When should I stop feeding my DS baby food?

[gemmeg]

Hello!
My DS is 11 months old and I was wondering when I should stop giving him baby food and only offer table foods. At the moment he has weetabix with fruit and whole milk for brekkie (obviously fed to him with a spoon) then mid morning he has finger foods such as toast and bits of fruit. Then at lunch I've been giving him a few finger foods like cheese, rice cakes etc and then offer him homemade baby food afterwards. In the evening, again, he has a bit of what we have such as small pieces of meat with rice or cooked veg then I give him his porridge with fruit which he's been having since he was about 6 months old. I'm worried that if I don't offer him his porridge or mashed food after his finger food meal that he won't eat enough and go hungry. Sometimes, especially if he's tired, he's not interested in even tasting the finger foods I offer him. He's a good eater and will often polish off a whole bowl of baby food even after he's had finger foods......how do I approach this without ending up with a crabby baby?

Some people only offer table foods from 6 months - google "baby led weaning". At 11 months he should be having pretty much whatever you are having (minus salt) - I think it's only honey which babies under 12 months can't have.

He really doesn't need mashed food or porridge after his proper meal. Babies are surprisingly good at regulating their own intake of food.

There are loads of threads on here with ideas of simple but tasty food which you can cook for you and him (think tuna pasta, omelette, baked potato, shepherds pie etc etc).

Thanks wigeon. I have looked into baby led weaning before and shall definitely be doing it with the next one! My main concern is that DS doesn't get enough food down him and sometimes doesn't touch it all. When I offer him baby food after, he often scoffs the lot. Do you think perhaps he's not making so much effort with the finger food because he knows he'll get baby food after?What should I do if he really doesn't eat anything?

I was also wondering about food such as stew which are more runny... can I expect my ds to feed something like that to himself?

Stewed meat was DDs favourite for a long time. I just took it out and shredded it then put some of the gravy on the veges. Helps if it a thick gravy.

Re stewed meat - it depends on your level of tolerance for mess, but as long as it's quite thick, then babies love to dunk their whole fist in something like that and stuff it in their mouths.

I think if you just cut out the baby food altogether, he will pretty quickly just eat the "normal" food. No baby ever intentionally starved themselves, and lots of babies at 11 months are just having adult-type meals and managing fine. If he doesn't really eat anything, I think you just have to not offer him something else - honestly, he will eat as much as he needs and then stop. Milk is still really important at that age, so keep giving him lots of that too.

Also, IME, babies and toddlers have wildly varying appetites from day to day or even week to week - some days mine seem to eat practically an adult portion, and some days (or even weeks) they seem to eat almost nothing. But it all evens out in the end (and they have both put on weight in a very healthy manner).

Today I just gave ds the same as what I had for lunch- we had cheese, sliced grapes, toast and carrot sticks! I think I wasn't giving him the chance to eat until he was full before because I knew he'd
fill up on baby food. We're having Schnitzl (I live in Austria ) and potato wedges for dinner so we'll see how that goes down.

Brilliant - sounds good.

Mmm, schnitzl!