Protein intake at 9 mths old

[Nic1000]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone knew about any guidelines for amount and type of protein a 9mth old should be eating. I am veggie but DH is not and we have decided to give DD meat but I am not really too sure about quantities and types of protein she should be having each week. On the veggie protein side, I do give her lentil, tofu, and eggs and on the meat side, she generally has fish at least twice a week, poultry once a week and red meat twice a week. If she has animal protein for lunch then I tend to give her only a veggie dinner and vice versa. Some days she doesn't eat any animal protein at all. Does this all sound ok for her age?

thanks!

Many adults live just fine without any animal protein at all, so she absolutely doesn't need animal protein.

At 9 months, she should be getting most of her dietary needs met by breastmilk or formula. Whatever food she's getting is more about tastes and variety than nutrition.

And when you're looking at small children's diets, you really just try to balance them over the course of a week, not daily, iyswim.

Nic, nobody in this household is veggie and yet your DD gets more meat than my year-old DS, so you're doing fine I think

We tend to survive on lentils ourselves so DS gets whatever we're having. Apart from the odd tuna sandwich and the very occasional beef or chicken he has mostly a vegetarian diet. I guess it's largely due to budgetary constraints but I am absolutely happy with his nutrition (he's a bloody huge lump!).

As NQC says, it's not about nourishment really, much more about learning about food.

Until she is one, she gets all she needs from the milk (at least a pint a day if you're ff'ing; up to her if you're bf'ing!).

1-3yo are supposed to have 16g protein a day. There are 3g in 100ml of cows milk according to the bottle in my fridge - so a couple of beakers of milk, milk on their cereal, a yoghurt and you're sorted!

Ds1's main sources of protein are milk and peanut butter. [sigh]