Solids for a 10.5 month old?

[Now we're 3]

Firstly sorry if I sound like a broken record but can feel myself starting to get stressed about the amount of solids (or not) that my 10.5 month old is eating. He used to really good at solids but this has changed of late - originally thought was just teething - and am starting to get a little stressed out that he just isn't having enough or that it is something that I am doing wrong.

He currently has BF in the morning and is having a bottle after his lunch and then another after dinner before he goes to bed. If I feel that his morning BF wasn't that great I am offering him a top up before he goes for his morning nap - sometimes he takes sometimes he doesn't.

Breakfast is definitely his best meal of the day but lunch and tea are very small. Previously when I last posted it was just his tea that was hit and miss. I might be wrong but I do think that his night waking which has started again is becuase he is hungry as he is not having enough during the day.

I had been offering him either Rafferty's pouches or else food I had cooked myself but recently he will only take a small amount from the spoon so I am now trying to get him to take more finger food but this is where we are struggling. He doesn't seem to have a problem with trying to pick up the food and put into his mouth but then seems to just gum and then spit out. Any suggestions on what I can offer or do would be great. Am currently trying veggies, small pieces of chicken, cheeze, pasta. I have had very little success with him taking fruit. He will eat toast, cruskits, little cream cheese sandwiches.

I keep telling myself that he won't let himself go hungry but old habit die hard. We had big big issues when he was born with regards to him breast feeding and really don't want to go back into that space of worrying the whole time about how much he is eating. I know he is healthy now but can't help worrying that if he doesn't eat more he won't remain healthy. Stupidly paranoid I know.

Would love some advice any ideas on what to do (if anything).

Thanks in advance

BTW he treats the entire thing as a game and just laughs when I tell him he must eat more for Mummy!

[Lisa]

I was once told that the offering is just as important as the eating.

Just try as many different things as possible... eventually you will find something he will enjoy eating.

Anelise has a bowl of cereal in the mornings followed by a bottle about an hour later. She will usually have 1/2 a banana and 1/2 a mandarine. Lunch time is usually a sandwhich and some cheese followed by a bottle before her nap. Afternoon tea she will have some yogurt or a biscuit. Dinner is usually pickings of some carrot, zucchini, corn and a bit of whatever meat we're having. Anelise hates potato but I still serve it to her if we're having it with dinner.

Anelise is very independant and loves to feed herself so anything I can give to her that is finger type food is always a winner. Sometimes it ends up a squished mess beside her, other times it goes in her mouth. It really is a game of hit or miss at times.

[~Kim~]

Food is fun until they're one.

I know it's hard not to worry, but as long as he's still having feeds/bottles, he will be fine.

My DS was very much the same. He even started to lose weight, but then I had to remind myself that he was super active and was still reaching his milestones, having lots of feeds (like 15-20 a day) and lots of wet and pooey nappies. Very very rarely would he eat more than one or two tablespoons of food at any given time. Don't forget our estimate of what they 'should' be eating is often vastly different to their natural intake clock. It's really really important to listen to their cues so as not to disrupt that.

Recently he even went on a self imposed diet of frozen peas only. You can imagine my delight with that phase - NOT.

I have never offered him baby food so I can't really help you there, but he is very much a chewer and a spitter too. Only recently has he begun to ingest lots, and he's nearly 18months old. He only gets offered exactly what we are having, and just like my 4yo he has his preferences and his dislikes.
In order to get as much variety in our diets I try to not offer the same type of meal (whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner) within a four day period. I found this stopped DS getting bored with what he had and therefore stopping after only two mouthfuls.

[Now we're 3]

Thanks girls will keep persevering and try not to worry. He is a skinny little chappie (living quite happily on 10-15%) and really active now so wanted to make sure that he didn't lose weight. He's hitting his milestones (apart from the fact the he still doesn't want to say mumma :-( ) and is happy content and has good wet and pooey nappies. Maybe Im just expecting him to eat too much. Health nurses had told me that on average he should be eating about a cup at a meal now he is probably having half or just over that which is why I was starting to stress a little bit.

Lisa what fillings do you put in your sandwiches? He will eat sandwiches but so far have only put cream cheese on them. I make them small about a finger wide each way as he stuffs them into his mouth. He will eat up to 5-7 of these. I found the avocado ones got a bit soggy? Also what size do you cut up the veggies/pieces of meat. Again he is inclined to stuff the entire thing into his mouth so didn't want to have them too big as I though it might be too difficult for him to chew. What other finger food suggestions would you have? I am quite happy to cook for him my hubbie and I don't eat until after he has gone to bed as DH just wouldn't get home from work to eat earlier.

Kim I try to offer variety though brekkie probably just alternates between cereal and scrambled eggs with yogart as chaser if he will have it. He doesn't have anything like the number of feeds your little man has as I am very slowly weaning and he now just has BF in morning. (He will have another little BF top up sometimes before he goes for his morning sleep if I feel he didn't take that much when he fed first and I also give him BF if he wakes in night - he is random with that sometimes will wake sometimes won't like last night).

[Lisa]

I put vegemite or cream cheese or avocado or mashed banana or mashed baked beans on Anelise's sandwiches. As there are no allgeries in our family I have started to give her some honey at times too. I use mulitgrain bread and just a tiny amount of spread on them so they don't get too soggy. She isn't the biggest fan on the cream cheese though. I cut hers into triangle quarters and sometimes let her chew on the crusts. Some days she will eat a whole sandwhich, other days only have a few bites.

I do Anelise's meat in very fine slivers so if she does stick the entire thing there isn't a great risk of her choking. Some days she will have a chew and spit it out. I also do some finely diced bits and put them on her plate in front of her to pick up and eat.
As for finger foods, at dinner we let Anelise eat with her hands as spoon feeding her doesn't work right anymore. She will eat lots of steamed vegies. She has carrots, asparagus, zuchinni, corn on the cob, beans, broccoli etc. Through the day she will eat all kinds of things like strawberries, blueberrries, banana, mandarine (which is a firm favourite!), sometimes she will have dried fruits as she loves sultanas, cheese, crackers, basically anything I can think to give her that she will pick up & eat.

[MantaRay]

Gee, I wonder where the health nurses get these figures from - who on earth measures how much their baby gets? And how on earth can you set an amount on how much a baby should be eating when they are all so different? I think putting numbers on things - amounts and weights - all the time really just causes parents a lot of unnecessary stress and worry.

Hun, one of my DS's didn't eat much at all until about 12 months, and didn't eat any sort of "normal" quantity until about 18 months. My other DS was a brilliant eater from 6 months (and still is!). Now they are 5 and nearly 4 and both are healthy and good eaters (and co-incidentally, my best eater has always been a lower percentile than my other one!). I really don't see that the difference in their solids intake as babies has made any difference to them now at all.

I know how hard it is to just relax about it (believe me, I was a very stressed mum with DS1 for a while), but looking back I really think that is a key. Breakfast is the most important meal so it seems your little one is very cleverly eating what he needs when he needs. It sounds good to me. My first DS still eats better for breakfast and lunch than dinner but I think that's pretty normal - who needs lots of food when you are just going to sleep all night! The foods you are offering sound great - keep up the meat - bolognaise, chicken pieces, big pieces of steak to chew on etc as that's an important food - and of course the milk is also still important until about 12 months. Great work!

[lyra stardust]

Your little man sounds a bit like mine! He is just turned 10 months and to be honest has never been a big eater. I started at 6 months with solids but he didn't really cotton on until about 8 months. About a month ago I was panicking about this as he was hardly having anything and mealtimes were becoming quite stressful. The only thing he was really eating was yoghurt! Anyway, not sure if this helps for your little one but what worked for me was completely backing off with the "feeding" him and just offering him lots of different things to try himself. I sort of noticed that if I tried to feed him something he would push the spoon away and refuse, but if I let him have a go, he would at least have a taste. So for a few weeks I just gave him food he could self-feed. Up until then I had been giving finger foods of fruit, veggies, etc just the obvious, but I tried to get creative. After a while he got much better at the self feeding and now eats much more than he used to. Also now he accepts things much better off a spoon (once he tries it himself first!). He was 10th centile and had dropped to 3rd- weight next week so am hoping for a jumo up again!

Things I have tried (with varied success):

Fusilli pasta and sauce
mini rice crackers with cream cheese/hummus/avocado
sweet potato "chips" - cover with olive oil and cinnamon and bake
chicken nuggets - chicken, apple, breadcrumbs, herbs, - proccess and make into little patties and shallow fry
banana muffins (very healthy recipe from Nigella Lawson book just left out salt etc)- he loved these!
mandarin segments (bite off top and take out seeds and remove as much skin and pith as possible)
Rafferty's sachets squeezed directly into his mouth- don;t ask me why but likes this better than a spoon.
toast soldiers with toppings (hummus.cream cheese or avocado usually)
mashed potato with vegetables- just heaped it up on highchair tray and he grabbed fistfuls of it and I think quite a lot went in!

umm, can't think of anything else at the moment.

This approach is messy- but seems to have worked for me, I guess he's just independent!

Good luck,

LS x

[Miss E]

Health nurses had told me that on average he should be eating about a cup at a meal now he is probably having half or just over that which is why I was starting to stress a little bit.

Lisa what fillings do you put in your sandwiches? He will eat sandwiches but so far have only put cream cheese on them. I make them small about a finger wide each way as he stuffs them into his mouth. He will eat up to 5-7 of these. I found the avocado ones got a bit soggy? Also what size do you cut up the veggies/pieces of meat. Again he is inclined to stuff the entire thing into his mouth so didn't want to have them too big as I though it might be too difficult for him to chew. What other finger food suggestions would you have? I am quite happy to cook for him my hubbie and I don't eat until after he has gone to bed as DH just wouldn't get home from work to eat earlier.

Kim I try to offer variety though brekkie probably just alternates between cereal and scrambled eggs with yogart as chaser if he will have it.

My DS is 13 months and definately doesn't eat a cup at each meal, we're lucky if it is a half a cup. I've also worried about him not eating enough, but he is gaining weight fine, so I think it's more my expectation that is out of whack iykwim...

My DS also doesn't like to be fed by spoon, mind you now that he is slowly starting to get more coordinated and can do it himself this is changing. But when he was your LO's age he wouldn't touch a spoon. Finger foods that I find great are sausages cut up into little peices (very easy to chew), fish, quiche, toast, sausage roll etc. For brekky he has toast (sometimes with cream cheese, which he loves, or vegemite), raisin toast is also good, wheat bix, cut up fruit and a yoghurt (the squeezy ones a great when they don't like spoons) and occasionally an omlette packed with veggies and a bit of ham (this is also a good dinner or lunch). He also loves cream cheese sandwhichs, cream cheese and avocadoe is a good combo, otherwise I will do tuna with cream cheese and sometimes I'll even mash up some vegies and put it on a sandwhich with cream cheese.

HTH

[Miss E]

Meant to also say that I try and give DS 4 or 5 small meals a day instead of 3 iykwim?

[Now we're 3]

Thanks girls you've given me some great ideas here.
Also reassuring to know that we are not alone with a smaller eater and that I'm not the only person that was stressing about it!

Thanks again x