How much does your 8 month old eat?

[NichyNoo]

DS2 is nearly 8 months old. He was EBF for 6 months and was 100th centile for most of that time. He is now about 75th centile so still very big for his age. I moved to formula at 6 months and started introducing food.

I am worried that he is eating too much. He would happily stuff food in his mouth all day and cries when his puree is finished. As an indication he eats:

6am - 240ml formula
8am - half weetabix with cow's milk or half jar of baby yoghurt/porridge
12pm - approx 100g food (either homemade puree or a HIP jar/Ella's pouch)
2pm - 210ml formula
5pm - 100g fruit puree plus nibbles (baby biscuit/half slice of toast)
7.30pm - 240ml formula
Middle of night - 150ml formula

DS1 never ate this much and was never this big. Does it sound too much to you? Maybe I should reduce size of meals and offer more fruit/veg snacks during the day? Thanks

What's his height centile like? Its difficult to comment on what a baby eats without seeing him or knowing if his weight and height are in proportion

If you do want to regulate his solids a little more I'd try moving the balance a little more in favour of finger foods so try porridge fingers, blueberry pancakes or just a banana for breakfast.

A sandwich, eggy bread, slice of omelette, strips of meat or cubes of cheese with finger size chunks of veggies for lunch. You can always give the fruit purée as a pudding.

Thank you for the comments. DS is tall (can't remember how tall exactly without finding his red book) but he is a good deal longer than other babies we see his age. He also has big feet (size 3) and big head so large in proportion rather than just chubby.

I have tried mashed cauliflower cheese and he coped so will definitely move more to mashed rather than pureed food. He starts nursery soon so I guess I'll have a better idea once I can actually see how much the other babies eat as well.

Hi, I could have posted this!

my DD is 9 months + 1 week but was born early so is nearly 8 months corrected age. She's similar centile to your DS weight wise, not sure about height wise. She looks in proportion I think - chubby of course, as babies are, but not with massive rolls of fat or major double chins iyswim.

She eats pretty much the same amount as your DS - I don't know about milk as she's bf but food wise it's the same.

However I have noticed she has eaten a bit less in the past few days. I am wondering whether they stock up on food in preparation for the big effort of getting mobile?

since dd was early and tiny when born I tend to regard extra eating and weight as a good thing so not too worried about it, but maybe ask the HV if you're concerned? If he's dropping centiles though, chances are they won't think he's having too much!

Went to the baby clinic today and he is 9.5kg (almost 21lbs) which is about 90th centile. The HV didn't seem worried at all. He ate omelette and strawberries for tea......it took me almost 18 months to get DS1 to eat omelette and he still refuses strawberries....such a pleasure to know that DS2 will eat anything

Totally agree! Long may it continue. Funnily enough strawberry is one of the very few things DD has rejected, eggs are a winner though.

Out of interest did you do the omelette as finger food or mash it up or what? I need to move away from purées ...

At 8 mo my dd ate about double this. She is now 10mo and continued to try and eat me out of house and home. Agree with the others re more finger foods. I work on the basis of if she is putting in her mouth she is hungry for it. People continually express astonishment at the size of her meals and she is 50th centile weight and probably higher centile height. In sure you dc is fine.

One other thing, is he very active by any chance? DD is constantly active - she's not crawling yet but always moving as much as she possibly can, trying to bum shuffle, kicking her legs, throwing herself forwards from sitting, rolling etc. I presume that's where all the calories go...

Yes he is very active, desperately trying to crawl and is kind of commando crawling with his arms underneath his body. I chopped the omelette up and put the pieces in his mouth in the end as he gets food in his fist then puts the fist in his mouth and cries with frustration as the food is trapped inside his fist.

Its good he coped well with the omelette and strawberries and from what you have posted, I don't think you have anything to worry about at all

Hey OP, my DS is 8mo and is a reasonably big baby: 75th centile for weight and height. he weighs 20lb. he eats more than your LO at meals, so if it seems like your LO is hungry all day, maybe try offering more food/more filling food at meal times? It might be his way of telling you that he is ready to move on from purees? My DS is certainly more happy, content (and sleeps longer during the day!) now that he is having proper food, rather than Ellas pouches and hmemade purees.

DS's favourites include homemade pasta sauce (passata tomatos, diced veg) with little lumps of brown pasta in (you can buy baby pasta shells from boots which are nice and small, but I just chop up normal fusili cos it's much cheaper), with cheese grated on top. Tinned salmon and pasta in a cheese sauce, mashed potato with spinach and cheese, toast fingers etc etc. I had a load of Ella's pouches left in my cupboard (the vegtable ones) so i used these as pasta sauces for DS for a week or so to use them up.

Btw, all babies are different, but for comaprison my DS has a whole weetabix with whole milk and half a mashed banana for breakfast, and then eats the other half of the banana as finger food . Maybe he is storing up eergy for crawling, as he is getting pretty close to doing that!

My little one usually manages a whole wheetabix in the morning, then a yogurt at 10am then whatever we having for lunch (cheese sandwich today 1/4 plus fruit) then rice pudding then some pasta. Plus he has had around 550 ml of formula. He is a hungry boy. I feed him the sloopy food as he gets frustrated the rest he feeds himself. I must get him weighed again. He is 7 and a bit months corrected. He is wearing 9 -12 month clothes ....

My 7.5mo has 4 210ml feeds, a whole weetabix + berries, fingers of toast/cucumber/cheese/fruit fur lunch, our tea mashed up (butternut squash and pasta tonight), yoghurt, rice cakes and fruit. He can commando crawl and never sits still. He's on the 9th centile. No idea where he puts it all!