9mo - am I giving her the right sort of food? What does yours eat?

[detachablehoof]

I find it really hard to know what to give my 9mo daughter to eat. I'd like to move away from "baby" food but I don't feel confident that she will get enough to eat if I don't spoon feed (and pouches are so jolly convenient!)

I have no worries about her growth (following her percentile line nicely and very active) and she's crawling etc so she's getting enough calories, but I do wonder if she needs more variety of food to get all the nutrients she needs?

A typical day looks like this:

Wake 9:30ish and have breakfast, usually baby porridge
5oz milk before her sleep at midday
Lunch at 13:30 - usually some cubes of cheddar and squares of buttered toast, or a baby food pouch. Then some fruit and maybe a yoghurt
Another 5oz bottle at 15:00 before her sleep
Dinner at 18:00 - usually a pouch or sometimes I'll give her bits of whatever we are having. Then a fruit pot or yoghurt for dessert
Another 5oz bottle at 20:00 followed by baby porridge and a banana
Bottle in bed at 21:30

I offer water with every meal. I don't offer snacks (guess at some point I'll be replacing her midday bottle with a snack)

I have looked online for ideas but everything seems a bit unrealistic / impractical (don't have much time to cook with a very busy gymnast underfoot 😅), so I'd love to know what 'real' mums are feeding their kids!

Also is 4 5oz bottles enough? She rarely finishes them. She used to have one in the night too but has just dropped that one.

Hi, mine are way past that stage but it does seem a wee bit like she is being conditioned to expect something sweet quite often. It's a hard habit to break. Maybe some more vegetables or plain yoghurt instead. I'm sure some others will have some more helpful and specific advice. Definitely try to have her eat more if what you have, it's less hassle. It might need to be the day after if you can't eat together. You can freeze extra so when your meal is less suitable, you have an alternative.

I can remember what DS2 had at that age.

Baby cereal for breakfast
Whatever ever we had for lunch and supper
Bf on demand

Mine isn’t even having breakfast yet! 😬 she generally has toast and yoghurt and fruit for lunch, whatever we have for diner and bf on demand.

Sounds similar to what my DS had at that age I think (it’s only a year ago but you forget quickly!) - but I don’t think I offered any food as late as 8.00 in the evening, I wouldnt even do that now. My DS has his last meal at around 6 now but wouldn’t have done at that age, we fed him at around 5ish I’m questioning the timings here, not the food - but if it’s working for you keep at it.

I thought the last meal seemed late too - but this baby sleeps TIL 9.30am. That’s the dream!!!!! (Op how have you managed this?!) So a later dinner and bedtime fits I think.

Mines only 7.5m, we are doing BLW but I’m finding dinner hard. Sometimes i remember to save ours from the night before, mostly I forget. Breakfast is usually also porridge (but normal not baby)/weetabix, lunch similar to yours OP, then dinner is often a repeat of lunch tbh! We have tried chicken fajitas, chilli com carne, spag Bol and a roast, all saved from our dinner the day before. We haven’t yet introduced 2 courses, I just chuck a mix of savoury stuff and fruit in front of her and she eats what she likes, often in weird combos!

DS is 9 months.
Breakfast is porridge made with oats and whole milk.
Lunch is usually leftovers from the night before like roast pumpkin or vegetarian lasagna.
Dinner is whatever we have, like lentil ragu or sweet potato chilli.

He’s breastfed on demand. I don’t do snacks.

Mine has weetabix with fruit puree sometimes for breakfast.

Lunch will normally be her 'big' meal and at the moment she loves whole roast veg so kibdo a selection of peppers, onion, courgette, sweet potato and squash in the oven and has it with a bit of chicken breast and she just picks away at it until it's gone.

Dinner will be melon, cucumber sticks, cheese on toast or similar.

She does have around 22oz in milk throughout the day so it sounds about right having 20oz.

My youngest has just turned 10 months.
For breakfast today he had weetabix and half a banana. We were out for lunch so he had a jacket potato with chilli and cheese. Dinner was steak, broccoli and potato wedges. He doesn’t have pouches or fruit pots or anything like that. If he has a pudding it’s something like Greek yoghurt with strawberries.

He also has around 20oz of milk per day (3 bottles of 6-7 oz).
I have two older DC (6 and 4) who obviously need feeding so I’ve found weaning him quite easy as I just give him what they’re eating!

I think I would start to introduce more of the same food as you're eating and gradually move away from pouches. I found pouches really smooth and weren't great for introducing textures. I also got suspicious when all the fruit ones were much the same colour!

I can only go by my experience, and obviously all babies will wean at different speeds, but my 7.5 month old on a typical day will eat adult porridge or weetabix mixed with fruit like grated apple, pear, whole raspberries and halved blueberries for breakfast, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, mushroom and spinach or omelete with toast for lunch followed by a yoghurt, and whatever we're having for tea like cottage pie, spag bol, risotto, pasta and hidden veg sauce. He also has 7oz bottle when he wakes in the morning, 4oz in the afternoon after his nap, and 5 or 6oz before bed. We started weaning at 5 months due to reflux and did a mixture of spoon feeds and BLW.

If you find time is an issue, try spending 10 mins when shes in bed just making a basic pasta sauce...I use frozen chargrilled veg, tin tomatoes, garlic and herbs..literally takes no time at all and can be frozen in small portions! Scrambled eggs is also really quick.

My DD is 9mo. Today she had Weetabix and banana for breakfast. Rainbow muffins with some veg sticks for lunch. And dinner was tuna pasta and then fruit for after. Yesterday she had scrambled egg and toast for breakfast, peanut butter wholemeal wrap for lunch with some veg, and fish with carrots and peas for tea. Snacks are things like Cheerios, some cheese, yogurt, pinwheels or homemade muffins, etc. She's breastfed but gets water with her meals.

We don't do pouches other than the odd fruit pouch for convenience as I tasted a few of the savoury ones and they taste like shit. Also she likes feeding herself and it's easier for us all to eat broadly the same thing and sit down together.

In terms of timing, DD is in bed by 6.30ish so dinner is 5.45. We had to adjust to eating early for us but it's actually been fine and I prefer that to doing two separate meal times. She has breakfast about 9ish as she has milk and a nap first thing after getting up at 7, and lunch is either just before midday or a late lunch at 2ish if she sleeps through it.

Timings... we do:

Milk at 6.30am when he gets up.
We all have breakfast at 7.30am
He naps 9.15-10ish
Lunch at around 12
Nap 1-2.30
Milk 2.30 when he wakes up
Dinner 5pm
Milk 6.30pm
Bed 7pm

Thanks all for sharing your experience! I have got a few new ideas to try.

I find it hard to "just give her what you have" as I don't eat very well - usually a breakfast bar first thing and then fast food or a microwave pizza for lunch (!). I do usually have a proper evening meal and try to give her what I can of that but often it either doesn't suit or I'm in a rush (we often go to church on a weeknight) so resort to the pouches!

I tried again with weetabix and she seems to like that, so am stopping the morning/night time porridge and giving her weetabix instead.

I've tried putting cream cheese on sandwich thins and that seems to go down well, as does chopped up babybel cheese and satsumas. I have tried egg a few times which has been firmly rejected. Veg generally seems to just get chucked on the floor but I guess I should keep trying!

Oh and yes she does get up late! It suits me for her to go to bed late and get up late. She normally sleeps 9:30 - 9:30ish. Hence the late evening meal :)

These are the foods I often give often (not all at once!) I aim for protein, carb and veg at lunch and dinner, as I find I can lean towards carb based. Breakfast: Weetabix, porridge, toast with peanut butter or cream cheese
Lunch: Scrambled egg, avocado, pre-cooked chicken, tomatoes, sweetcorn, toast, fish (fingers minus the breadcrumbs)
Dinner: What we are having particularly fish, pasta, mince, potatoes, small bits of meat, asparagus, baby corn, broccoli
Dessert: Fruit, natural yoghurt

DD is 7 months and we generally do:

Breakfast: toast topped with something (avocado, banana, peanut butter, raspberries) plus yoghurt and fruit. Occasionally a banana oatmeal pancake. Keep trying her on porridge but she's not keen

Lunches: sandwich fingers (cream cheese and grated carrot, hummus and grated courgette, boiled egg mashed with yoghurt and grated cucumber, guacamole); pasta with sauce (pesto and spinach – freeze loads of spinach purée in ice cube trays; tomato – basically a tin of chopped tomatoes reduced til thick, with herbs; hummus; cream cheese) and always grated cheddar on top. Stuff on toast: mashed sardines, for example.
Always serve veg sticks (red pepper, carrot, cucumber, sweet potato, tender stem broccoli, quartered cherry tomatoes) on the side or let her play with those while I heat her food. Sometimes fruit for pudding – strawberries or plum wedges.

Dinner: leftovers of whatever we had the night before: lightly spiced black beans and brown rice, roasted veg and polenta. Or pasta if she had a sandwich lunch. Or mini frozen things I've pre-made specially, like shepherd's pie, in case we don't have leftovers or had a takeaway. More veg sticks with dinner, fruit afterwards.

Every couple of days I quickly cut some veg sticks, steam if necessary; and roast sweet potato and potato wedges so there's always a Tupperware of veg and carb to combine with a Tupperware of reduced chopped tomatoes, or with cream cheese or yoghurt. She doesn't know what a meal is or that pasta and hummus and broccoli isn't one…

@burritofan loads of good ideas there thanks!!

In the morning, i would swap the baby porridge for 1 weetabix

In the evening, whatever your having rather than a pouch, i would add veg in with lunch as well....

Peanut butter is not recommended for babies

Egg whites arent recommend till 12 months old

My DS is 5.5 months. I started introducing jars at 4 months and he’s been trying finger foods for the last couple of weeks. Our routine is:
Breakfast at 9:30: Weetabix and mashed banana
Lunch at 13:30: One slice of bread folded over to make about 6 squares of either cheese or marmite followed by some fruit
Dinner at 18:00: Usually bits of whatever I’m having (which isn’t always super healthy either!) or a jar of it’s more convenient
He then has a rusk and milk at about 8pm before bed at around 10pm and I breastfeed him on demand throughout the day.
Good luck OP!

Octoberlovers - where are you getting that from? Its not true

Yeah, either that's just really outdated information or from a country other than the UK. Both are absolutely fine.

Peanut butter and egg whites are fine in the UK. If you're in another country, the advice may be different.

OP, follow SR Nutrition on Instagram. It's a great account for weaning tips.