Ready for packed lunch?

[AtLastEarwax]

Hi all

So my 8 months old (twins) are currently on this routine

11oz breakfast
1 and a half Weetabix mid day
Snack if needed - they usually let me know. Fruit, yoghurt, breadstick, cheese, biscotti or anything else I have
Dinner is textured hot meal and fruit pouch or something like bananas and custard etc
Bedtime 8oz

The plan will always be to change the weetabix to a 'packed lunch' mid day.

So, question is, can I do that now? When will I know they are ready??! With my son he just progressed into it but I feel the girls are ready but worried they aren't going to be full enough. Think this stems from when they were born they needed feeding tubes for a week and now I constantly want to keep them full, think that's just how I feel they will be healthy and ok after a shaky start.

Just to clarify packed lunch is
Cheese - which they love and can chew fine
Melty puffs
Cucumber sticks
Half a slice of toast/bread with soft cheese
Soft fruit like over ripe bananas etc
Yoghurt/biscuit

If they don't eat all of this will it be ok? Are they going to be full enough? After dinner they go for a nap, shall I give them a couple of oz to lay down with??

Any advice would be great

Thanks

That's a lot more than my 16 month old eats for lunch!

There's no harm offering it to them and seeing what they eat. When DS doesn't finish his lunch I offer him another go at it as his afternoon snack & he normally finishes it off then.

What does your ds eat?

When I say cheese I mean like half a babybel, 2 cucumber sticks etc.

At 8m their main source of nutrition must still be milk, so the food is about introducing the idea of enjoying sitting down to eat, exploring flavours/textures etc. The food isn't to 'fill them up' as such as the breastmilk/formula will be taking care of that mostly.

DD at 8m wouldn't have been ready for this. She was on two quick meals a day until 11m (which is late, I know) so that she didn't lose interest being in the highchair.

On your packed lunch menu, would that all be part of one lunch?

You've got three lots of cheese, assuming the melty puffs are cheese ones. I'd ditch the puffs. They really don't need snacky processed food as part of lunch.

Could you find other sources of protein? Chicken/fish, or if you're veggie, then homemade humous, guacamole mixed with yoghurt/creme fraiche etc.

I should have said that at 8m, DD's two meals were:

breakfast, which was porridge mostly, with very occasional weetabix.

another meal of a bowl of puree/soup/shepherd's pie/fish pie/pasta bol/casserole etc. along with some finger food like cooked carrot/butternut sticks etc.

It sounds like quite a lot of food, but you're still at the eating to explore stage rather than eating to fill them up!
Can't they just have whatever you're having for lunch?

Again I think I am feeding them to fill them up, it's just when they were in hospital it was all about filling them up, gaining weight and keeping them warm

I don't have lunch really, today has been a bag of French fries, I don't have time to eat!

My son eats a packed lunch at dinner as what he would eat at Pre school - he's nearly 3.

Generally at tea time it's chicken/fish etc with veggies and some carbs. Me and dh don't eat rice, pasta or potato but the kids do.

They don't eat porridge or oatmeal, I try them again every other week but it's just spat out 😤 that's why it's weetabix

Maybe I should add some milk at dinner time??

Again I think I am feeding them to fill them up

I do understand this. DD dropped percentiles as a newborn and we were readmitted to hospital and then on discharge had a couple of months of very slow weight gain and multiple hospital referrals about it. It was very upsetting/stressful.

I'd be careful though or you'll be having to reprogram them to eat less if they start putting on too much weight. DD loves all food and is a big eater and I'm wary of letting her get into the habit of always eating loads then having seconds etc. I think I was so pleased when she liked eating as a baby that I used to make the portion sizes a bit too big.

Someone on MN shared a really good source of info on what children should be eating at different stages. I was surprised by the small portion sizes recommended and it has made me adjust a bit. I'll try and dig it out later.

I need new shoes,

Sorry to hear of your experience for thanks for sharing 😊 your explanation is me all over, that's exactly how I feel.

I gave them a few bits though and they when I put them down I gave them 6oz of milk, all milk was gone when I got them up and now it will be tea around 5/6 before bath and bed with 8oz. They then wake up about 9am and have their 11oz so they are getting a good amount of milk too. That's making me feel better as they won't be relying on food as their sole source of 'feeling full' so to say

do they only have 2 milk feeds?

At that age mine had 4 day milk feeds at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm

They had breakfast at 8am, lunch at 12pm and dinner at 5pm.

11oz is an awful lot of milk to have in one go and will blunt their appetite for having food at breakfast time. What are your actual timings for food/ milk?

None of my three have ever drank 11oz in one go, 8oz was there absolute maximum!
At 8 months mine would have something like 7oz milk on waking, breakfast (weetabix/porridge/scrambled egg/Greek yoghurt and fruit), lunch (along the lines of the one you’re proposing), 6oz milk mid afternoon, dinner (pasta, meat and veg etc) then 7oz milk before bed. All mine were around 75th centile.

I didn't think 11oz was too much. My son used to drink 13oz in one go when he was that age??! Maybe I've just let them have what they want??

We don't really have breakfast as such as we don't all wake up till 10am 🙈 yes I know it won't last forever but for now I'm just enjoying it.

So

Around 10 they will have 11oz
12 they have some snacky bits and then lay down at 1 with 6oz
5-6pm tea and fruit pouch
6-7pm 8oz bedtime

I'm giving approximate times just because sometimes it takes long if they have had a bath etc they aren't in bed on the dot every night but the latest all of them go down is 7

Driving down the 101 that's almost like mine but 11oz and no breakfast

They sleep 7pm-10am?! I wouldn’t be changing anything

Yeah all 3 of them do - my sons nearly 3. For a week or so it was nearly 11:30 but then it went back to 10 again

Ha. My two oldest sleep 7-7 and I thought that was as good as it got. My 17 month old sleeps 7-5.30am, then only had a 40 min nap in the day.

So between 10am and 1pm they are taking 17oz of milk? They will not have much room for food with that amount of milk in their tummies

Demented pixies, they have food in between the milk so if they don't drink the full 6oz it's not the end of the world