Food advice wanted

[JLeigh29]

We have just changed over from bfing before solids to after solids and have also 'dropped' the midafternoon bf (he has 4 feeds/day). I have added in some afternoon tea (fruit) but would love some advice/suggestions for meal ideas. Is it right to be adding afternoon tea and what kinds of things should I be giving him? I'm not starving him by cutting out the afternoon feed, am I? He has cereal and fruit for breakfast, veges and yoghurt for lunch and meat and veges (and sometimes yoghurt or fruit) for tea. Is that too much of one thing? I'd love to add some pasta etc so ideas and meal suggestions would be great. DS is 8 months old.

[LimeSlice]

Yep, I would think some carbs are in order... so potatoes, pasta, rice, couscous...

Try offering them at lunch with his veg, and save the yoghurt for afternoon tea.

Really it doesn't matter much in terms of what you give him when - you could serve him sausages for breakfast, he won't know any different lol, so long as you are offering balanced foods, he will be fine.
Remember the fruit and yoghurt can effect his bowel movements and his tummy, so go easy

Nothing wrong with offering some crackers either, Saladas or whichever you feel suitable, at afternoon tea - he can gum away or practice using his teeth if he has them.

HTH

[angelaartsstudent]

The easiest way for me was to look at each meal I prepared and say to myself?

Is there a bit of:

Fat
Carbs (starchy veg or grain based..pasta etc as mentioned above)
Protein (can be meat, dairy, egg or veg source)
Fruit
Veg

in each meal?

The food you mentioned plus bf doesn't sound too much to me, but at 8 months my DD was eating a lot too...it will taper out.

[Melbournemumma]

I used to make bolsgnaise for us and make ds some rissoni pasta to have with his. He loved it. Also used to cook couscous with his vegies etc. Mashed potato was always a winner!

[Ozziehoffy]

With Elijah I did BLS and he just had whatever we were having... yes including steak... I have photos of him at 8 months old with a big chunk of steak and him just sucking/gumming it to bits! He LOVED it so much. Pasta, I just started using spiral pasta so it was easier for him to hold in his hand and pick it up. They learn so fast to just eat what we do and I had so many less problems with him gagging or anything like that than I did with Oskar who I did the whole "puree, lumpy" etc with.

[JLeigh29]

Thanks for all your replies. I do try to make sure there's balance with every meal and have potato or sweet potato with every vege meal plus a mix of colours. I bought risoni the other day so so will do that tonight. He's eaten a fair bit of family food (lamb shanks, bolognaise, polenta) and I do finger foods with most dinners and fruit is often in pieces. He's also had the odd bit of custard, cottage cheese and grated cheese.

I suppose I am just after reassurance that I am not starving him now that he's going 6 hours between bf's in the afternoon. He's been grizzly the past few days with teething but I still have that voice in my head saying, "But it might be because he's starving hungry." Just Mummy doubting herself !

Limeslice - The crackers are a good idea, he's murdering his rusks atm!