Difficulty keeping food in

[lauradj]

My DS2 is just one year old, literally as of Friday, and the wee man only has 6 teeth!  He has such ambition when it comes to trying different foods but nothing seems to stay in and he's not mashing it up very well with his gums. 
He's just squeaked in at 20lbs and I'm giving him full fat milk for all bottles to try and ensure he's getting enough calories.  Should I be giving him more mashed up foods that I feed him?  He's so pleased whenever he can stab something with a fork and put it in his mouth, I don't want to take that away from him. At the same time he's often hungry because he's not getting enough in at meal times.  What do I do to help?

[Hedgehog17]

You can both have a spoon / fork, and you can feed him mashed up foods while he feeds himself more solid foods. That way he still gets the self feeding and chewing practise, while also getting the calories 

He's doing great - my DS wouldn't even hold a spoon at that age!

[lauradj]

Thanks!  We did that last night and everyone was happier.  H thought he was feeding himself and he actually took in some decent calories.  As an added bonus, he drank more milk at bedtime.  I'm not sure how the two correlate but I'm happy!

[lily_layne]

That's great if he's managing a fork/spoon! My DS only had 4 teeth at that age (actually still only has 4 at 15 months!) and he ate everything in sight. I don't know how he manages with 4 teeth but he does. I also did a combo of self-feeding and us feeding him and that worked well. Soft foods, easy-to-hold foods like baked sweet potato fries were good for helping him get the hang of using his 4 chompers and his gums to mash food.

[creations]

I would be cautious of how much milk you are giving now that he's 1 (happy birthday little man!), his focus does need to be on the solids.  Does he have a strong tongue thrust then if the food is coming out? I wonder if it's worth asking your HV or GP to check him over?

fritata is a good one for finger food, fork food and it's protein/fat.  You can make it plain egg or add cream, cheese, veg. It's a great food for picking up as a big wedge in the hand (or smaller cube on the fork) and turns to mush in the mouth. Omelets too.

[*Liz*]

Thomas wants to feed himself as well - he is much better if everything is in little pieces he can just pop in. I know they say big chunks and bit off themselves, but Thomas tends to bite more that he can manage and ends up spitting it out.

I feed off a fork if he is agreeable (often isn't - unless it is spag bol that he LOVES  ), but not mashed food, just the same stuff but off the fork from me iyswim?

[weaver]

Does he need to use a fork/spoon? he might get more in with his hands   You can go for high calorie foods like avocados, nut butters, cheese and so on, and eggs I think.  But he will eat if he's hungry, yk, you don't want to push his natural pace too much.  I think LOs grow in spurts throughout their lives, so you might find he will surprise you one of these days!

[creations]

But he will eat if he's hungry, yk, you don't want to push his natural pace too much.  I think LOs grow in spurts throughout their lives

I noticed a significant drop in appetite around 1yo too which can seem a bit worrying when it happens...until you come on here and find out they all seem to do it!

[lauradj]

Very true, we don't want to push him to eat more than he wants. It just seems like pretty much everything he puts in, falls back out!  Oaty chews are a HUGE hit (thank you creations!), always have been.  He'll also eat toast triangles dipped in soft boiled egg but cannot deal with, or doesn't like (?) scrambled eggs.  All the good fatty foods he hates; avocados, cheese, he does love his all natural peanut butter though!
He did fairly well with potato wedges tonight, and he ate some broccoli (?!?!?!?!).  Maybe he just doesn't like most of what we're giving him and is spitting it out from displeasure?  But when I puree stuff and sneak it in between his attempts, he usually takes it.
At the moment he's only taking about 12oz of milk, which I think is ok.  Though for the life of me I cannot remember when to drop the morning and bed time bottles!

[creations]

~DS also didn't like scarmbled egg, I think it's the texture. He will eat some now (at 5yo mind!) but still isn't keen. omelet however is another story, very happy to eat that.
Tried eggy bread? I never add any milk to DS's so it is a whole egg and a full slice of bread, fried.

The guidance for dropping bottles is 12 months but it's mostly for tooth care. If it's just glug down the milk at WU/BT then many choose to keep 1 or 2 bottles for a while, brush teeth after the BT milk.  They still need milk/dairy though so that's why many keep 1 bottle, often toddlers won't take a good amount of milk if it's in a cup rather than a bottle.  I dropped one at 12 months (switched to small amount of milk in a sippy plus supper solids instead of BT bottle) and managed to switch the other to a straw (large milk at WU) at 13 months.

[*Liz*]

I still give Thomas 2 bottles - but he doesn't have much. Maybe 3-5oz in the am, and 3-6 before bed. But that is likely a preference thing really. He still believes cups are watering cans so I can't really transfer and expect any sort of intake at all iyswim?

We also get a ton of spitting if he is teething, and it improves whenever those old teeth are quieter. Like a typical baby he eats a ton of fruit and carbs, and not an awful lot else. It's usually a passing phase though - all food things usually are.