Is my son eating enough?

[Chiloquin]

My 11 month old son had a really good appetite in the beginning, he started to eat at 5 months as he always seemed hungry and in the beginning, he was eating everything.
He had a period where he was a little sick and became a little fussy with food. Now he just wants to live on breast milk and porridge. He's very small, in the 38th percentile. My daughter was too at his age, she's 11 now and absolutely fine.

But he seems to only want to nibble on things. Tonight for example, he's had 3 bites of sweet potato, a blueberry and apple fruit pack, a few nibbles of chapatti, a bowl of porridge and almost a whole pack of raspberries. I let him eat as much as he wanted as I knew he wouldn't eat much else as that was the end of the night.
Is that enough? Should I be worried?

Are you kidding me? What you describe him as eating tonight is MORE than enough for an 11 month old baby.

A whole pack of raspberries, vegetables, a fruit pack (what's that? It sounds processed and I would not give it to a baby) chapatti and porridge is LOADS of food.

@FortunesFave

Are you kidding me? What you describe him as eating tonight is MORE than enough for an 11 month old baby.

A whole pack of raspberries, vegetables, a fruit pack (what's that? It sounds processed and I would not give it to a baby) chapatti and porridge is LOADS of food.

Looool maybe tonight's eating wasn't the best example to articulate his lack of eating. Some days he just has porridge and no proper food. He'll always eat raspberries or peas if I give them to him but he won't eat more than 2 or 3 bites of proper food. The fruit pack is the heinz baby purée in the pouches.

Is this just his evening meal? Sounds like he has had a bit of everything. What else did you want him to eat? From memory their appetite does go up and down at times. I also don't think 38th centile is very small, its just a bit smaller than average. Is he similar in height and weight?

It's not abnormal at all. Babies of this age often just graze and try bits of things. Not many babies will eat 3 full meals per day. I strongly advise that you don't give him pouches of processed baby food. Many brands are full of sugar, including Heinz. It's convenient but not good. People on Mumsnet will say it's silly to worry about this but sugar is not good for babies and they don't need it. Far better to mash a banana or some other soft fruit or steamed vegetables and give him that.

@Chiloquin Does he always get so many sweet flavours OP? My DS would eat fruit all day if I let him - but I try to give him lots of veggies too. I don’t want him starting to turn down more savoury flavours! At 11months my DS was eating 3 meals and still having 3 milk feeds so a normal day might have been something like:

• Milk feed
• breakfast - Porridge with either raspberries/ apple & cinnamon/ banana & peanut butter or whatever
• lunch - omelette made with 1 egg and lots of veggies
• milk feed
• dinner - homemade spag bol & some steamed veg
• milk feed

It sounds like your baby is having enough quantity but maybe needs a broader variety?

@FortunesFave

It's not abnormal at all. Babies of this age often just graze and try bits of things. Not many babies will eat 3 full meals per day. I strongly advise that you don't give him pouches of processed baby food. Many brands are full of sugar, including Heinz. It's convenient but not good. People on Mumsnet will say it's silly to worry about this but sugar is not good for babies and they don't need it. Far better to mash a banana or some other soft fruit or steamed vegetables and give him that.

No, I fully agree. I normally wouldn't and I've actually began making my own baby food brand which hopefully will be in shops in 2023. We had to run out of the house unexpectedly because of a spider on the loose. Ended up on a walk and I hadnt brought his bag with me.

Although, I will add that I’ve been incredibly lucky with my DS when it comes to his food. He seems to love everything! He’s eaten well since we started weaning bar a few weeks when he was out off food during and after having Hand Foot & Mouth.

[quote BDavis]@Chiloquin Does he always get so many sweet flavours OP? My DS would eat fruit all day if I let him - but I try to give him lots of veggies too. I don’t want him starting to turn down more savoury flavours! At 11months my DS was eating 3 meals and still having 3 milk feeds so a normal day might have been something like:

• Milk feed
• breakfast - Porridge with either raspberries/ apple & cinnamon/ banana & peanut butter or whatever
• lunch - omelette made with 1 egg and lots of veggies
• milk feed
• dinner - homemade spag bol & some steamed veg
• milk feed

It sounds like your baby is having enough quantity but maybe needs a broader variety?[/quote]
So the porridge is completely sugar/syrup free. It only has cinnamon in it.

Yesterday, he had:
Porridge with cinnamon. No sugar
Some avocado and chapatti
Handful of peas
Salmon
Broccoli
And porridge again because he rejected most of the salmon and broccoli.
He seems so fussy and doesn't like eating proper food.

@BDavis

Although, I will add that I’ve been incredibly lucky with my DS when it comes to his food. He seems to love everything! He’s eaten well since we started weaning bar a few weeks when he was out off food during and after having Hand Foot & Mouth.

My 2 year old niece had the same and I felt like my son also had it at the same time. This was 2 Months ago and I feel his appetite has never gone back to what it was. He would eat everything before. Now he's just so picky

I wouldn't keep replacing uneaten meals with porridge. Just let him try what he wants then get him down. Offer main meal at once instead of your worried about end of day hunger and give him something he'll Predictably eat at bed