12 m - eating

[Margarita90]

Hello,

When baby had 9 months our routine (thanks to you:)  was:

7:30 milk
8:30 food
10-11:30 nap
11:30 milk
12:30 food
14-15:30 nap
15:30 milk
16:30 food
19:30 sleep

He had naps: 1,5h, live 2,5h and was tired.

BUT now, when he is almost 12 months is not working.. He started to wake up at nights again, stop drinking milk at 11:30 and 15:30 . And started to wake up around 6:30.

So now I understand that i need to make his naps a little shorter and swap his milk to snack...but how?


COuld be like this??:

7:00 milk
8:00 food
10-11:30 nap
11:30 snack
12:30 food
14:30-15:30 nap
15:30 snack
16:30 food
19:30 sleep

So nap is 1,5 and 1h, he can live without sleep longer so 3 h,  and 2 times he is getting snacks...?

Could you please advice me?
Thank you.
Margaret

[creations]

Hi
The sample routine you have posted with snacks instead of milk at 11.30 and 3.30 looks great (don't forget to offer a drink of water with the snack).  You might not need to switch both milks to snack at the same time. I would try one first and see how it goes and then if he is still not interested in all his milk feeds switch the other.  Often both will be switch by or around 12 months.

You didn't include a BT milk feed in your routine though - maybe you just forgot to type it - LOs would usually still have WU milk in the morning and BT milk before night sleep (or before the bath and teeth brushing routine).  When you have switch two milk feeds to snack you would usually be left with 2 good milk feeds, WU and BT.

With regards to the nap times and nap length. Depending on your LO's needs these might be great or might need to change a bit more than in your plan.  If your LO is going down for those naps and his night sleep well then you can continue but if there is resistance it might need to change more.
You mentioned he is waking at night, this can be developmental as he approaches his birthday, there is often some sleep disturbance around that time.  It could also be some teething.  Or it could be because he needs a bit less day sleep. Reducing one nap by 30 mins (as your plan) might resolve this.
You mentioned waking earlier in the morning, 6.30 instead of 7/7.30, this can be an indication that he needs his first nap to come later, rather than leaving the nap at 10am you might move it to 10.15am and then 10.30am (LOs at 11-12 months can often do an A time of 4hrs so you might expect the A time to be more than the 3hr you planned but it depends on your own LO and what suits him).  If this is the case you will need to fit milk/snacks/meals around the nap time.  You could for example offer a small snack at 10am (much earlier than in your plan) and the go straight to lunch after the nap, for example:
WU 7
E 7 milk
E 8 breakfast
E 10 snack
S 10.30 - 12.00
E 12 lunch
...

Hope this helps.  If you need further support on the nap or sleep routine you can post to the toddler sleep board.

[Margarita90]

Thank you. Yes of course. He is getting two times his milk:) morning and evening (I forgot to write:).
After two days with new plan he is sleeping all nighs..is really better. Still wakes up too early but I will move his first nap as you wrote and should help.I hope. Thank you for your time.

Do you know maybe some good example of menu for 1 year old? Everywhere is for 2 , and we are strugling with the same porridge. Maybe I do sth wrong. maybe he is not getting some vitamins..

[creations]

Really the best foods for 1yo is the family foods.  You might need to make some adaptions for LO because they need very very low salt, no sugar, and certain limits on other foods (no whole nuts due to choke hazard) etc but otherwise it's best he gets used to eating whatever your normal meals are because then he won't be "fussy" about your usual family meals.
I found I could cook one meal for the whole family, I didn't mind making some changes, for me that included chopping veggies into bigger chunks so he could eat as finer foods, not using salt when I cooked pasta and not using stock cube (or switched to half a cube or low sodium stock) when making stews.  My DS preferred each item on his plate to be easily identified, he liked stews but I needed to separate out each ingredient on his plate. Not much of an extra job really.

I know what you mean about it being hard to find portion sizes etc for this age. I looked around when my DS was little too.
I do have a guidance list and I think we also have a FAQ somewhere both are only guidance though because LOs are all different sizes and some eat much more than others.  I am dashing out right now but I'll try to come back later with info.

Is there a particular food group you are concerned about?  or just variety in general?

[Margarita90]

He is not tolerating cows milk ( and soya) from his birth.. ( we will try after one year with doctor) It was hard to breastfeed- I was on a diet). Later hard to find any solid which will not make him stomake pain. Can't give him for evening meal anything hard, always simple porridge. He is not eating cows milk but even that if i will give him for ex. pasta ( wheat) to hand ,or meat for dinner, later he will have stomake problems.. When we tried with any fruits like berry, he was allergic.
So He is eating for breakfast porridge ( semolina or rice pudding or couscous or millet) with apple/ banana /peach-mashed ,
for lunch vegetabes (broccoli, cauliflower, peas, potatos, carrot etc) with meat and
for dinner simple porridge with mashed apple.

It's boring but what we can do..  When he is getting some bigger pieces of veg or fruit , later i find them in his poo.. or he cant make a poo nd i have to give him quickly mashed apple to help with poo. He is so good eater and I'd like to give him much more choices..
I think that he need all kind of vitamins from other food.but what should I give him, to be sure that is save for his stomake and age..
Sorry if I ask to much. I'm just looking for some advices.

[creations]

Poor little boy with such tummy problems

I can understand your concern but it sounds like he is getting a reasonable variety of foods - it's only really in our modern society we have an expectation for there to be huge variety, such a big variety isn't needed really so long as the food groups are covered.

but what should I give him, to be sure that is save for his stomake and age..

For his age there is not much you need to avoid, like I said, salt, sugar, whole nuts are the main things.
For his stomach though it really depends on what his true allergies are and what he can tolerate. As he grows and develops his gut will cope better with foods which might have previously given a tummy ache or gas but which were not a true allergy. So for example if you tried something when he was 6 or 8  months old which made him have stomach pain or gas it will not necessarily do so now - he is bigger and moving around more now so he can get gas out more easily.
It's great that you've worked out that he can have certain foods at lunch time but not dinner time   Even offering different foods at breakfast time can be helpful as it gives all day to digest and get gas out without disturbing night sleep.

It is important that LOs don't become badly constipated but at the same time they do need to learn to push the poo, I remember one of the nurses I spoke with when my DS was little telling me that there are times LOs need medication to help with constipation but if it can be avoided it is better as they need to learn to push hard which is a new thing for them after being on a milk heavy diet.
Perhaps if you offer finger foods (things like pasta and meat which you mentioned but also other finger foods such as veggies and fruits) and this is causing him some difficulty to poo, you can at the same meal give the apple puree/mashed which you have discovered helps keep things moving.  To be honest quite a few LOs need a bit of a balancing act with their solids meals.  I used to give mine soft prunes when he ate carrots because carrots made him a bit constipated but prunes kept it moving.

Where I live (UK) it is advised for ALL LOs to take a daily vitamin - do you have vitamin supplement for him?  Here we can get vitamin drops for young children.
We also have certain foods which are fortified, for example some cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals - not sure where you are or if something like this might be an option for you?  As example, my DS ate baby muesli for a long time (long after he was a baby) which was mainly oats with some fruits and fortified.

It really looks like you are covering the food groups so I don't really think there is anything I could say is missing.  I would try to offer more finger foods, I'm not sure if you are giving those veg and meat as finger foods or puree/mashed.  At this point I would try to move away from all his food being mashed.  You can also give LOs beans, fish and eggs so long as he has no allergy.

Don't worry about finding bits of food in his poo - this happens to all LOs.  It will eventually stop happening.

Here are the links I found:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=251239.0 (a pdf file is linked in here)
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=233269.0 (first link in here)

Honestly they both differ from the portions I found and jotted down when mine was younger but you shouldn't feel you have to stick to any of them rigidly, they are guides only and even from one guide to another they vary which just shows LOs are all different.