Portion sizes for a 12 month old?

[Frenchsticker]

DD loves her food and I'm wondering if I should cut down her portions - had lunch yesterday with a 2.5 year old who ate a smaller meal! She's getting to the stage where she cries when she gets to the end of a meal and asks for more, even though I think she's had a lot. She self-regulates her milk intake but when it comes to food she always eats the lot. She likes to feed herself but shovels it in so fast that I have to pause her every few minutes or she'd wolf down a plate of pasta in 2 minutes.

Can anyone tell me what portion sizes you serve for eg. pasta, something on toast, cereal, fruit, pitta bread, meat dishes?

For lunch today she had 1 pitta bread (a whole one cut in half, she ate both bits) stuffed with tuna and sweetcorn and a bit of mayo, followed by half a pear.

Lunch yesterday was two fish cakes, each about the size of a credit card, with peas. Dinner was 18 penne pasta tubes with tomato and vegetable sauce.

If she has cheese/sardines on toast she had two slices with the crusts cut off. I genuinely think if I doubled the size of these meals she'd still eat them! But surely it's better than having her go hungry?

I used the little plastic Ikea plates - so a portion was a bowlful of pasta etc. I only ever gave DS one piece of toast with cheese/beans on it. To be honest, his portion sizes haven't really increased between age 1 and age 3!

Is she overweight? If not and you are giving her healthy food and she is feeding herself then I'd let her have what she wants. Maybe start by offering a smaller portion, then if she finishes that encourage her to have a break and drink a beaker of water before deciding if she is still hungry.

My dietician says a healthy portion is the size of the persons fist curled up.

So a roast for instance your LO could have a portion of potatoes the size of her fist, a portion of meat and a portion of each veg.

As long as the foods healthy and she's not overweight I wouldn't worry too much.

How much does she drink? Could she be confusing hunger with thirst? She may just up her milk intake, if you reduced the food slightly.

I wouldn't say those sound like ridiculous portions op

My dd is almost 9 months

A meal for her would be a small bowl of pasta (never counted how many pieces) and a bit of garlic bread then a full piece of fruit (unless banana) or a small yogurt

Today she has eaten

Porridge made with 3oz milk
A tuna mayo sandwich
Half a banana
Small yogurt
Baby biscuit

It's more than mine would have eaten.

Ie would never have eaten x2 pieces of toast with topping. Now at 4 eldest would have one piece of bread folded in half for a sandwich, 1 slice of toast. Both with some fruit/ veg.

A portion is roughly the size of their fist. Ie for a 12 month old dinner would be a baby fist of pasta in sauce (about 6 pieces), a largish stalk of brocoli and 1/4 chicken breast

Thanks for the replies. She's eating way more than the fist-sized thing, though it can be difficult to measure out because I tend to give her more casseroles etc than meat and 2 veg type meals. Our GP said her weight was ok but she's definitely a chubby one. I'll have a think about the water - she stops eating to drink from her cup a couple of times and will also drink some if I ask her to, but she only takes a couple of sips each time. Tbh she starts nursery soon so I guess that'll regulate what she eats during the week, she'll get the shock of her life!

My 12 month old regularly eats more than my nearly 4 year old if that helps. Don't forget babies of that age are growing so quickly - they need about half the calories of an adult which when you look at the size of them compared to us, is a huge amount of food.

It's unusual for babies of that age to eat when they are not hungry so I would tend not to worry. Definitely offer water with meals though as others have said, as thirst can be confused with hunger.

HTH