3 meals a day and desperately need advice!

[freddotalks]

Hi! I’m just looking for some weaning advice for my 7.5 month old. He’s great with some foods - he will demolish porridge, toast, fruit etc but he’s really not keen on veggies or meat. He’ll eat a veggie pouch of Ellas kitchen but no matter how array of veg I steam and stir fry he’ll barely eat any. I can sometimes get him to eat a bowl of sweet potato mash and peas but that’s the most really.
He’s on 3 meals a day, sometimes he eats loads and sometimes the bare minimum. These are the main things he’s eating.

Breakfast: Toast with cream cheese or marmite. Blueberry/banana/or summer fruits porridge.

Lunch: Cream cheese and cucumber sandwich, cheesy pasta, sweet potato mash, blueberry wafers, melty puffs

Dinner: Cheesy pasta, sweet potato mash and peas or Ellas kitchen veg pouch followed by yoghurt or puréed fruit/mashed banana.

What can I do? I’ve tried my own veg purées, spag bols.. all sorts. He’s just not interested and I’m worried he’s not eating well enough. Any advice or meal ideas?

Sound like he eats more than my baby of the same age. I’m not at all worried.

When you say he won’t eat veg if that puréed stuff or finger stuff.

@Selfsettling3 I know he's eating well, I'm just worried not well enough as in variety iyswim? He is pretty much having the same things I've put on that list every single day which is my concern? I've tried both purées and finger food veg - not interested

I would just keep offering new things and if he eats them then great if he doesn’t then offering the same new food again next week.

At this age is day more important to expose him to the fuss than him actually eat them. Food before one is fun.

So just keep giving him a wide variety of foods, sometimes he'll eat more than others but it's more important he's exposed to a variety of Yates and textures at this age. Are you vegetarian as there's no meat?

What about giving him foods he can pick up and eat himself? Chicken strips, corn cobs etc.

Thank you, will keep trying! What sort of meals are you offering your DC? I'm struggling for ideas!

@LefttoherownDevizes We've tried offering meat and he's just not interested in that or veg. I haven't tried chicken strips out of sheer fear of choking but have given him spag bol either to messily feed himself or puréed and spoon fed and he's still not interested

I was recommended these spinach and banana pancakes which have been a big hit not only with my 7 month old but also my veg hating 3 year old www.yummytoddlerfood.com/recipes/breakfast/banana-spinach-pancakes/ . I've made a big batch and frozen them, and then microwave for 30s to defrost in the morning for breakfast.

Of all the green veg other than peas, I've found broccoli goes down the best with all three DC so might be one to try persisting with.

Having said that he's eating quite a bit more in total than my 7 month old so I don't think you need to worry!

He's still very little though, and he won't be interested if you don't give it to him.

It really is more important at this stage to expose him to lots of different things, milk is his main source of calories and nutrients so don't worry if he doesn't eat much.

I used to make mine done really nice Annabell Karmel chicken ball things using grated apple and onion, so try with different textures of minced/whole/poached meat. Also chicken drumsticks are good as easy for them to hold off your remove the pin bone.

Are you eating the same things with him? Babies love to model and copy. At this age most of his nutritional needs are met by milk so don't worry too much

Otherwise, at lunch I also do hummus or peanut butter (as well as the cream cheese and marmite you already do) to mix it up a bit. I also give him bits of ham or salami.

At dinner, I've found stews work well for getting them to eat veg, I think because the flavour is a bit more hidden ln - just leave a few bits in big pieces so they can pick them up.

He will still be getting most of his nutrition from his milk so he is probably fine....

However,in terms of advice.... Id reduce the melty puffs and the blueberry wafers they are giving him nothing from a nutritional
Point of view and probably giving him a sweet tooth as will lots of bananas. He is likely to turn his nose up at most savoury things if he thinks stuff like this in alternative option.

Id probably give meals he will demolish breakfast and dinner ( so u know he is full) and offer things he prefers less for lunch?

Breakfasts... apple puree,cinnamon and weetabix, crumpet with peanut butter, slice of fruit toast and a satsuma.

Sounds like a lot of cheese in general? He probably finds home made puree bland compared to shop bought or cheese based sauces. Could you do ham sandwiches? Tuna? Peanut butter? All alternative protein sources... this could also work for pasta.

Hot meal ideas....
Fish pie, scrambled eggs, shep pie

Or google some Annabell karmel ideas,she does chicken and apple balls and other savoury/sweet combos. Puree beef and swede,pea and spinnch pasta sauce.... hers freeze really well so can be made in batches and frozen.

Lunch ideas
Hummus and pitta strips? Cooked and cooled carrot sticks and mint yoghurt dip. Strips of ham and tortillas cut in to strips too.

Perhaps roast the veg rather than puree as the flavour is likely to be more appealing.

Just be conscious that this stage is about getting him used to a wide aray of flavours and textures not just giving him meals he will eat. Perhaps start another thread specifically asking for meal suggestions for 7.5 month old and it may inspire you xx

Introduce a new food very gradually alongside a food he already eats, and don’t rush from one food or texture to the next.
I used fish cakes to gradually get my DS to eat fish. First I started with about 90% potato and only 10% fish! I gradually increased the proportion of fish to potato and I don't think he noticed.
I also got him eating eggs by starting with savoury pancakes and gradually turning them into omelettes! I also did fried rice with only a tiny bit of egg in at first and slowly increased the egg. He now is fine with scrambled egg on toast and omelettes, and I've started doing quiches, but he still won't touch boiled, poached or fried.
We moved from chicken nuggets to nuggets with less breading to pieces of a grilled chicken breast and eventually to chicken with noodles or rice.
Stick with it. You've probably heard it before: apparently a child has to try something 6 times before they accept it and ten to 15 times before they like it.

Just keep offering a good variety in small amounts alongside things you know he will eat, even if it takes quite a while eventually he will eat a wider variety of food. At that age my dc liked quite strong flavours.

You could try introducing nut butters and ground up nuts and seeds in yoghurt or omelettes (a coffee grinder is great for grinding nuts and seeds, don't go crazy or it will create a paste!), different veg softened and then added to omelettes maybe with some Parmesan to add more flavour. Let him gnaw on chunks of meat-lamb, beef and chicken to start enjoying the flavours. Or cut them into tiny pieces if you think he'd prefer that.

Veg is pretty boring alone, can you mix it with a main dish such as salmon if you're pureeing or add butter and garlic to steamed or roasted veg. You could also try cauliflower cheese. Don't be too upset if he doesn't like everything. He's only tiny and you've got years to help him to enjoy lots of foods.

I’m having to introduce new food/major slowly due to allergies but this week some of things I can remember are

• Pasta, chicken strips, pepper and courgette in batons and rice pudding
• eggy bread, cucumber and raspberries
• porridge fingers and apple wedges
• wheatbix with apple purée and toast
• egg wraps (from Nadia bbc tv program) with mushroom and ?
• garlic bread, aubgerine and red pepper
• Somerset stew, carrot batons and mash
• ham sandwich and pear
• wedges of baked potato and asparagus
• Ella pouch with avocado wedges

I generally just pick bits out of our food and cut it in big pieces so she can pick it up,

I guess I just don't know what to buy. We eat breakfast with him and I'll have a sandwich whenever he has his lunch but we have dinner after he's gone to bed. I don't have a freezer which makes life hard as I have to cook fresh for him everyday and I just don't know what to make him that is quick, easy but also healthy. I feel I'm giving him easy options and I feel guilty about it

Can you not make too much dinner so you can hear up leftovers for his next day lunch?

And look at Annabell Karmel recipes. There's loads of good meal suggestions on this thread

@freddotalks dont feel guilty for taking the easy option! Parenting is hard and sometimes its easy to slip in to the same routine.

Try meal plan more for you and hubby... so if you and hubby have something for tea one night save him some for lunch Ect. Eg fajitas for you and save him some peppers and chicken strips, or (if baby suitable) keep a little aside on your plate and keep in fridge overnight.

I did a huge jacket potato for my tea tonight and kept a quater back with some beans for his lunch tomorrow. I frequently keep aside some tuna if i make a sandwich, or a chunk of fish I can add to some veg the next day.

I used to alternate a different fruit each week,so punnet of strawberrys one week,satsumas another, grapes the week after, raspberrys ect. He would be exposed to them loads during the week and by the end he would happily eat it... then on to the next fruit!

Plain rice cakes are much better than melty puffs and wafers! And more economical.

Thanks all! Some good suggestions. Will look into them all tomorrow.
We use HelloFresh for our meals so everything's portioned but we do pick healthy meals so maybe we just need to keep a bit aside every night. Will try and do that next week and see how we get on.

Eggs are really useful, as well as just giving him an egg you can sneak veg into omelettes or make egg muffin type things. I'd also introduce some cereal with or without milk. You say you're worried about him choking on meat so how about pulled pork or chicken. I have to say he sounds as though he's doing great.

He's done really well with veg today. I made sweetcorn fritters which he had for lunch and for dinner he had aubergine, onion and pepper pasta sauce with mince in. He ate all of it! Guess I just need to be more imaginative. All of the meals I was giving him were just bags of different frozen veg steamed and mashed/blended so probably didn't have enough flavour to tempt him. Will try some of your other ideas soon! Thanks again

@freddotalks

Fantastic news! Well done xx

That's great news. In my experience babies seem to really like strong flavours like olives, salami etc

If it makes you feel any better DD's first solid was pizza express garlic bread she swiped and DS2s was a McDonalds chip one of the other DCs 'helpfully' gave him as they thought he looked hungry

How about a dahl? My DD loves lentils and you can put as much or little spice as you like in it. I've done a few with a Moroccan flavour because she loves Moroccan humus.

I also made a chickpea and coconut milk curry that went down really well too.

I do a side of spinach and feed it separately to start and and mixed with the dahl / curry