Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

How much fruit is too much for a 1 year old?

10 replies

trrk · 16/07/2023 11:18

My just turned 1 year old has started to be very fussy with food recently. I'm hoping it's just to do with teething but she's been fussy for a few weeks now so I'm worried it's the start of a fussy toddler patch. I'm really struggling to find things she will eat for 3 meals and 2 snacks without repeating stuff several times a day.

Fruit (mostly berries, kiwifruit, nectarines and mandarins) is the most reliable option but how much fruit per day is too much? Is it a problem that she's recently she's only had fruit for breakfast (also offered toast or egg which she was previously willing to eat). She will usually eat yoghurt but it's quite messy for nursery mornings and I like to give yoghurt as a snack at some other time as well so didn't want to do it at breakfast. For main meals she will often only eat the fruit as well. She also likes mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and pasta but pretty much everything else is getting chucked on the floor so I'm a bit of a loss about how to feed her a balanced diet if the fussyness doesn't improve. She is also offered everything we are eating but has refused all fish and meat recently. Should I stop offering her fruit alongside her meals? Just worried she will go hungry if I do.

Any tips on fussy eaters would be much appreciated or do I just make pasta for every meal and stick healthy stuff in the sauce?

OP posts:
SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 16/07/2023 16:23

First question for fussy eaters is which type of milk is she in and how much is she having? Wink

trrk · 16/07/2023 18:15

She is still having formula as just turned 1 but am trying to convince her to drink cows milk. She is having one 6oz bottle after breakfast and one before bed. Until recently she had 2 daytime bottles but I’m replacing those with snacks, one of which is yoghurt.

OP posts:
bagforlifeamnesty · 16/07/2023 18:17

If you give her loads of her preferred foods (fruit) then she won’t have any motivation to eat anything else as she’ll just fill up on fruit. The main problem is not excessive fruit per se but what it then prevents her from eating because she’s full. So she probably won’t get enough protein or iron etc if she’s mainly eating fruit.

Solid starts (on Instagram) recommend only serving highly desired foods at snacks so they don’t compete with less favoured foods at meal times. So at breakfast, don’t offer fruit at all, just a selection of other things. Serve fruit for morning and afternoon snack and maybe for pudding if she’s eaten a decent dinner.

bagforlifeamnesty · 16/07/2023 18:19

Also if she knows there’s a big bottle of milk after breakfast then she may we hold out and not eat as she knows there’s milk coming. If she’s having other dairy then I’d keep the bedtime bottle but switch the 6oz of formula for 2-3 Oz of cows milk in a cup served with breakfast not after.

BoohooWoohoo · 16/07/2023 18:20

I would expect a child who eats too much fruit to have very messy nappies which in turn would lead to nappy rash which will be painful.

Is she good with teeth brushing ?

bagforlifeamnesty · 16/07/2023 18:20

Ps. She won’t go hungry, she won’t starve herself. She’s just eating her favourites! But if she learns they aren’t available at every meal she will be motivated enough to eat something else.

SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 16/07/2023 19:55

She only needs 10 floz a day, I know she's not having much more than that but how about swapping breakfast for ready brek with chopped banana and a cup of milk instead of the bottle?

If she's having follow-on milk the high iron can act a an appetite suppressant.

trrk · 16/07/2023 21:22

Thanks all for the tips. I’ll definitely try some of the suggestions. To answer a few of the questions:

I have tried a cup of cows milk with breakfast but she wouldn’t drink it. She also wouldn’t drink formula out of the cup either so maybe it’s the cup that’s the problem (it is one that she uses for water but she doesn’t seem to like milk in it).

She doesn’t like readybrek or any other cereal that I’ve tried so far so can’t do that for breakfast. I also tried weetabix and shredded wheat. Her dislike of cereal predates the current fussiness although I do plan to try again at some point.

I will try breakfast without fruit but I don’t want to send her off to nursery with nothing.

Thats interesting about the follow on milk. We are using it just because my DH brought 2 tubs of it by mistake when he didn’t know there were different types. I was hoping to switch to cows milk when these 2 tubs are done. Would it affect her appetite if the milk is only given after food and at night? I could ditch it but wasn’t keen to buy more formula when we are trying to move away from it.

OP posts:
SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 17/07/2023 07:19

Yes the iron can definitely affect her appetite but I wouldn't worry too much about 2 tubs if you're switching for Cow's Milk soon.

If she doesn't like cereal, have you tried her with something like blueberry pancakes? They freeze quite well, or so I'm told. All of ours get scoffed as soon as I make them Wink

Caravanvirgin · 17/07/2023 07:23

I would drop the bottles immediately and swap to cows milk but even then she doesn’t need any where near as much.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page