Lunch and snack ideas for picky almost 11 months old

[AMJ]

Hi to all,

My daughter is a very picky eater. Her most favorite foods are Hipp organic oatmeal, egg yolk and bread. Most of the time she is refusing other foods so I end up mixing everything with her oatmeal. Any suggestions on healthy tasty lunch and snack ideas?

Thanks in advance!!!

[Buntybear]

Hi,

Could you give an idea of what her meals look like now?

I take it she won't eat fruit or veg?

[AMJ]

Hi sure.
Yes she won't eat fruit or veggies unless I add it to her oatmeal. Sometimes she will have avocado pieces but just few.
For breakfast she eats oatmeal with pear and I add veggies to it as well( green beans, broccoli, squash, sweet potato, green peas)
For lunch I offere sweet potato soup, chicken, avocado or carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, etc. or egg yolk mixed with little bm/formula and I add veggies to it maybe pieces of pasta too. She will eat the egg yolk if not too many veggies/pasta added to it. If I offere grilled cheese she would be very happy( I toast the bread with cheese on it and then add a little butter)
For dinner I end up giving oatmeal again and I try offering checkin and veggies separately so she tastes them but she starts refusing it and I end up mixing it with oatmeal. She is also refusing pasta with veggies and grated cheese on top. She eats crispbread so I try dipping it in yogurt or spreading a layer of avocado or chicken/appe purée on it but by the time it gets to her mouth it falls off.
As a snack I offer crisp bread again, she might have few nibbles of a whole apple or might munch for a short amount of time on a pice of red pepper but she doesn't end up eating it I think she just enjoys chewing on it because it's cold and it help with her teeth.
She has water wth every meal.

[creations]

For lunch I offere sweet potato soup, chicken, avocado or carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, etc.

These soups sound healthy, does she eat them or refuse them?

Are the vegies you offer puree or finger food?
How about roast sweet potato wedges, they begin to caramelize on the outside which makes them super sweet and very hard to resist as a finger food, nice and soft on the inside too. I also do 'chips' made from turnip, swede, potato, just chopped into finger size and tossed in a bit of oil and herbs before putting in the oven. Mine will eat these cold so they can be kept in the fridge and used as a snack.

[AMJ]

Hi no she doesn't eat anything but oatmeal and grilled cheese and plain bread and crisp bread. Everything else I just offer in hopes she will eat it
I offer puréed and finger foods but she just plays with it but doesn't want to eat it. If I try to put it in her mouth she closes it or if I manage to get it in she will swallow an occasional spoon but most often she will spit it out
Hm I'll try you chips idea. Sounds delicious

[Buntybear]

sounds like you are trying everything - really good healthy foods in there 

How much milk is she getting? just wondering if she isn't hungry enough yet?

[AMJ]

She is bf 4 times - morning, after both naps and before bed. I'm not sure how much because I don't pump.
I know right. I'm trying my best but the little monkey doesn't eat it 

[anna*]

Personally I would cut down on the milk feeds and cut down on the grilled cheese and just keep offering healthy choices - don't fall back on favourites if she doesn't eat them! We can't make them eat but we can consistently offer healthy balanced meals - even if most of it is rejected or thrown on the floor. My son is six and at every appropriate meal since he was a year old he's had salad leaves on his plate (any time the meal would be served with salad). Just 3-4 tiny leaves. He's only just started eating them in the past few months, but he's super familiar with them because in our family that is what a meal looks like. Weaning is as much about social norms as anything else. There are communities where there will only be 3-4 staple foods eaten all year round - they don't care about their children eating a varied diet.

[AMJ]

Anna ok I will keep going and will keep offering healthy foods. Which bf would you cut out?
I already started to offer only 1 breast at a time instead of 2.

[anna*]

I'd cut out one of the after nap BFs, and then in a couple of weeks or so cut the other one so that you'll just be doing am and bedtime.

[*Ali*]

At this age breast milk is her main source of nutrients so I don't think 4x a day is excessive. I was certainly feeding mine 4x a day until at least 12mo and they were eating a decent amount of solids as well. I only cut down to 3 feeds when they moved to 1 nap at 12mo and 15mo respectively. The WHO recommend feeding as much as baby wants until 1yo btw. If you do want to cut out a feed I would probably cut out the feed after her second nap and offer dinner a bit earlier or even a pre-dinner snack instead. You might find it affects her sleep if you try to cut out any of the other feeds.

I agree with Anna that I would just carry on offering the food you are eating at every meal and not offer her favourites if she doesn't eat it. I would stop pureeing foods now and just offer her finger foods or chopped food. She will eat eventually.

[anna*]

True, I was feeding mine 4 x per day at that age but they were eating well so that wasn't a worry for me.

[TB9]

DD2 has 4x7-9oz bottles per day plus a top up bottle after dinner still (almost 1yo) so I would say you are fine to stick with 4 milk feeds a day.  What is her E schedule like?  When do you offer solids?  I am wondering if you can tweak the timing to make her more hungry for solids instead of reducing milk feeds.

[AMJ]

thank you ladies!
Today, as I mentioned, I offered 1 breast instead of 2 an she ate a bit more for lunch. But again picking things she likes.
Tinkerbell, I offer solids 2hrs-2.5hrs after bf otherwise she just won't eat them at all.
We don't even have time in her A to fit any snacks in.

[*Ali*]

We only added snack in to replace those two middle BFs. I agree 4BFs and 3 solid meals plus 2 snacks would be very hard to fit in.