I'm confused about baby food

heather38

my DD wasn't keen on food and then something clicked and she loves eating now!!
my HV told me that a general portion size to work off is a palm sized amount for each food group. (babys palm that is not yours!!) and this seems to work for me. this works out for me as 1 fish finger, a tablespoon of veg and 1 potato, followed by as much yoghurt as i can shovel in coz she loves the stuff!!
the salt limit is less than 1g per day for under 1's.

hev_2

I never thought of giving him a fish finger, but there is no reason why I shouldn't!

I shall definitely have a go at that!

He was after our fish & chips last night, which made me realise how much junk me and DH are eating.

Thank you for all the help, I am really grateful.

fibernie

Hi there
There are loads of fantastic finger food recipies at www.babyledweaning.com this is a site dedicated to the purely finger food approach to weaning. My daughter refused to be fed any mushy baby food, so this was the way forward for us. Check out their new forum.
Good luck, and get ready for mess if you give more finger food a try!

Mesopotania

Sounds a bit strange but what about a little bit of malt vinegar in food. I've found with all my children (I've got 3 under 4 years) that they like sweet stuff and/or sour e.g. lemon juice, vinegar, pickled onion. They don't like ordinary savoury food so much. At least with the sour stuff it's opening up their taste buds to something a bit different! They're expression when they first taste a lemon is something to catch on camera!!

Scrambled egg, fishfingers, little cubes of cheese are all great early savoury foods. Mine also like a spoonful of "nippy peas" and "nippy sweetcorn" which is frozen peas or sweetcorn served from the freezer with no cooking. They also like tinned chopped tomatoes (served from the tin uncooked). If you're little one can't cope with too many lumps try blending scrambled egg and banana - it's suprisingly nice!! lightly blended sausage and apple is another hit.

I also use Quinoa a lot - you can buy it in Sainsburies e.g. in the hippy section. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa. It's famous for being a complete food with lots of protein and interesting vitamins - so great for little ones that don't like meat and stuff too much. You just cook it like rice - pop some into water and boil it for 5 minutes. It looks like a round version of rice. It's pretty tasteless so great to add to other stuff without the children realising that they're eating very healthily e.g. chopped banana and quinoa, quinoa with sultanas and chopped up apple is another favourite. You can store it in the fridge and just use a bit in every meal.

poodlehorse

Ah the dreaded Hell vistors!! I despised mine as she had no kids of her own and couldn't give you advice if it didn't come out of a book. Useless (but apparently they aren't all like that). It sounds to me like you are doing just fine, I used the Takealongs by Rubbermaid that Asda sell too and made up various versions of mush in them. At that age I think I had various veg in cheese sauce and maybe some fish and mash and peas in a white sauce. That was plenty for a main course and if he ate that he then got his petit filous, to keep him occupied while we ate ours I gave him raisins or a handful of cheerios (not the honey nut ones before one or if allergic obviously). I found a mini takealong filled with cheerios a godsend when out and about and he got either hungry or just fed up. If you feed them one at a time they last ages LOL! DS still likes them and he calls them Scooby Snax now (he is 2.5). HE definitely had started on these at 9 mths but he was never a chokey baby so use your own judgement. I think my routine would have been:

brekkie at 7am - 1/2 weetabix in milk, then half slice of toast and his formula in a sippy cup which would keep him happy until I got mine eaten.

mid morning - snack would be 6oz follow on milk plus fruit maybe

lunch - a takealong or 1/2 jar plus petit filous and water to drink

afternoon snack - as morning or maybe a baby biscuit if we were out instead of fruit

dinner - as lunch

7pm 6oz formula again before bed.

If he was grouchy before I got lunch together then I would offer him cheerios or other finger foods to keep him going. I find that even now he prefers lots of bits to a whole meal so lunch now is often a platter of ham, cheese and fruit and oatcakes and hummus. HE would have started on these platters about 10-11 mths. HE also used to like a little Scotch pancake for a snack just dry.

I was told by my HV that baked beans were fine from 6mths (reduced salt ones) but since then new guidelines have come out to say that these should be an occasional treat as some kids were having them every day and too much fibre can stop them absorbing iron properly. If he had them once a week that would be fine I am sure. I know I wound myself in knots when I had DS as I was so worried about ...everything. But I am a lot more laid back now. Annabel Karmel is ok but sometimes I felt her recipes were things I wouldn't eat muyself so went away from the point of getting them to eat what we do. Mini burgers with loads of grated veg went down a treat a few mths later though , get her book out the library rather than buy one though and jot down anything useful. Also the Lorraine Kelly book was quite normal and I have used that for ideas rather than actually following the recipe. DS and every baby I know loved half an avocado mashed with half a banana though -his fave food for ages It hink. That was an AK recipe. Scrambled egg is another good one if they can have egg, I used to put a bit of cheese through it. I found DS wouldn't eat meat at that age really unless it was fish. However he still isn't too fussed on it. So I did lentil stews etc and lentil soup as that has loads of protein and I think iron too. I have to admit to giving DS a smear of peanut butter on his toast occasionally (did this early in the day first time so if he had a reaction GP would be open) and marmite on toast (spread with butter first so not too strong) and he still loves it today but I was always a bit worried about the salt content in that but the books I got from the HV suggested it.

You are doing great and 9mths is a bit of an inbetweeny age I think but passes quickly give it another month or two and your LO will be able to have that bit more and by a year well the world is their oyster, don't worry about the 4/6 mth weaning thing. The advice now is milk only until 6 mths but it was 4 mths until just a few years ago so lots of the books still say that. DS was weaned early as he was constantly hungry but you have done well to get to 6 mths on milk. Well done. Give finger foods a try if you haven't already as they are better to get used to lumps before they start getting too fussy and then won't take to them.

formidablelady

hev wrote: »

Does anyone know a good resource on the internet (that isn't pushing you to buy loads from a manufacturer) to tell you what feed a 9 month old, what portion sizes etc. I have tried buying books but found the ones I bought unhelpful and I would rather spend money for DS than on yet another book that confuses me.

I have been giving him baby food in jars but no matter how hard I try (and I try every night) he won't touch the savoury food. I won't then give him something sweet in case he sees it as a reward, so he ends up with milk. I am sure that the sweet stuff (fruit purees, egg custard etc) he is getting at lunch time is not a good pattern to set. He has baby cereal for breakfast, not keen on weetabix, would appreciate suggestions for other breakfasts that don't cost the earth.

Can I give my little bunny baked beans? Alphabetti spaghetti? How about how much liquid they should have in a day? (my mother and DH both
notorious for forgetting to drink liquid until dehydrated!) What are the recommended guidelines for salt (need to know if giving cheese/tuna etc)?

How much is a portion of fruit and does it include the stuff squished into his hair? How much rusk should they have? How about meat?

My health visitor has just about reduced me to hysteria, and I am desperately confused about how I should be feeding my little one. If anyone can point me to a place where I can find some information I would be really grateful. At the moment I am just about in bits about what I should and should not give him.

BTW he is big for his age, extremely active and enquiring and full of energy. I don't think he is about to collapse from malnutrition, but I want to try and sort out what I should be doing, and I am just not strong enough to try and get info from health visitor.

I would be very grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Hi Hev
Your baby is 9 months old and can pretty much eat what you eat and as someone has already said babies often prefer "our food" to baby jars. You should avoid honey nuts and do not add salt to foods. Do not get hung up on portion size all nine month babies are not equal and its best to be guided by your baby. By that I mean make up a large quantity of food and feed him until he gives you a sign of being full e.g. closes his mouth, pulls away etc. It is very difficult to overfeed a baby as they are quite good at regulaing their own appetites. If he has a little too much he may possit. You should find he has reduced his milk intake to around 2-3 breastfeeds/ bottlefeeds a day to allow for the solids. As he now only needs the equivalent of 1 pint around 20oz milk in 24hrs. This does include dairy. Mini yogurts = 2oz full size = 4oz,a matchbox size piece of cheese = 2oz and don't forget to include the milk on his breakfast in that. Its also important to let him feed himself with your help of course. Babies like to control what is going into their mouths. Imagine what it would be like if someone fed you! Above all relax and enjoy. No baby will starve itself and they have good and bad days. Look at the overall weeks intake rather than just one day if you must! Good Luck.

RHemmings

When my son was born I bought and read this book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nutritional-Requirements-Infants-Young-Children/dp/0632048913/ref=sr_1_11/026-3477492-2810010?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189958202&sr=8-11

It is meant for health professionals, but I found it readable and informative. There may be a more up to date book these days.

It does not give solutions for typical eating problems, curing fussy children, etc. What I did appreciate was that I then had a better idea of what nutrition children needed, and therefore wasn't worried that I was missing something out that he should have been getting.