11 month old - advice needed on how much to feed him!!!

[MrsCravendale]

LO is almost 11 months but family members (MIL) have been questioning how much I am feeding him. Can anyone advise on my "menu"? He's a big boy - people all think he is 18 months... Not fat though, tall. He's just above the average weight on the charts and a lot higher than the average height.

9 Oz formula 1st thing in morning. Sometimes takes all sometimes only 7 Oz.

Small bowl of baby porridge.

Water in sippy cup throughout day.

Lunch is 10+ jar of Heinz or Cow n gate baby food.
Small pot fruit (Cow n Gate)

In afternoon he has some finger food if he feels like it and juice from sippy cup.

Dinner is another 10+ or 7months+ jar of Cow n Gate/Hipp Organic/Heinz baby food.
Petit Filous yoghurt.

Bedtime he is offered 9 Oz bottle formula which he usually drinks almost all of otherwise he wakes in the night.

PS He is on a growth spurt just now and usually just takes around 7 Oz bottles...

Thanks for any advice. I don't have a lot of friends with babies and HV says he won't eat unless he is hungry but he would eat until he was sick if I let him!!!

could you move away from the jars and give what you might have e.g. sandwich and fruit for lunch and bits of proper dinner either chopped up or mashed? I dont know how much is in the jars but a lot of them have a lot of water and fillers to bulk them out so they are not that high in calories/nutrition. He doesnt sound as if he eats too much though and he takes about the right amount of formula for his age too (around 20oz up to 1 year)

Hi MrsCravendale. My LO is 10 months old & has practically the same amount as yours is having. Our menu is this:-

Breakfast - bowl of baby cereal made with milk from his bottle with fruit puree added & he's offered rest of milk from bottle (sometimes drinks, sometimes doesn't)

Lunch - (provided by nursery) bowl of puree, normally chicken & veg, meat & veg, sometimes just veg. 8 heaped teaspoons of fruit puree provided by me.

Afternoon snack - 8/9 oz bottle of formula with cereal added (normally downs this in one 3 out of the 5 days).

Dinner - same as lunch.

Just before bed another 8/9 oz bottle of formula with cereal added.

He isn't fat but he is very tall for his age so maybe this has something to do with the amount he eats. HTH

11m?!
that sounds like a menu for a much younger child, and so many jars / pots of processed stuff!

I don't think there is much issue with the quantity he is eating but tbh if you are spooning jar purees into him it must be very easy for him to sit back and eat and eat and eat. And those 7m jars are so runny still. He needs real food, not slop.

More finger food will help him gain control over his own intake - offer toast, ricecakes, steamed veg, cheese, fruit chunks, strips of meat, fish, sandwiches, anything.

There is no reason not to feed him real food. The only things he can't have are honey (not till 12m) and choky things like grapes or whole nuts.

NB baby porridge is an expensive con - real porridge or even readybrek are about 20 times cheaper.

I'd ditch the juice too.

I do agree with Seona though, could you move away from the jars. I work full-time so know how difficult this is to do, which is why I'm so glad nursery provide fresh food for him every day. I tend to batch cook stuff on Sunday ready for the week but do use jars over the weekend so I'm not constantly attached to the kitchen

feed him what you eat. my 12m ds likes homemade pizza, lasagne, shepherds pie, chicken curry(jar sauce, not sure how good that is) bobotie, roast dinners, baked potatos etc.

he also has fish fingers and those smiley face potato chip things, peas, rice cakes with philly.

and if im in a rush or left cooking lunch too late he will have one of those pots of Plum baby foods. i wouldn't feel too bad about feeding lots of jars, until a couple of months ago ds has lots of jars because i was worried about giving him adult food, he had a bad chocking incident that scared me once.

Thanks for the replies. I am going to try making some sandwiches in the next week. I am worried about giving him so many jars so will take your advice and start offering him what we are eating.

As for the baby cereal, I was going to try him on weetabix or regular porridge but then was told a story about how much salt is in regular cereal and that it is dangerous for babies but I'm not sure at what age it is ok for them to start having "regular" foods.

Anyway, thanks for the replies. Really appreciate your views.

porridge and ready brek have no added salt/sugar. weetabix has a small amount of both but not in a quantity that you should worry about. At 11 months he should be able to handle some finger foods and family meals as long as you dont add salt to his portion.

oh absolutely re added salt & sugar

but the way to check this out is by reading ingredients and labels, not by believing stories from babygroup mates

(NB dd found it much easier to handle things spread on fingers of toast than an actual sandwich at this age)