What should my 12 month old be eating?

[nicelyneurotic]

My DD is a year old and I was wondering what other babies were eating at the same age.

She is breastfed at night (hoping to stop this), has around 5-6 bottles of formula throughout the day and evening, as well as three meals a day. She picks at breakfast and lunch but eats a really good dinner. Chicken, fish, pasta, veg, toast and baby biscuits all go down well.

Do I need to cut down on formula now? And should I introduce juice?

I'm grateful for any tips!

Afaik re the formula you can start to swap to cows milk instead. You don't need to give juice ever if you don't want to - there's no particular benefit to it. You can just continue to give water with meals.

She sounds like she eats a good range of foods though which is great, and that she eats to her appetite.

DD is 11 months old, she has 3 good meals a day and 3 bottles 2x6oz and 1x8oz. Once she is 1 I'll drop the middle bottle and change her to cows milk, I'll also offer snacks twice a day. She only has water to drink and probably drinks about 6oz of water a day.

You can definitely swap onto cows milk now if you want, and you might find that more of lunch and breakfast get eaten if you begin to cut down on the amount of milk.

Definitely don't bother with juice - not great for teeth if had regularly. I'd stick to water with meals.

I'd agree with other posters re formula - you can swap to cow's milk and the recommended amount is 300-400ml per day I think, that includes any milk on cereals etc. Giving significantly more can affect their appetite for other foods. You may find it best to cut down the milk gradually so it's not too much of a shock to her. Also I think it's best to swap from bottles to cups around this age if you can - this will probably also help reduce the amount she's drinking as it's very easy for them to knock back a whole bottle without pausing for breath!

Around this age it's great if you can get them eating the same as you. That way they get used to family foods and hopefully set up good eating habits for the coming years. If you're anything like me then it will also mean that you end up eating more veg and less salt which can only be a good thing!

Mine is 12 months 1 week

6:30am 1-1 1/2 weetabix with fruit puree and cows milk

7:30 am breastfeed

10:30 rice cake(s) or something if he needs

12:30 sandwich (1 slice of bread) with sardines/hummus/peanut butter/whatever plus a yoghurt and a piece of fruit or equivalent sized meal

2:30pm 2-3oz cow's milk plus snack

5pm dinner, equivalent size to 1-2 ready made pouches plus fruit for pudding

5:45pm breastfeed

After a difficult start with sleeping, we night weaned and did some very gentle training. He now mostly sleeps 6pm-6:30 am with a nappy change (poo wakes him) if necessary, settling himself immediately after. He's currently cutting molars and is struggling, last night he slept 6:15-5:30, tonight he couldn't settle till 7:30

He needed encouraging, but if they're getting enough during the day they don't need the calories at night - is she bf for comfort? Can you spare a few days to bf lots during the day, then you can encourage her not to feed at night guilt free. I offered boob every 1.5 hours the day i started night weaning, then offered only cuddles all night which he accepted happily - originally the cuddles lasted the same length of time as the feeds but within days he wasn't needing to come out of his cot just switched his Ewan music back on and gave a hand to hold

Thanks so much. I've stopped breastfeeding in the day, apart from early morning, but yes, I think she feeds for comfort. She seems to be drinking a lot more milk than everyone else too. I'll have to reduce that somehow.

She eats the same as me for meals. I'll try her with cows milk but skip the juice. Thanks!

If it helps our day is like this:

08.00 6oz bottle

09.00 porridge with fruit purée

12.00 lunch equivalent of 1/2 a jar, finger food bits like rice cakes, then yoghurt and fruit for pud

14.00-15.00 6oz bottle

17.00 dinner same size as lunch

18.45 8oz bottle

What I plan to do in the next few weeks is drop the 14.00 bottle and offer a snack and some cows milk in a beaker at around 10.30 and 15.00

Have you started to introduce a beaker/cup/sippy? I found that on going bottle-free and only having a sippy cup (within the last fortnight), DS (11.5mo) changed his milk routine quite a bit. With a bottle he was having 8oz x 4 during the day.

He has:
Breakfast - porridge, fruit purée, followed by milk
Lunch - eg: slice of buttered toast, a sausage, 3 cherry toms, a clementine, fromage frais.
Dinner - eg: baked beans (1/2 snap pot), spinach, chicken pieces, toast fingers/rice/potato, rice pudding. Similar size to lunch, although sometimes he eats less than at lunch.

At home he doesn't snack much, sometimes he has extra tomatoes, clementine, grapes, or Organix snacks. When we're out he usually has more snacks. He has water throughout the day and the water cup also goes into his cot as he gets thirsty in the night sometimes. He is having half formula/half cows' milk atm, will switch to all cows' milk once the formula runs out.

Oops, meant to include: 7oz milk after breakfast, 7oz milk after lunch, 3-5oz milk after dinner.

My DD is 12 and a half months.

6.45ish - 5 oz cows milk from a sippy cup
7.30-8 - breakfast: 1 weetabix and half a piece of toast if still hungry
10.30 - raisins and a couple of rice cakes
11.30-12 - lunch: sandwich with one piece of bread: cheese and tomato/cucumber or something similar. 1 fromage frais

3ish snack: banana and water to drink.

5 - dinner: chicken or fish, carb, vegetable. Fruit if still hungry.

6.15 - 5oz cows milk from a sippy.

Perhaps a bit less formula will help her eat a bit more. Also, have you tried offering drinks in a sippy instead of a bottle? She might drink to quench her thirst then, rather than see it as a feed then she might eat more solids at breakfast and lunch.

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My dd has two bottles of cows milk.

Otherwise she has: 2 weetabix and fruit for breakfast, a sandwich (2 slices) or pasta for lunch, then whatever we are having for dinner.

She also drinks milk or water from a beaker.

She eats a lot at meals, as you can see, but doesn't really snack. They are all different.