Porridge replacement ideas for 10 month old refusing spoon?

[Bababoo]

My 10 month old DD is a great eater - and has been gradually feeding herself more and more and refusing the spoon - breakfast today ended with her almost covered in porridge as she swatted my hand away and dodged like a pro in her high chair.

She normally has a big bowl of porridge, a slice of toast (which she feeds herself, and either orange or banana pieces, again she pops them in herself).

I make all her food so lunch and dinner aren't such a big deal as I can just give her lumps of meat or veg, pasta or sandwiches but I'm worried about getting enough into her for breakfast. Today I gave her an extra slice of toast to make up for the porridge she didn't eat.

She has a big appetite (is bottle fed and on @ 19ozs a day and 3 meals) so I wondered if anyone could suggest what else I could give her to replace the porridge - she loves toast and fruit - do I just give her more? I don't want meals to turn into a battle as the transition to solids has been great so far.

Also...for anyone else dealing with spoon refusal  - do you give snacks between meals - I'm worried that her meal intake has gone down - maybe some finger foods during the day would help?

Thanks!

[clazzat]

You can make the porridge really thick and then cut it into slices! Wouldn't be my cup of tea, but  she might like being able to feed it to herself.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting food into her at this age, though. Before 12 months, solids is more about getting used to textures/flavours and her main source of calories should be milk still.

[Bababoo]

Thanks for that...your suggestion made me wonder if I could cook the porridge slightly to make it hold its shape...then it would be almost like a flapjack..soft enough for her to chew but hard enough to hold in her hand...what do you think?

[clazzat]

Absolutely. It will be messy, though...

[Bababoo]

Well, she had porridge up her nose, in her ears and all over her hair this morning...don't think it could get any messier!

[creations]

There's a recipe somewhere for porridge fingers.
I used to make oaty chews (not for breakfast but for snacks) and there are several recipes on the baby recipe threads for these, just like flap jack but no honey/sugar/syrup.
I'll hunt them down if you're interested?

I used (and still do at 3yo!!) Cow and Gate "my first muesli" it's labelled from 10 months. Added a very small amount of milk, then stirred thoroughly, you have to judge how much milk, it thickens a little over a minute or so, when it's a bit like play doh pack it down, cut into sections and roll each into a ball. Mine loves them, it's fortified cereal and sugar free.  he's actually only just started eating it as 'muesli' with a spoon rather than muesli balls as finger food, he loved the balls so much.
This is a quick on to make on teh day where as the oaty chews are a make in advance thing, you need more time to make and oven bake them but once you've done a batch you can freeze them and just takes a couple of hours to defrost and they also keep really well in an air tight container, I kept them in the fridge for several days.

[Bababoo]

If you could find the recipe for the oaty chews I would be really grateful - I tried a couple of batches of just porridge oats and melted butter this afternoon hoping to produce simple 'breakfast flapjacks' but they wouldn't stick properly so rather than cutting them into little cubes they just crumbled..one batch was too wet and one too dry and I lost the will to try again!

Those muesli balls sound perfect - will def try them.

Thanks so much for the advice.

[creations]

If you look on this thread at reply #16 there is a link to the place I took a recipe from for cookies, later int eh thread I make my own version which for us worked out better and I went on to make all sorts of varieties just depending what I chose to throw in when I was baking.
Recipes for babies and toddlers aged nine months plus
also see reply #18 and #20

Depending what texture your LO likes you can whizz some or all of the oats to make a smoother mix, when smooth they are similar to some shop bought oat bars made by Goodies (hope i have that right). I think the recipe which used the mixed spice was not a fav with my DS, it may be worth trying a few different version if your LO doesn't like the flavour, but just experiment with it.  I warn you though, do not taste these warm out of the oven, they are spongy and unpalatable texture (for me anyway).  You need to wait until they are fully cooled. I used to make batches then freeze layered up with grease proof paper in tubs so I could lift out half a dozen or so which would keep DS going 2 or 3 days on snacks when he was young like your LO.  When he was older I started making them in a mini muffin tray, it was even easier/quicker to throw together but he struggled to get his mouth around the depth of them when young (i would snap it in half for him), handy when he was older though.
(I'll be honest, I didn't much like these oaty chews but DS totally loved them and they were healthy, DP also liked them well enough for me to have to hide them or I'd have none left for DS!)

Other great finger foods for breakfast and sugar free fruit/veg muffins (sweet potato and sultana for example), and little american/scotch pancakes.  I used to make a big batch of pancakes and freeze those too, you can add lots of fresh or dried fruit or leave them plain.

[Bababoo]

Thanks so much - you're very good.

DP gave her breakfast this morning and only offered her the porridge (I usually make everything and sit down with the porridge and toast and fruit) and after a few objections and with nothing else appearing she took the spoon from him. Once that was gone he got the other bits together.  He has either cracked it or she was just hungry enough not to care about the spoon - either way I want to have alternatives to the porridge in case she is getting bored of it.

Will try get the muesli later and do a trail run...were the pancakes ok frozen - it would be great to have a bunch in the freezer - I love them so it would sort out breakfast for two very easily!

Will have a crack at the linked recipes over the next few days and see how we both fare! I'm not a very good cook so this is a learning curve for me  -  before she started solids I vowed to do all homecooked meals for her, and was blessed with a happy and adventurous eater, and now that we're on to self-feeding it's a whole new style of cooking again!

Thanks again.

[creations]

I froze loads of pre-cooked pancakes, interweave with greaseproof/baking paper so they don't stick together, that way you can lift out the number you need instead of a big lump of them.  I always lifted them out to defrost before needing them, so if you want them for breakfast I would lift them out the night before. Here the pancakes were always for snacks or super easy buffet style dinner before EBT if I suddenly needed to get DS to bed early and had no time to cook properly.  They keep a few days in the fridge too.  I *think* some people use them from frozen but tbh I'm not sure how they do that - you could always post in the regular recipe boards and ask about frozen pancakes.

Those oaty chews are so easy, honestly, I'm a decent home cook but not a baker and I learned to turn my hand to these, the pancakes, muffins and cakes all so I could bake sugar free.  They are all easy things.
As for home cooked meals, can you just leave out salt/sugar/honey in your regular cooking and serve her the same you have? I changed the way I cooked for the family rather than make separate meals for DS (it was enough to bake enough snacks to keep him going).
Have fun baking