Two Questions

[i-wei]

Aidan is nearly 18mths and drinks Aptamil stage 3 formula.  I was just wondering many OZs he should be drinking now.  He's currently drinking 9oz before bed and 4oz mid-morning.  I would like to drop the 4oz one.  For dairy, each day he will have 3.5oz milk with his cereal, a 50g fromage frais and 6 cubes of cheese or 1 egg each day.  Is this enough or should I up the dairy if I was to drop the 4oz formula?

OK.  Second question  .  For breakfast Aidan still has baby cereal.  I've tried him on Weetabix (didn't like), Readybrek (which he'll only eat if I mix it half half baby cereal), Cheerios (didn't like) and Rice Crispies (didn't like).  Any suggestions?  I'm conscious of the added sugar in most regular adult cereals so don't really know which one to buy.  Can he have the wheat ones with added fruit in (raisins, apple etc)?

[tylersmommy]

I don't know the answer on the formula, but if he likes baby cereal, why not keep doing that? Tyler had that for breakfast every day until he was almost 2. If you want to try other stuff, there's always whole grain frozen waffles or pancakes, french toast/eggy bread if you feel like cooking, or bagels. You can also just offer whatever healthy food he likes, it doesn't have to be a "breakfast" food...Tyler's been known to eat broccoli for breakfast!

[sa]

i am not too sure about oz of formula either. DS is nearly 18 months, still on 3 bottles of 7 oz a day. he is still very excited when he sees the bottle. so i guess he still need them. i let DS take the lead, if it doesn't affect his appetite of solid, i don't mind having 3 bottle until 2 year old. (which on the tin of formula suggest .. we are on SMA progress).

for cereal, we just switch to tesco kids cereal range as DS is loosing interest in baby cereal. it's got less salt and sugar, and even has prebiotic.

[lilmonkey]

Does Aiden have most of his teeth?  Can he chew well?  If yes, then I would think that you can offer him any kind of food that strikes his fancy.  I have given up trying to offer dd certain foods b/c it is breakfast time or dinner time.  Like Tyler, DD been known to eat only broccoli and luncheon meat for breakfast.  I think that it really depends on how much to want to go into preparing for meals.   I just offer what we are eating and she will eat it if she is hungry enough ( which often turns out to be 5-10 min after she had refused to eat it!  )

Don't know if you have Shreddies but dd likes this.  It's whole wheat and no sugar added.  And the size is perfect for spoon or fingers!   I often mix Shreddies, Cheerios, raisins and other dried fruits in little zipped lock bags and placed them in plain sight for dd to retrieve them herself if she is still hungry.

As for the formula, is there a reason why Aiden is still on it?  You should check this with your dr if he still needs to be on them.  As for milk, I was told that if your lo eats other food items that contains calcium and Vit D, then it is not a big deal if you decides to drop it.  Just make sure that he gets enough liquids - ie water, juice, fresh fruits, etc.

[15milner]

At age 2.5 now, Matthew goes through almost a pint of milk a day, as it goes in cereal etc and it's his drink of choice.

At 18months he had a beaker when he woke, as a snack mid morning and when he woke up in the afternoon (actually pretty much the same now).  I don't see any reason why you need to bother with the formual anymore unless you have been advised to.  Matthew's been drinking whole milk since about the age of 1.  (I get organic - but that's a personal choice)

With regard to cereal.  Shreddies are a great hit.  Weetabix with raisins / sultanas / grated apple / banana on top goes down well. At 18mth I was still buying pots of fruit puree as I mixed that in with the readybrek to vary the taste a bit.  He loved the mini shredded wheat things with fruit inside.  I think the cereal with the dried fruit is OK, after all that counts towards a portion of fruit / veg.  But i do steer clear of anything with sugary coatings etc. 

Alex

[i-wei]

if he likes baby cereal, why not keep doing that?

LOL that's a very good question!  Mommy just wanted to offer more variety because he's been eating the same thing for breakfast for the past 9mths or so. 

it doesn't have to be a "breakfast" food...Tyler's been known to eat broccoli for breakfast!

LOL again!  Mommy has it in her brain that each food is classifed as either breakfast, lunch or dinner.

As for the formula, is there a reason why Aiden is still on it?

This is just for my peace of mind really.  I know that with the formula he's getting a certain amount of nutrients so I don't have to worry too much if he's having a food strike or something.  Also, he won't drink normal cow's milk.  I've tried mixing it with the formula and got to 3oz cow's milk and 1oz formula but he won't drink it.  Any tips on how to make it work?  I've tried bottle, cup and straw.  I've also tried different times in the day.

I'm interested in trying Shreddies.  I've never tried them myself.  Do they taste like Weetabix?  He also seems to have difficulty with cereals that are not mushed up.  If it's too seperate from the milk iykwim.

[lilmonkey]

Never had Weetabix, so I can't really say.  However I do like the taste of it.  Like dd, I like my cereal on the crunchy side.  If he likes mushy stuff, maybe you can try oatmeal for variety.  They come in so many flavours.  I do find the instant packages are very sweet so you may have to cook from scratch.

As for getting Aidan to try regular milk, I've heard that some moms would flavour the milk with Ovaltine or chocolate syrup or some other fruit flavour syrup.  Have you try offering the milk really cold?  DD doesn't like warm milk but would drink it if it's cold.

[i-wei]

Flavouring the milk sounds like a good idea 

Yes, we've tried offering milk hot, cold, warm, in a sippy, cut, bottle and with a straw.  Even tried drinking it ourselves hoping he'll want to try what mummy and daddy are having but one taste and he was off!  He loves the baby yoghurts.  Is it possible to mix one of the tiny pots of yoghurts with milk?  Has anyone tried this?

[workingmum]

I can't really help on the milk I'm afraid. Fortunately that's one problem we never had. Although in terms of amount, the paeditrician told me at this age DS (16mo) should be having 3 serves of dairy a day (a serve is a cup - 250ml - sorry, don't know the equivalent in ozs).
With regard to your question on cereals, DS is a fussy eater and didn't like weetbix at first. I got him on it by mixing a bit of crushed weetbix in with his baby cereal and mixing with hot water initially as this softened it more. Each day I increased the amount of crushed weetbix until he was eating just weetbix quite happily (this took about 4 or 5 days). Then I transitioned from hot water to hot milk in the same way - mostly water with a small amount of milk on day 1 and gradually increasing. He now eats the weetbix with just milk very happily. We no longer crush the weetbix for him, but do mush it up with the milk still. This was an amazingly easy way to get him onto weetbix, now we just have to work on fruit, veg and meat!!

Good luck!
Melanie