Will he ever eat anything else?

TBagpuss

Your health visitor soundsconfused. And the thing about being off formula by 12 months sems odd, too. After all, WHO advice is to breast feed for two years so forumla / follow on milk until at least that age should be fine.

Peachyprice's advice is good. Try new stuff at a time when you and he are relaxed and have time. (Also try serving yourself whateer it is you want him to try. Mummy's food is often interesting and appealing....)

If he is thriving and active then you're obviously doing something right! Children's rates of development, and the point at which theey are ready for each stage varies - most guidance is looking at average, so there will alwaysbe lots of chilren who do things sooner or later than the 'expected' time.

GwylimT

Children under five can become full too quickly on wholemeal, so they miss out on calories and nutrients.

Our daughter was a swine, for a good three months she ate nothing but baked potato, then she was fine for a few weeks and ate anything, she then went through a phase of only eating carrots. She is now almost seven and the only thing she wont eat is cucumber.

peachyprice

dk5294 wrote: »

I have the munchkin cup, he doesn't like it =( I've got 6 sippy cups and the only one he likes now has rice in it and is a rattle, haha! He'll drink from a cup like we do, but my health visitor said I shouldn't be encouraging that and I shouldn't give him formula after 12 months or I'll create issues for him.

I got into trouble for giving him wholemeal pasta as it's supposedly 'conditioning him for allergies' =/

Your health visitor sound crap to be honest.

Surely it's better for him to miss out the sippy cup stage altogether of that's what he's happy with. Let's face it how many 3-4 year old do you see who still won't drink from a normal cup because they're so used to sippy cups! If he's happy with a normal cup and you don't mind the odd spill, go for it! Think of it as no different from missing out the crawling stage, some babies go straight from sitting to walking, you wouldn't force them to crawl!

As for wholemeal pasta, a little occasioanlly is fine, the only thing is too much fills them up as mentioned above, and also it speeds up digestion so they poop more quickly and don't get the chance to absorb nutrients. I really don't know where she's coming from about allergies.

What 'issues' does she think giving formula after 12 months will create? You shouldn't give cows milk as a drink before 12 months, but that's entirely different to not allowing formula after 12 months!

carlislelass

One son ate nothing but macaroni & cheese or leeks for months, now a strapping 6 footer who eats everything

Mrs_pbradley936

I was like that with one of mine and he is now over 6 feet tall so stop worrying! If you can afford it I would not be in a hurry to move him away from formula or follow on milk because some children suffer deficiencies if they are not eating across the full range of fruits, veg, proteins etc.

Offer the food frequently and leave it at that. For your own peace of mind you might want to give vitamins and omega 3 if you do stop formula or follow on milk. Those have everything a baby needs (well sometimes they are not wonderful on iron ditto breast milk) and when babies are weaned unless they love oily fish and other stuff that's good for them they can go short.

The reason babies don't need lots of iron in milk is because they have a sufficient store in their liver for about 6 months thanks to you carrying them.

olgadapolga

dk5294 wrote: »

He'll drink from a cup like we do, but my health visitor said I shouldn't be encouraging that and I shouldn't give him formula after 12 months or I'll create issues for him.

I'm a health visitor and I cannot believe that you have been told this! What a load of rubbish. Ignore him/her. Unbelievable.

Let your little one drink out of a normal cup, why wouldn't you encourage it? Why force him to use an unsuitable cup when he's capable of using a normal one?

As for the formula, if he likes it, why not (apart from the cost of it)? What are these "issues" that your health visitor has dreamed up and what is her evidence to support this statement? She's talking total rubbish and clearly needs retraining as she's worrying parents.

I think that another poster said to mix formula with cows' milk to wean a child off it, which is what I did when my children had formula. I think we did less than 25% cows' milk, then after a week changed it to 50%, the week after 75% and then just cows' milk. It worked fine.

And, thinking outside of the box a little, who decided that only "breakfast" foods could be given at breakfast? Why not try him on other things? Cheese, ham, vegetables or maybe try "continental" food (croissants etc) or perhaps just a sandwich?

I don't think that you need to worry about your little chap. He'll certainly let you know when he's hungry. Another thing to note is that children under the age of two are very good at not over-eating. They know when they've had enough, so maybe he just isn't hungry in the mornings. Not all of us are morning people

dk5294

Thanks everyone! It's a relief to know that I'm not doing it wrong. She said the formula would become a necessary part of meal times and trying to get him off it wouldn't be easy as he'd associate it with meal times.

She said children are more likely to hold fluid against their teeth from a cup as they can't control the flow but to be honest my wee one spills loads down him whilst supping away so I don't think it's that.

The pasta thing, supposedly people are giving their baby gluten free, wheat free foods and we have self made coeliacs from it =/ I maybe give him a table spoon of pasta with veg and meat with some sauce at dinner and that to me seems pretty ok. He's quite happy and he is thriving. I get told off for lots of things. He's definitely a mummies boy and he will climb up me for cuddles and clings to me when someone he doesn't know comes around and she told me that it is probably separation anxiety as I work full time and I need to try and let him remain detached from me. I don't know what she expects me to do if I'm honest. I have to work and I'm sure as hell not going to push my son away when I do get precious time with him.

Spendless

Yes, your baby will eat other things eventually. Even if it doesn't seem the case now. They won't walk down the aisle or graduate from Uni still on the same meal plan - I promise.

When mine were little (almost 17 and 14 now) the advice was to allow cows milk no earlier than 12 months. It sounds like this advice to you has got muddled.

My HV at the time told me how to change it over, by making the bottles up with some cows milk and gradually increasing the cows milk: formula milk ratio. I think I did it one ounce at a time and kept it at that for a few days then increased it by another ounce.

Kaye1

Don't invite the health visitor again.
Grab an Annabel Karmel book from the library- super helpful.
Keep doing what you are doing!

AndyBSG

My cousin's son refused to eat anything other than jam sandwiches and chicken nuggets and chips until he was in double figures.... He's now 15 years old, 6'3" and on trial with London Irish Rugby club.

You just need to stick with it and not apply too much pressure so it doesn't turn into a battle