Getting a balanced diet when BLW

[IShallCallYouSquishy]

My DD is 9.5 months. We started off spoon feeding but she's enjoying more and more feeding herself "real" food so I'm heading down that route. My concern is getting to eat a balanced diet.

Today's lunch for example was a mini pita bread with naice ham, some cherry tomato halves, apple slices and a yogurt (spoon fed). Bread - goood, ham - goood, tomatoes - barely sniffed at, apple - sucked a little but all 3 bits eventually on floor.

This is pretty much how it always goes. Loves the carbs and meat. She loves cheese. Will eat bananas like they're going our of fashion but any other fruit and veg is barely touched. I'm worried she's going to grow up not eating healthy. I see all my friends babies tucking in to such healthy balanced food and just want my DD to be the same

Sorry posted too soon. Should add that's she's BF and has 4 BF's a day so I know she's getting lots of nutrition from that. Just how the bloody hell do you get them to eat healthily?

Could you offer the fruit and veg as a snack or seriously cut down on the portions of carbs and protein?

TBH I've not even thought about snacks! I just do her 3 meals a day and her BF and not sure how to fit them in. I guess as I'm trying to give all food groups at meals that's why I'm making sure there's carbs and protein. Will try lunch tomorrow with just a load of veg and maybe just a few pasta spirals or something.

I just really don't want a non veg and fruit eating child!

Ds was a bit like this so I've had to get creative. I do Veg muffins full of mushrooms, spinach, etc, or carrot,apple and raisin. They go down really well. I also puree veg and use it in risotto.

Veg are the least important part of a babies diet, the energy density is too low, a "balanced diet" for a baby is not the same as a "balanced diet" for an adult. The nutrient mix required is completely different (the amount of essential proteins and fat required is a much higher proportion of the calories required than older considerably more active humans)

Getting the few carbs they need from fruit and veg rather than bread might be a good idea, but it's not essential.

It appears to me that she's choosing high energy density food, so appears to know more about her needs than you - which isn't surprising animals and humans without social conditioning are very good at maintaining a healthy diet.

They don't need huge quantities of food at 9.5 months. Mini pita, ham, toms, apple etc sounds like a lot, so maybe she doesn't eat it all because she's full.
Neither of my 2 ate a whole piece of toast until they were well on the way to being 3, so I wouldn't worry about it. Milk is still really important at this age as well. At 9.5 months i wouldn't expect a huge amount to be actually eaten, they are still exploring and learning what to do with it. Sucking stuff and chucking it on the floor is fine. If they're hungry they'll eat! It's great you're doing BLW as your DD will be judging her own appetite and it sounds like that's what she's doing. Just keep offering a balance of food - maybe fruit and veg as snacks, which she'll need more of as she gets bigger, not so much now maybe.

DS tended to go through mini phases of favouring certain food groups over others. So some days he would be packing in the protein and the rest wouldn't get a look in, and then a few days later he would go for carbs and veg etc. It tended to even out in the long run so I figured he knew what his body needed and left him to it. As Fred says, a balanced diet for a baby is different from that for an adult.

Ultimately, all you can do with BLW is offer a good variety of food and leave them to it.

I recommend the book "my child won't eat" by carlos gonzales. It reassures you that babies will know what they need and provided you offer them a good diet in front of them, they will naturally take what they need. It usually balances out over the course of a week.