food and milk, 1 year old, advice anyone?

[queenbee]

Hi there, I have a DD who has just turned 1 year old. This is her typical day of eating:

6.30am - cereal (2 tablespoons raffertys rice ceareal with heinz banana porridge mixed together) and water
7.30am - vegemite toast and water
9.00am - 180mL cows milk
10.30am - milk arrowroot biscuit or yoghurt and water
12.00noon - sandwich (vegemite) and some cheese and water
1.30pm - 180mL cows milk
3.00pm - fruit or rusk and water
5.30pm - mum's recipe mush (10-15months old mix) - pasta normally and water
7.00pm - 260mL cows milk

Most of the time she sleeps through the night.

What am I doing wrong? She never eats all of her cereal first thing but will eat the toast. She also loves her milk alot! She will eat lunch normally but dinner time is a struggle, she will eat half or 3/4 and then every mouthful after that she spits out. Opens her mouth but spits out immediately.

Is she snacking too much through the day? Is she perhaps fussy? Is she bored with her food? Should I be introducing more things perhaps?

Hoping someone can shed some light as to why she is not really interested in her food. It's been like this for a while.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate it!

[fionas]

I read and thought "gee, that's heaps!"

TBH, I've never really offered DD snacks so I would just experiment and see if she eats more dinner if you cut down on the snacks.

The other thing is, that she might just prefer to have food that she can eat herself rather than to be spoon fed (I'm just presuming you spoon feed her dinner from your description).

But really, I don't think you have much to worry about. My DD tends to have two really good meals a day and the third one is a bit hit and miss and she's a bit older than your DD. Sometimes she has 2 Weetbix for breakfast, sometimes only one. Sometimes I struggle to get a small sandwich into her for lunch, other times she'll polish off a sandwich no problem and then eat a whole banana. Somtimes half a bowl of pasta for dinner, other times two bowls then grapes, apple. So it really varies.

[queenbee]

Fiona, does your DD have milk? In a bottle? Should I be cutting that out and offering in sippy cup do you think? Yes it seems a bit for the day doesn't it? Do you just give your DD pasta in a bowl and she eats it herself? I don't mind the mess at all, DD can smear it everywhere if she wants! She tends to up-end bowls of things so I just have to put food on the high chair table IYKWIM???

[MantaRay]

Don't worry, you are not doing anything wrong! I have found with both my boys, especially DS1 who is not a huge eater, that they eat more during the day than at night. Which is actually healthier so I don't worry too much. The only thing I would suggest is to vary the lunches so that your DD is getting meat, vege etc during the day and it doesn't matter if she doesn't eat dinner. It is also good to encourage variety. One way to do this is to give your DD the left overs from the night before for her lunch the next day. Or you could cook up something special if you like - but that's more work! If there are no left overs, a sandwich is ok some days, and you can try omelettes, boiled eggs, vegie muffins, baked beans, soup - anything easy to make up quickly.

I actually found that DS2 was eating the same foods as us well before 12 months and it made life a lot easier not to have to make things specially. So if you want to, it would also be ok to cut out the baby cereals and "mush" as you call it. Your DD can eat weetbix or porridge, and cut up other foods.

You are doing such a great job. Well done.

[MantaRay]

QB, yes, both my boys fed themselves by that age. But then they went to day care too so they learnt a lot of it there and I didn't have to clean up the mess! I do think it's good for them to feed themselves though.

WRT bottles, it is recommended not to give bottles after 12 months.

[MrsFabuloso]

By this age my DD was much the same, but started to eat less. I decided to cut out the milk bottles (bottles at all actually) and gave her her milk in a sippee cup with her snacks. She would eat yoghurt and cheese and two small cups of milk in a sippee cup, so enough calcium for the day, but not so much milk. They don't need so much milk by this age. If your DD goes to sleep with her bottle, I would make that big bottle the only one she has and then give her cheese and yoghurt for calcium. And water the rest of the day. She will probably eat more then. And I agree with Mantaray, that she no longer needs mush. She shoul be able to handle chunky normal family foods now. It makes your life so much easier that you don't need to make her a separate meal and she can get a bigger variety of foods/tastes/nutrients.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

DS's one-year-old menu:

Feed, get up, breakfast. Usually 1-2 weetabix or two servings of Organix baby raspberry breakfast (I loved that stuff!) followed by toast. Over the course of an hour.

Snack at about 10am of biscuit, fruit/veg (eg apple wedges or carrot sticks), water.

Feed and cooked lunch - usually pasta in tomato sauce, rice with vegetables, sometimes a sandwich. Or leftovers from last night if I made a lot and DS enjoyed it. Sausage roll. Snack bag thing (eg carrot and corn sticks). Fruit.

Snack at about 3-4pm, usually something like cheese and biscuits.

Cooked dinner at 6pm; whatever DH and I were eating. So could be anything! DS will try anything but if he really hates it (or it's a big junky) then I'll do something I've made before from the freezer - or a baby ready meal if I'm out of that.

Feed before bed.

DS didn't sleep through but didn't need anything during the night. He has a dairy allergy/intolerance which wasn't picked up until 20m and now he sleeps beautifully.

[aussienic]

Olivias usual eating routine..

wakes around 6 has BF..
7 ish half a bowl of rafferty's or 1 weetbix mixed with water and a drop of milk

if she is acting hungry she either has a bf or some sort of snack..

lunch 11-12 sandwich and a yoghurt or custard

same thing either bf or small snack

dinner is whatever we are having then bath then a custard around 7

She Bf around 3-8 times a day depending on her mood..

[queenbee]

Thanks so much everyone, you are all good help! I just feel like perhaps she is having too much milk SO I will try and cut that back. But regards to milk in a sippy cup, won't she always expect milk in it instead of water if I start that process? She does eat yoghurt and cheese so maybe she won't need milk through the day anymore.

I will have a look at some recipes here anyway and vary her diet a bit. Sandwiches are boring so I will give her something more substantial for lunch and cut down on the snacks I think. I have some beef patties I made for her recently so I will cook some of those up for dinner tonight with some potato or something.

It is all trial and error isn't it! I will just see if she prefers to feed herself now.

Manta, I haven't given her eggs yet or peanut butter for that matter (in case of allergy) - I am scared to! How silly is that! I might try her on the eggs, they are so yummy!

Thanks everyone!!

[Liz]

Queenbee - I'm the same as the others. She eats whatever we're having. Has a vitabrit for breakfast with some kind of fruit. Doesn't really snack between meals unless I need her to sit still while I do something LOL - then I'll stick her in her highchair with some fruit or a crackers or something. Lunch can be anything - sandwich, pasta, meat & salad or something. Afternoon is the same, sometimes snacks, other times not. And dinner is whatever we're having. Even if it has chilli all through it! hehe. Dairy - she doesn't drink cows milk yet, only mummy's milk! She'll have a custard or yoghurt for dessert after meals. Haven't given her a lot of cheese actually.. might step that up a bit.

As for egg - I think it's recommended you give them egg before the 12 month needles, as they have egg product in them (or something like that) so it's best to know if they're allergic or not before the needles.

[aussienic]

As for egg - I think it's recommended you give them egg before the 12 month needles, as they have egg product in them (or something like that) so it's best to know if they're allergic or not before the needles.

Was just about to mention that myself..

Olivia seems to really like egg... the boys don't however so we don't tend to eat them regularly..

(too painful to cook so many separate meals)

[queenbee]

oh no she had her 12 month needles yesterday

[aussienic]

She will be fine.. I think egg allergies are instant.. meaning if she was going to have a reaction she would have by now

[queenbee]

ahhhhh ok, she is quite chirpy this morning. was so upset yesterday for the little monkey, she had 3 needles! and screamed!

i was going to add, i have these pizza muffins for lunch (i am on weight watchers at present) so i might give her one today. i put tomato paste on them and add ham, shallots, capsicum and onion on them with some low fat mozarella cheese and pop them in the oven. maybe she would like that? do you think giving her onion would be ok? i should just give her everything hey!

[aussienic]

Oh I hated the 12 month needles to.. Although Livi coped better with that then the ones previous..

and yeh pretty much you can give her whatever you are eating.. Olivia has had onion but not a huge amoount.. She likes lettuce lol..

Another yummy thing is avacado on toast.. either for breakfast or lunch

[queenbee]

made myself some healthy pizza muffins for lunch and decided to do one for DD too, just english muffin with tomato paste and added ham, capsicum, shallots and some cheese and toated them. cut it into 8 small pieces and she only ate 2 and threw the rest on the ground! is that normal? is it just because she is used to sandwiches every day? would you give her something else? i did give her some yoghurt then. but i feel she has not had enough.

didn't give her milk yet either, saving it for one big bottle at night before bed.

[MantaRay]

QB, oh yeah, very normal!! Don't worry if she doesn't eat a lot of new foods at first. Just keep offering it many times, and don't be afraid to try new foods also. My first DS had salad what seemed like 100 times and refused every time until one night when he saw the salad bowl and said "want salad". After I picked myself up off the floor I gave him some which he ate, and then asked for more!

Throwing food on the floor was the first way the boys had to show me they had had enough. With DS1 I used to keep trying to get him to eat, but it set up bad habits. So with DS2 I would just say to him "ok, you have had enough. Just tell me you are finished and put your plate aside, don't throw the food on the floor". Soon enough he stopped doing it (mostly ).

[sconeonamission]

My one year old, only eats when he wants to eat. He has a word or sound (sorta sounds like nom or num) for food, and says "more" for something to drink. (and shamefully, if he gets cranky thru the day I give him food to keep him quiet.) But he has heaps to eat and prefers to eat with his fingers.
hth