Please help with solids

[Mama_Mia]

My DS loves his solids but I am really having a difficult time figuring out what to give him to fill him up and also give him all the nutrients he needs. I just realized yesterday that he is taking way too much formula, about 6 8oz bottles a day. So I really need to increase his solids. As of right now he gets Jarred baby food for breakfast and lunch, anywhere from 2-6 oz and some finger snacks once or twice a day. Most nights I cant get him to eat dinner. We are working on that. I am not a cook and actually hate to cook. but DH does cook so anything thats not too difficult to make would be great. Basically what I need to know, is how many times a day I should or could give him solids and some really easy ideas on finger foods for dinner and maybe lunch. I really need to cut down on his formula intake and I think the only way possible is to get him eating more solids. Any and all advice welcome please and thank you

[Lemonthyme]

At around 9 months my son started increasing his solids but it's not a race.  Milk should still form the majority of his diet.

If you want some recipes though, I'm guessing he might be on mashed foods, maybe some soft lumps and you've said finger foods?  I'll post some from my blog here.  I hope they help.  Some of the older ones are a bit sketchy and I need to go back and put in more detail (sorry!)

http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/01/joy-of-cream-cheese.html
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/02/dahl-getting-braver-with-lumps-and.html
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/06/salmon-and-spinach-fishcakes-for-babies.html
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/02/fish-pie-for-everyone.html
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/04/potato-cakes.html
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/04/baby-chilli.html

[Lolly]

That's a lot of formula for a 9 month old! You will have to cut the milk down first to get him to be hungry enough to want to eat more.

Most babies are on 4 bottles and moving to 3 bottles at about 10 months and they only "need" 26oz ish of milk with their solids so your LO is getting double the liquid milk he needs. What times is he having bottles now? Ideally you want a wake up bottle, mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime bottle, then the morning and afternoon bottles get combined into 1.

You can start gradually by dropping an oz from all his bottles, then eliminating the 2 extra bottles by dropping those oz further. If you post your bottle times we can have a look and make some suggestions for dropping/ reducing.

Laura

[Lemonthyme]

Ah sorry, my lack of knowledge about FF coming in there!  I just figured they'd drop them when they didn't need it like they do with BF!

[Mama_Mia]

He got in the habit of night feeding because for awhile he was only drinking 12oz a day. But now that he has finally increased his Formula intake I cant seem to get rid of the night feeds. So right now he gets a bottle at

9:00 whats left from his cereal
12:00-Naptime
4:00 
7:30 Bedtime
usually 12:00 (midnight)
5:00am.
I know I need to cut the night feeds, but I am hoping that by increasing his solids they will disappear on their own. As I hate to deal with a screaming baby that wants a bottle all night.

He eats a great breakfast, but after that its my fault he doesnt eat great because I am lost as to what to give him and how often. I dont want to feed him the same things everyday and he hates eating from a spoon, thats why I need finger food ideas. Thanks

[Mama_Mia]

Lemonthyme.. Thanks for the recipes. There was a few I am definitely adding to my very short list of things to make for M. I have a question tho, on the potato cakes or the salmon and spinach cakes, do they hold together well after they are baked? They do look very yummy

[Lolly]

The trouble is that at this age unless you cut the milk at night he isn't going to be hungry enough in the day to want to eat so it will be a long time before you get to the point where he wants to drop the night milk, they learn to be hungry at night too. I would start with the night bottles, leave the day time ones for the moment and wean the night ones. You will have some rough nights, but I think it's something you will activley need to do something about. He's getting nearly as much milk overnight as most 9 month olds have during the day.

I would start by dropping each bottle by 1oz for 3 nights and just resettle then drop another oz and you keep going. We did this with DD and by the time she got down to 2oz we only offered water if she woke up. If you don't want to tackle both together start with the midnight bottle, get rid of that first then work on the 5am bottle.

At this age I did pretty much what I do now, they had cereal for breakfast, and toast as a snack in the morning. One meal is a "snack" meal so usually sandwiches with cheese or ham and fingers of cucumber or as they got older some thing like baked beans and toast. Our main meals tend to be things like pasta (which is an easy meal), casserole type dishes with potatoes or rice and veg like peas and sweetcorn, carrots, broccoli or slices or roast meats with veg and potatoes. Jacket potatoes mashed with cheese are a favourite too. They get yoghurt and/ or fruit after meals too. You can give him spoons too, I found that if they had one in each hand and were trying to feed themselves I could sneak some food in too.

Laura

[Mama_Mia]

Thank you Lolly,

Are you saying the get 3 meals and 2 snacks? or a snack after each meal?

We have a problem with lunch because he is on 1 nap. And he goes to bed at 12:00 until 2:30 so havent really figured out what to do about food for lunch.

[Lemonthyme]

Yep Mama_C, they hold together fine.  They kind of get a thin skin on them.  Just make sure you grease the tray and / or use non stick baking paper, otherwise they do stick!

[Lolly]

Ok so one nap at this age makes things a bit harder (I'm assuming you are getting some help on the sleep boards as 9 months is very, very young for 1 nap).

My DD was on 3 bottles from 8.5 months but 2 naps so she had 3 meals, a snack in the morning and her afternoon bottle was a snack really.

If he is asleep at 12 then I would do lunch at 11/ 11.30 and a smaller top up bottle before his nap (Is there a bit of A between bottle and sleep?). With his 5am bottle, cereal and bottle at 9am he really shouldn't need another 8oz bottle if he has solids lunch at 11/ 11.30. What time does he wake up? If you split the lunchtime 8oz bottle just before and after his nap (you will need to make up 2 4oz bottles) he should be hungrier for his solids tea. If he protests when the after nap bottle is empty give him finger foods like rice cakes as a small snack. This way you are cutting out 8oz of milk and then if you cut out that midnight bottle you will bring his milk intake down to a more reasonable amount for his age and he should take more solids.

What do you think?

Laura

[creations]

Hi Mama C.  I just want to jump in with a salt warning (mainly because in the last couple of days I have had my eyes opened to salt).

Under 1 year the max daily allowance is 1g salt (this is 0.4 sodium.  Some packs tells you both some only one).
LOs usually eat lots of veg and fruit so there won't be a salt issue there (as long as you don't add when cooking) but there are some other things that have a shocking amount of salt in.

"Low salt, low sugar" baked beans still have 0.5g salt per 100g. A small can is 220g therefore 1.1g of salt.
The bread in my fridge at the moment has 0.47g salt per slice.
Therefore 1 slice of toast plus HALF small can of low salt baked beans just slightly tips over the daily allowance.

If you were to dish up beans on toast for lunch you would need to ensure for example that you only gave this amount (or less) and did not give anything else with salt in for the rest of the day.

Anything that comes in a pack read the pack first and just work out how much you can offer, things like, cheese, processed meats, canned fish, breakfast cereals etc. (You only really need to do this to begin with as you'll soon learn which are 'safe' and which are high in salt)
As you have been using jarred food this might not have been an issue thus far so just wanted to give a heads up on it as you move towards more home cooked and finger foods.

In terms of food ideas - you don't need to be a great cook to steam veg.  Wash and chop it, shove it in a steamer and leave it for 5 to 10 mins depending on the size of pieces and what sort of veg it is.  Biggish wedges or batons for finger foods.  I personally have no problem with serving just veg for a meal as long as carbs and protein have been covered elsewhere in the day (eg porridge for breakfast, beans or piece of fish for dinner) or you can turn this into a full meal by mixing with pasta (don't add salt to the water) a spoon of cream cheese and a dash of milk to make a lovely smooth creamy sauce - that's got to be an easy dish for a non-cook.  Fuseli (twists) are the easiest to pick up for finger foods.  For a change of flavour (instead of cream cheese and milk) add a squirt of tomato puree/paste and a dash of water to slacken it up into a light sauce.  And a great seasoning for non-cooks is powdered garlic, no need to peel and crush cloves just shake a pit of powder in (can add to either the cheesy version or the tom version).
And the save the day tip for non-cooks...if you over steam the veg and they turn to mush just mix it all up together add a bit of milk or water to slacken into a sauce and mix in pasta or spread on toast/chapati/pitta/rice cake (and next time steam for less time )

[Mama_Mia]

Lolly, As far as the 1 nap. I didnt need help with that. He is an extremely spirited baby and it took 1 week to make the switch to 1 nap without any OT issues.

he really shouldn't need another 8oz bottle if he has solids lunch at 11/ 11.30.

This is where I run into problems. He always has a bottle before bed. He still goes down awake but when I try to put him down without a bottle first, he refuses. And I am weak. I would rather get a good unfought nap then to fight him for hours.

He doesnt always wake at 5 for a bottle, that feed varies. Here is how today went so far.

Midnight feed 6oz
6:15 bottle 6oz
7:00 Wake up
8:30 Cereal with some kind of 3rd foods mixed in
11:00 snack and juice..We were out so missed lunch
11:45 fell asleep in car
12:05 got home. woke up tried bottle but refused bottle and nap
12:30 3rd foods (3oz),oranges peices,baby finger foods
3:15 Bottle 8oz
3:20 napping...

USUALLY it goes more like this...

Midnight feed 6oz
between 5-6:30 6oz
8:30 Breakfast
9:00 bottle 4oz whatever is left after making cereal
11:30 small lunch (I never know what to give him)
11:45 Bottle 8oz
12:00-2:30 nap
4:00 Bottle 8oz
5:30 Dinner, either purees (2-4 oz) or what we are eating if baby safe
7-7:30 Bottle with rice cereal per docs instructions
7:15-7:45 BED

After writing that out, I think what I need to do is offer different things to drink when its not really time for formula. But I know babies shouldnt have more than 2 oz of water and I'm not sure about Juice

[Mama_Mia]

Creations, I bought this cheap microwave steamer and tried to steam broccoli but it got hard and brown, so I gave up the idea of steaming. But I like all your other ideas, thank you. I will have to do research on the salt thing. After raising 4 kids to adulthood I cant believe I never heard of it. Thanks for the heads up.

[Lolly]

For steaming I use a metal collander over a pan of simmering water with the pan lid on top, it works better than the micro because you don't have the micro waves cooking it as well! I do have an electric steamer for when I can be bothered to get it out of the cupboard .

I think the 2oz amount is for small babies, we just offered a sippy with meals and inbetween if it was hot from 6 months so they would have had more than 2oz some days. I wouldn't bother with juice to be honest, they don't need it and the sugar isn't good for their teeth, if he drinks water ok you are better sticking with that.

He may not be actually falling asleep on the bottle but if he "needs" his milk before he can go to sleep it really is a prop which is probably part of the reason why you still have the wakings and bottle of milk in the night. If you want help breaking this prop you can always post on the prop boards.

Laura

 

[Lemonthyme]

I just used to be a bit careful about only giving cheese once a day when he was under 1 and also not giving too much bread.  I also used to avoid ham and processed stuff.  It is hard to keep the salt down.  Cheese on toast and bam, there's your salt limit!