A couple of food questions regarding 12 months boy.

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi, does anyone else have a baby that doesn't like much texture in their solids? He will eat a few finger foods, banana, biscuits, crackers, cheese (sometimes), bread/toast sometimes, and he chews those fine. BUT if there's anything that resembles a lump in his food like peas, brocolli, carrot etc, he spits it out. He likes lots of gravy/saucey stuff with his food. Eats a lot of bought food cos I know he'll eat it. He will eat my homecooked stuff if it's juicy. Is this still okay at this stage? Will this change soon??? I've tried giving him finger foods like carrot sticks, peas, etc but he spits it out.

Secondly, he's never been a big eater, but lately is eating less at meal times, but I have increased his 'snacks' between meals, so think this is why main meals have dropped back. His snacks are either a biscuit/cracker or fruit or cheese. How much is a good 'snack' amount versus too much to prevent him eating a reasonable amount of veges & meat (nearly pureed) at lunch and dinner?

I'd appreciate any little glimmer of help here, even if it is just to put my mind at rest that this is just NORMAL!!! Thanks!

[*Natasha*]

Whats his milk intake like, has this increased or decreased? IS he teething at the moment or any big developmental changes happening at the moment eg. Walking.

[Deb_in_oz]

Hayley - has he always been like this? because Liv had oral issues and texture issues from day 1 so solids was a tough nut to crack for us.  Olivia has a long list of what she won't eat and i just try to offer new things and pray that our list increases. she also LOVES jarred food - mostly i buy Heinz/Watties to you NZ folk Mum's Recipe ones and i think she likes them because of the liquidy/gravy factor you mention. no matter what i do my home cooked stuff never gets to that state - too dry i guess. i always keep the jars on hand for when she is refusing what i offer or i am running out of ideas...

anyway i do think they can grow out of it a bit and improve because since day 1 of solids Liv has refused the texture of bananas (anything "gluggy" like that when you chew it she has refused) and this week she has discovered a new love - bananas and has eaten 1/2 a large banana at breakfast each day  and then today she ate some peanut butter and jelly/jam sandwich  I seriously never thought she would eat PB but she lapped up 1/4 sandwich

when you are cooking things like carrots, broccoli and peas - how much are you cooking them?  i know it is insane but i had to get it "just right" for her and those are actually the 3 veggies she regularly will eat, but she tests them for texture first (squeezes the pea and if it is semi-soft she rejects it etc)

have you tried roast chicken and sausages etc - Liv seems to love the texture of meats and will eat 1/2 a chicken breast or almost a whole sausage

i can definitely say i still hate feeding times as it is such a struggle and i have no idea what to feed her 1/2 the time, but she is heaps better than she was at 8-10 mo so i can only hope that this improvement continues. my guess is that they have immature gag reflexes/sensitivty issues etc for their ages and that they will catch up soon enough and at least improve!  (she said hopefully!)

BTW Liv has also never been a big eater - especially at breakfast. i have finally let go of amounts (since she is a big girl anyway) and trust her to eat what she wants.i also think snacking suits her (when we went to 1 nap at 11 mo she started needing snacks at 10 and 4 to get through the stretches) i just give her a couple of crackers, 4 mini rice cakes or a little fruit. it does not seem to efect her meal toomuch but i kind of look at snack + next mealtime = real total (so if i give her a snack around 10 to hold her off for lunch, when i give her lunch around 11-11:30 i take the snack amount into account when i look at her meal intake KWIM?)

feel free to PM me anytime as i understand your frustration - i wach other people just give their 1 yo anything and they eat it and am so jealous 

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Yes, I have one!

Ds has no teeth yet, so I'm struggling getting him away from lumpy purees. He is also stuck on bought food, and acts like I've poisoned him if I give him something I've made . I'm just persisting with the finger food, some gets rejected, some gets eaten, I try not to make a big deal out of it either way. Here's some of the finger food he will eat:

-soft meats, like ham and chicken (he really likes these)
-peaches
-blueberries
-melon
-banana (will only eat if you give him the whole thing to play with first:P)
-grapes, skinned and cut in half
-well-cooked turnips

As you can see, it's all squishy stuff. I'd love nothing more than to be able to give him 'proper' food, like a sandwich, or an omlette, for his meals, but I think this is a long way off.

I actually don't give snacks between meals at all. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing there, but I have always struggled with my weight b/c I can't get out of the snacking habit, so it feels wrong to me to start ds on the same path. He seems happy enough with this (if you've never had it, you don't know what you're missing, KWIM?), but I hope it's the right thing to do.

I'm not qualified to give you any advice, or to tell you whether this is normal or not, I just wanted to say that we're having the same troubles here. I'll be watching this thread for any advice

[Deb_in_oz]

I actually don't give snacks between meals at all. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing there, but I have always struggled with my weight b/c I can't get out of the snacking habit, so it feels wrong to me to start ds on the same path. He seems happy enough with this (if you've never had it, you don't know what you're missing, KWIM?), but I hope it's the right thing to do.

i never gave alex snacks because if she ate even a couple of crackers she does not eat her next meal..but Liv seems to need even 1 cracker to get her through the time she used to nap (and not every day, butif she gets grizzly i know it is a food issue - i can almost set my watch by it) .  toddlers have their own food rhythms and itis just up to you to watch how your child eats, if he seems hungry between meals it might be his style to graze.  if he is not looking for it then no problems.  especially when they start walking a lot of kids need constant refueling. Liv walked earlier than alex and i think that is another factor in the snacks - she  is on the go all day long - a whirlwind of activity!

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Debra, you're right

Keep chanting 'mustn't project my own issues onto ds, mustn't project my own issues onto ds, mustn't project my own issues onto ds' 

I do think he's OK with this at the moment, but he's just starting to want to walk, so I'll keep an eye on it, thanks

[Deb_in_oz]

Keep chanting 'mustn't project my own issues onto ds, mustn't project my own issues onto ds, mustn't project my own issues onto ds' 

this is very hard thing for us parents to get over.  i kept telling a friend's mom that liv is "exactly me" etc  and she pointed out "she is LIKE you but she is not you. she is her own person" and i try to remind myself of that when i can. especially with food issues you don't want to cause issues for the lo. they are ablank slate and definitely don't need our baggage (something i do worrya little about raising 2 girls - i don't want them to join the ranks of these 7 year olds out there who are worried about getting fat  )

we are all doing our best right?

Deb 

[Little Bear's Mum]

Deb and Caroline, thank you soooo much for your feedback. What a relief it was to see there are other mother's out there going thru the same thing.  Daniel's always had eating issues also, although maybe they're more my issues than his. I usually cook the veges so they're soft. I try them and attempt to squish with my tongue IYKWIM. I've tried roasted food, if it's blended or well mashed he's fine. But a piece of chicken by itself.... no way! Spits it out. 

I made sure Daniel had a bigger gap between snack and meal today and it worked better. In saying that, we're also transitioning to 1 sleep from 2, so everything is totally out of whack, he didn't even really have lunch today  but had yoghurt for morning tea and a bottle before bed. Then cheese and crackers at the supermarket followed by a HUGE dinner (170g jarred food + 120g custard). So over the day I guess he did well.

Natasha questioned the developmental thing, yep, he's close to walking and I think one of his teeth (he's only got 6 so far) is causing grief. I guess that can impact on things too. And I think it's time to cut back a little on the milk as he drinks 2 x 170mls (morning and lunch after solids), plus 280mls at bedtime.

I know what you mean about reflecting your own eating on your child, we try to eat healthy most of the time, so want Daniel to do the same, but they NEED more calories and energy food than we do, so my health nurse tells me it's ok for him to have biscuits and even icecream. Come to think of it, we have icecream most nights, so I guess it won't hurt our son once in a while.

So I guess I'll keep squishing up the peas, forget about brocolli for a while and continue to try to give him new textures and one day soon he may just surprise me.

Thank you for your ideas and thoughts. I feel more positive about tomorrow's meals already.