Am I expecting too much / how much should a 9.5 month old eat

[Tryingno1]

My 9.5 month old doesn’t eat much! He might have 1/2good day/ and I think Whooopy and then we back to having hardly anything. He’s been like this since we started weaning at 5.5 months.

So a good day (prob happens once a fortnight) would be

Half a Weetabix and half an apricot

Then lunch 2 cubes worth of purée food at a push and if we are out 1 ella pouch

Dinner usually he has nothing at dinner as for some reason he hates it! He might have 1 cube of food at a push. Or a play with finger foods. Most ends up on floor

I offer finger foods with every meal. most of this is thrown on the floor or mashed up in his hands and then he laughs ! (Very cute but annoying!!)

He’s having 8oz in am (5 at 7am and 3 in the Weetabix) then 5 at 11am which I limit to try encourage lunch and then 3/4 at 4pm (if he’s had a lunch otherwise he wants more) and 8oz at bedtime.

Last 2 days I omitted the 4pm bottle tried to replace with a snack and try dinner at 5. No snack was eaten and no dinner.

So today I did the same. Pasta on floor, courgette on floor (both finger food) and lovingly made puréed lentil curry mouth shut. So I tried milk and he had 5 ounces pretty quickly. So he just hates dinner.

I’d say an average day is
Half a Weetabix and some fruit
1 cube worth of food with a small bite at some finger food
Dinner I’d say a small chomp at things - literally a chomp hardly anything swallowed all ends up on floor.

Any ideas or actually is this enough food and it’s fine?

I’m going back to giving him his 4pm bottle as omitting it didn’t work and made poor boy cranky.

Thinking of swapping bottle and lunch around? So he has more lunch?

Foods he eats happily are cheesy pasta and cauliflower cheese and Greek yoghurt. Those are the days he will have 2 cubes pretty quickly and then follow it with yoghurt and I feel really happy he ate!!! But the next day he might reject these! But in general they get eaten quicker and more often than anything else I make!

Hey,
My DD is exactly the same! She is 9mnths and doesn't really eat much at all, probably about the same as your DS. They say milk is more important for the first year so I have tried to not worry so much for now as long as she has her milk and I continue to keep offering her different foods and textures. I used to worry lots about it as everyone else's babies seem to eat loads!
I shall be watching any other replies to see if I can pick up some tips too but just wanted to let u know u r not the only one

How are his naps? Just thinking that if his meal times coincide with him being sleepy then that could be part of the problem.

I’d also be tempted to drop the 11am bottle, at that age I fed lunch early at around 11.30 the in place of the bottle and it was much more successful. I see why you’d be reluctant if he’s not eating much though, maybe offer lunch first then a bottle afterwards if he doesn’t eat much. And for now I’d stick to easy food he’s most likely to eat like yoghurt, cereal or pouches as there’s no point you spending hours on food prep just to have it chucked on the floor. Mine also didn’t ‘get’ finger foods until she was almost 1 so you’re not alone there!

My dd was exactly the same!
I was so worried! But as a pp says keep offering loads of different things, that what I did.
2yo now, eats anything and everything and like a horse too!

I'd say just don't worry too much at all and remember that food before aged one is just for fun. Milk's his most important source of food still.

Hi Op,

To be honest your little one is a better eater than mine LG. 😊

She's nearly 11months and just nibbles on her finger food, so much lovely home cooked food ends up in the bin.
We thought she had CMPA but it turned out she doesn't and to my little ones relief she can now devour Greek yogurt again, that's the only thing she takes interest in after a meal.
She's also just below the 9th percentile so desperate to try and fatten her up a little as she was on the 50th when born. Anyway, I've not even started to introduce snacks yet even though my HV is keen I do so, I think I'll just have to follow her lead, but I'm prepared now that she probably won't even be eating that much by 1yrs,
I'm on the BLW Facebook group and some mums say that there little ones didn't really start eating until 15/16 months.

Thanks guys! That’s really reassuring. I just keep hearing how all my nct lot have dropped bottles and eating loads. We not really near that at all!

Naps are 10-1045 and then 145-4 so dinner was 5 and lunch 1 but I think I’ll
Move lunch to 11/1130 tmrw (annoying time as we usually go out st after morning nap daily!) but anyways and I’ll report back!

Yes very depressing having my lovely food flown across the kitchen after I’ve spent time cooking and blending it, then reblending it incase it’s too textured or adding more tomatoes incase too much garlic or a low salt stock cube to give more favour or some water to give it less flavour

Clearly lost the plot over this today!!!

@Tryingno1 I know what you mean, all my NCT group are eating so well. Actually as of late, I don't discuss it if I can help it, otherwise it starts to get you down. We are still on 5 bottles but she doesn't drink them all, have tried to get her to drop a bottle, but won't increase food, so have to just follow her lead.
We have lunch about 11ish as well, so it means afterwards we can go out without faffing about with lunch whilst out. We've also been on 3 meals a day since 6 months on HV's advice and it's made no difference to her eating, but at least she's use to a variety of textures.
Also blend some meals here too, or offer some chicken pieces and blend also and she'll take little bits of both. I think all we can do is keep going 😊 they will eat eventually and may just not have big appetites x

Thanks poppyseeds I’ll try be more chilled about it tmrw! Sometimes he has it very textured and other times will spit out all the bits! He’s recently started rasberrying out the food and finds himself hillarious. The food ends up on my clothes the floor his face if it wasn’t so cute I would be very cross! Yes dropping milk meant he was hungry but still didn’t eat!?

Will try lunch other way around tmrw and report back!

At 9 months, I would move away from purée completely. I think that’s probably a perfectly fine amount, but it seems silly at this stage to build up to eating more of purée and then switch to finger foods and start all over again. When you’re totally on finger food as well, it’s a lot harder to get caught up in quantities. And frankly, you probably don’t think those purées are very tasty so babies don’t necessarily either.

We did blw from the start with my dd, but definitely it wasn’t until 10 months that she was eating any amount close to what I’d consider like an actual meal. Then once she got the hang of it, she just took off after that.

So he had a big lunch! And then I did bottle 2 hours later

But refused all dinner again tired purée and a multitude of finger foods , no idea wot the issue with dinner is. Was after a nice long nap and 2 hours post a bottle (pre nap?) anyways at least he had lunch and had his usual brekkie. Will mean he won’t last till 7pm for his night time bottle not sure when he will want it though...

I’ll stick with the 1130 lunch and bottle after for now and hope that helps with lunch size for now.

And yes need to move more twds finger foods but he often just throws them on the floor but I offer it every single meal along side purée / mashed food.

Dont look at the daily intake. Look at what he eats in a week. And remember that foods for fun until theyre one.

Out of interest what is a cube of food?

Oh I mean an ice cube - mine are 60mls. I’d say he has similar amounts most days to be honest....

I know they say that, but then they also say they should start dropping bottles too!