Experienced Mummies.... Advice please!

[Melsy]

Hi there,

I would love some advice please on what sort of things to feed my now 1 year old ds!     I also have a few questions.

We do cereal and milk in a sippy for breakfast, plus a small amount of pureed fruit.  Then we do morning snack, cut up fuit banana or something and small sippy of milk.  Then nap.  Then lunch - something from a tin    plus yoghurt and sippy of milk.  Afternoon snack, sippy of milk and crackers.  Nap.  Dinner with water, more pureed fruit or custard to finish, bath, then bottle then bed.

Whew, if you made it that far, well done! 

Here are my questions:

1)  I have been giving him full cream milk on his morning cereal for two weeks now and had no reactions.  He also has cheese and yoghurt no probs.  Can he now drink full cream milk from his sippy instead of formula???  When do most people offer the milk, just with meals, or with the snack and water with meals??

2)  When is a good time to get rid of the bed-time bottle?  Does everyone offer a snack before bed instead??

3)  I can not get ds to eat bread or toast!!!!  He will put it in his mouth, chew it a bit then spit it out.  :?   I have been trying him with toast/bread since about 7 months old, with no luck.  I have tried different brands of bread, different spreads, offering him my toast, eating it at the same time as him..... all to no avail.  He is going to be going to daycare soon, and they supply the food.  If they do sandwiches for lunch, we are in big trouble.

4)  Ds doesn't seem to like eating meat - is this common?  Health nurse told me he should be eating pretty much what we eat - well that would be lovely if he was interested in what we eat.  :roll:   He kinda does ok with pasta and rice..... sometimes...... but doesn't always want to eat from the spoon.  :roll:   We had apricot chicken and pasta for dinner and I gave him some - no go for the chicken and ate a few bites of pasta.  :roll:   Is this normal??

5)  If you have any favourite things that your l.o's eat, I would love to hear it!!!

Thank you if you have read this far and if you have any advice for me!

Melissa.

[Deb_in_oz]

OK Mel - i will just answer point by point

1. he can now have milk instread of formula.  in our case we gave milk at wake up, after lunch and before bed (bottles and breast at that stage) and from 12 - 13 mo it became just 2 bottles (L and D). i have always offered water with meals but regret that now as alex will not really drink milk now as a 2 yr old - once we got rid of the bottles she mostly refused anythign except water in her cup - warning!

2. i woudl get rid of the bedtime bottle sooner rather than later - we did it at 20 mo after olivia was born. tried to switch to a cup before then and she refused (see #1) so we finally said no milk then and are trying to get more dairy into her other ways.  no bedtime snack  here


3. alex also ate crumpets and breadsticks instead of toast - you could also get pikelets at the supermarket, try raisin toast to gauge if it is the bland taste or the texture of plain toast that bugs him,  can daycare make his sandwiches on something else if you provide it.  at that age te only sandwich alex woudl eat was avocado and she gave that up around 14 mo and now the only sandwiches she will eat are peanut butter & jelly / jam or raisin bread with butter. usually i give her pieces of ham or other filling (tuna etc) and the bread / carb separate  :roll:

4. it is common not to like meat. i was also lazy about preparing it for her and apart from bolognaise sauce (which she ate as finger food at that age - what a mess) she got her protein from tunba, lentils and eggs most of the time.  later she fell in love with sausages and now will eat a greater variety of meats so it does improve.

5. will look back at stuff and get you a couple of good fool proof recipes that i think she ate all the time

[Eden's Mum]

Ok. Not claiming to be an expert but i reckon i can answer most of these!!!

1. But 1 year then can have milk instead of formula, but there is not much iron in it, so take care togive iron rich foods in solid form, preferable with a form of vit C to help with digestion, especially if  your lo doens't like meat. common sources are  dried Apricots (organic), green veg, lentils or beans. and tofu etc.

2. You could try replacing the bottle with a beaker any time. I still give bed time milk to my  nearly 3 year old and will do so unil he refuses it. they are supposed to have a pint of milk a day until they are 5 years old and i can get 8oz down him at this time. I can also do it after teeth cleaning as it doesn't harm teeth so it is relaxing for him. he started having it from a beaker at 2 years old. still had a bottle form until then as he refused to drink it form a beaker.

3.With food refusal you can't force it. you are doing all the right things, jsut keep on offering, eventually he will take it. you migh find what he won't eat at home he will eat at nursery. that is quite common. make sure he sees you eating it too, his curiosity will get the beter of him.

4. It is really normal for children to dislike meat as it tends to be the texture they dislike. See what he makes of quorn or tofu as it is easier to chew. he may stil reject this too. If it is important to you that he eats meat, try disguising it so taht he still gets the protien by liqudising it in witht he sauce rather than giving it in chunks at first, and as witht he bread, just keep offering it, eventually he will ge the message. don't stress abotu it in front of them theough as they can get hang ups abotu it if you make a bit deal out of it.

5. If he is inot finger food ther is a great book called finger food for babies and toddlers by jeannie maizels. It is fab and has lots of ideas for weaning and interesting them. i use lots of canned lentils to get protein and iron inot my ds as he doens't eat meat and you can disguise them so easily.  Sandwich wise I made butterflys out of bread and veg and fillings and he helped. that made him so interested that he ate things he wouldn't usually. You could arrange food into faces or monsters to get them to eat it and call it fun names. we do treasure island cous cous which is basically cous cous with a whole load of differnt veg and beans and chick peas hidden in it. the game is to find all the bits, name then and eat them!

Goodl uck