of milk they should be having? He is currently drinking lots in morning (bf so not sure of precise amount) and has dropped all milk feeds in the day. I am trying to introduce a beaker of milk at night (bottle refuser) and last night he took 100mls only - although this was the first night of trying so might increase if he gets the hang of it.

He eats three large meals and snacks if offered. I am making sure he has yoghurts, cheese and milk on cereal etc everyday as week as the obv protein & fruit & veg. Just not sure if he is having too little milk. - sorry prob should be a new thread!

its' because of the relative calorie intake. babies under 1 just can't get that many calories from the kind of food we can give them (fruit, veg, basic carbs)..

'fun' probably isn't the right word (it just rhymes) - it should be "food for learning to chew, swallow, manual dexterity, familiarity with textures.. before one"

it might be interesting to add up the amount of calories in the food your DS is eating and compare it to the amount he was taking on pure milk before he started eating.. it shouldn't have gone down...

but that's just for interest, i wouldn't get obsessed, i believe most babies will eat what they need if they dont have any health problems or stress issues around eating.

If you are ff, you should be aware of this

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/vitamins-for-children.aspx

Basically if he's drinking less than 500ml formula, he should be given multivitamin as supplements. Otherwise, just go with what he wants to eat.

Ah just see you are bf. I'm sure just going with the flow is fine. I think the mantra is more to stop people pushing for solids when baby is far too young. Basically the 'no rush to mush'

www.nhs.uk/start4life/pages/babies-introducing-solid-food.aspx

In this culture we have a tendency to push our children to the next stage when they aren't ready. (Solids, milks, carseats). We seem to see it as a milestone to achieve, and explaining it away as 'mums know best'.

maybenow but fruit, veg and basic carbs are not ideal because as you say such low energy density food and hard digestability food means they fill up on food that doesn't meet their needs - milk or formula will make up for it in that situation.

Energy dense food with a good mix of fat and protein (needed more by babies especially pre walking/crawling babies where the carb needs are even less) is what's best as complimentary food.

Food is not purely fun before 1, but outside vitamin D (in the winter or in northern latitudes particularly if dark skinned or kept out of the sun or covered in sun cream) then it doesn't matter if it is purely fun, the breast milk or formula will meet all the needs long past 1 year old. It's why it doesn't really matter how you wean just so long as you get some food inside them, if you go for high energy dense food with a good nutrient mix then it's likely some milk will be dropped sooner than if you just stay with low density carb food (most fruit,veg and grain).

Animals that can choose what they eat will normally choose an appropriate nutrient mix to meet their needs very well, what goes wrong in humans normally that make so many of us fat is calories which are triggered by another mechanism such as drinking full fat coke when you're thirsty, or eating cake after cake because you've associated it with happiness/pleasure etc.

agree Fred - i was using those examples because most babies start on toast, wheatabix, sweet potato, pear, bananas... and really compared to BM or Formula they are not nearly as useful to the baby's body.... they are for as i said practicing eating skills rather than nutrition.

Pretty sure if your LO is self-weaning from BF and eating lots (inc dairy) then it's fine. As said above, my understanding of "food is for fun until they're one" is to stop people stressing about how little their LO is eating and thinking they "should" be having lots of solid food rather than saying there's anything wrong with babies eating solids well. (Just see the number of threads on here saying "my 10mo hardly eats anything what should I do")

Mine both wanted food, none of that horrible milk stuff! And had no intention of considering food as fun. They are both happy and healthy with huge appetites. Both drank little milk by the time they wre 1, DS condescended to drink a bed time cup, DD didn't even do that. But both loved yogurt and cheese and I made quite a lot of milky sauces, macaroni cheese and things like fish pie were firm favourites and gave them lots of calcium.