What do you feed your baby? Need input on solid foods

In My Humble Opinion
1

My son is 10 months old and I am a little confused on how much and what he should be eating. When I try to find sources most do not say how much to feed him, and it seems that everyone and every source I see has different and sometimes conflicting advice. I have found sources that suggest anywhere from 8 ounces of formula per day to 30 ounces! That’s a big difference, plus I combo formula / breastfeed so I don’t know how to factor that in. I have just been assuming that he is getting as much breastmilk as he needs to make up for any formula he doesn’t get, but I know my production is not what it used to be. (I don’t feel ‘full’ anymore like I used to.) Sometimes I wonder if he is eating enough. All you parents out there who have been through this, what do / did your kids eat and when? Here’s a typical day for us:

Gets up at 7:30, breastfeeds

8:30 - breakfast, 1/3 cup baby oatmeal with half a jar of fruit.

11:00 - 4 ounces formula

12:30 - lunch, 1 jar (4oz, the ‘stage 2’ kind)veggie baby food, rest of fruit from breakfast with enough yogurt to equal about 3-4 ounces total, plus cheerios, cheese or other little finger foods we are introducing

3:30 - 6 ounces formula

5:30 - dinner, 1 jar (4oz) meat / veggie dinner baby food, if he seems hungry I will give him 1/2 - 1 jar of fruit also. Plus now I give him bits of what we are having if he can eat it, otherwise cheerios or crackers, sometimes cut up cheese or tomatoes or something.

7:30 bedtime - breastfeeds
I wonder if he is getting enough to drink. I will also give him about 4 ounces total of diluted juice and he sips on that at his meals but doesn’t ever finish it over a day. He is not a big drinker, and I can’t say for sure how much he is getting from breastfeeding. He never took a bottle, so all formula and drinks have been from a cup since he was 5 months old, so he doesn’t sit there and suck on a bottle like most babies and I think he doesn’t consume as much this way. When I see other babies drink their bottles they will always finish them, he drinks from his cup but will often leave some in there.

On days he is home with me (I work part time) he usually gets another breastfeeding session in there somewhere. If I had to guess I would say maybe 6-7 ounces in the morning and 3-4 at bedtime? He has a very wet diaper in the morning and after his naps. He also gets additional cheerios throughout the day as they are a good distraction :).

For those of you who used traditional baby food like Gerber, when did you switch to the ‘stage 3’ bigger sizes? Is one jar supposed to equal one meal? When did you stop baby food completely? Did you bother with the ‘graduates’ meals or just use table foods?

Just now I read an article that said not to give babies table food with spices or anything like butter or salt in them. I have been giving him bits of what we are having without making it separate for him in the hopes he will like what we like. This has included ground turkey made for tacos, tortillas, tomato bits from bruschetta, etc. Should I not be giving him things like that? I don’t want him to only like bland things. So far he seems to like it all.

If anyone is still reading and hasn’t fallen asleep yet, any comments? This must be the most snore-inducing thread ever to someone without kids! (Heck it’s my kid and I just re-read it and found it tedious.)

2

I phased my kids into solid foods pretty early, by 10 months baby food wasn’t holding their attention much anymore and we had shifted over entirely to “real food” by a year. Anything you can eat he can eat, as long as it’s small enough and of a reasonable temperature. (The exceptions are honey and peanuts, which I believe may trigger allergies in the very young)

Your main indicators of whether or not he’s getting enough should be his diapers and growth. It sounds like he’s okay as far as wet diapers go, is he pooping regularly? Is he gaining weight appropriately? If those things are on track, you’re likely doing just fine.

As to the no spices or flavoring advice, eh. What was the reasoning? It seems like the point of introducing solid foods should be getting them used to what will be their standard diet. I’d be wary of introducing a whole new set of eating habits into the house, if only because I don’t want to have to cook two or more separate meals each day.

3

Let me guess…he’s your first? :wink:

Honey, relax. As long as the kidlet is continuing to grow and is active he’s fine.

I used to make sure my kids had a full baby bottle of water lying around, so they could suck on it when they got thirsty. Since your son sips from a cup just make sure the sippy cup is full of water and accessible to him. If he’s thirsty he’ll drink it. Meal times were just putting a variety of cut-up food on their high chair tray and when they started throwing it on the floor they were done. Babies are pretty black and white. If they like it, they’ll eat it. If they’re hungry, they’ll eat. Just don’t give them the sugary stuff, and try to give them a variety of foods to help develop their taste buds. I tried Gerber and Beechnut, but it got expensive after awhile so I just ground up our food in a blender (meat, veggies, starch) and spoon fed them.

4

Ah, yes, the pooping. Poops aplenty. Without apparent discomfort or anything.
Good and fat too, in the 70th percentile or so. I don’t know what the reasoning behind the ‘no seasoning or flavor’ article was, if it was just to make baby more likely to accept it then I am not concerned, but if things like that are bad for him I wanted to know. Yet he continues to live and be healthy, I should stop worrying. I know, I roll my eyes at myself for doing this. I promise to be a future Voice Of Reason to other new moms someday in return.

Thanks for the reassurance. Yes, it is embarassingly obvious he is my first ;). You know what the stupid part is, I pretty much knew people would come in and say ‘babies eat and drink when they are hungry and stop when they are full’ and yet I was compelled to post this anyway. Really I just wanted to see how much an average 10 month old will eat, and I googled. That was my mistake and why I felt the need to come here. I think in cases like this google is not your friend. I would read something that was the opposite of what I was doing and think ’ Holy crap, I am doing this all wrong!’

My daily menu in the OP makes it look like I regulate him more than I do, really I just wave food at him until he stops eating or pushes it away. The amounts are an average guess, but I don’t measure out the servings. Some days I feel like he hardly eats a thing and I wonder what he is living on, then another day he is ravenous and I feel like I should be feeding him more.

5

I agree with both pp’s. I’d tell you what my twins were doing at that age except that, I can’t remember! It’s such a blur!

I do recall giving them more & more table food, we never used “Stage 3”. And their eating isn’t on a continuum, either in quantity or variety. There were (and still are) spells when they didn’t eat much, and times when they nibbled all day long. Some days they’ll try new foods, other days they prefer the old standbys.

One thing I found helpful when they were starting solids is, I’d give them meat & vegetables that I’d chewed on myself just a little. OK, that’s kind of gross, but it really felt quite natural - I knew the food was soft, small, non-choking, not too hot. I felt like a mommy bird. And it didn’t take long before they were just feeding themselves.

Soups, yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce, and dry cereals. Just about every soft fruit you can think of - watermelon is a big hit. Peanut butter (no allergies) spread really thin on a cracker. Rice cakes - my son likes them with hummus. Spaghetti with red meat sauce. Boca burgers, fish sticks, chicken nuggets. Some spicy things, a few salty ones - I have read that salty foods can be hard on their kidneys. But last week we were at a picnic & they wouldn’t eat the hotdogs, so it was potato chips for lunch (they’re 15 months now). I figure one meal, who cares.

6

Velma, forget the sources and the Googling and what your mother’s next door neighbor’s boss’s cousin says. YOU are the best judge of your child. Trust yourself and trust him. You don’t eat the same amount every day, why should he? Relax, feed him good healthy food with the occasional treat, and enjoy it, because he’ll be graduating high school before you know it. (ivylass, mother of a 13 year old and almost 16 year old).

7

First hint: If the kidlet’s finger nails are growing well and the number of diapers are reasonable, and they have healthly skin, then kidlet is probably getting enough. It is impossible to measure how much they get from the breast so you must play it by ear.

Well, we never used food in jars; I can’t stand the smell. We cooked vegetables and mashed them up a bit but not too much. My daughter would not eat pureed food. We got her thoroughly hooked on vegetables before doing the sweeter fruits, and pushed the greens before the yellow vegetables.

Sweet potatoes and squash are great. Bake them and scoop out the insides and mash them up a bit with a fork and there you are. We used regular Quaker quick oats with a bit of mother’s milk to sweeten. While some will tell you to use frozen waffles to teethe on, we prefered frozen broccoli.

8

No advice on the schedule, however I do have a mommy tip for meat/fish eaters…

Make your own frozen nuggets and fish sticks. And you can make a few pounds at a time, bake them instead of frying and portion them out for snacks. No trans-fat or nasty fillers. I do this for myself and my mom gal-pals love these for their babes.

9

My baby is almost ten months. She drinks from a bottle (formula) but rarely finishes it. She won’t drink anything else from a bottle; she just screws up her face and pushes it away. We’ve been trying to teach her to drink from a sippy cup but it has been hard going mostly because she insists on drinking for herself so we either end up in a battle for the cup or most of the contents end up on her instead of in her.

We feed her pretty much anything she wants to eat. We just make sure it is small enough for her to swallow. She will happily eat cheerios etc but not if we are eating table food in front of her. Then only table food will suffice for her. We had a lot of trouble feeding her when she was about a month old so right now, I let her take the lead and give her pretty much what she wants. We don’t give her many sweets though. She started on solid foods early, mainly because of said eating problems and because she really wanted to. She would fight for our food at 4 months old and just stare at us when we were eating and, finally, cry.

One drawback to the seasoning bit is that now she is accustomed to table food, she won’t eat any of the Gerber meat/vegetable dishes. I think they are too bland for her. She will eat their fruits though. That isn’t much concern to us since we only use store-bought baby food when we are travelling. And, like your child, every so often she just isn’t hungry. She normally ]i]loves* bananas but this past Sunday, she just refused to eat anything for lunch. The only thing we haven’t tried with her is nuts (we kept her away from honey until she visited her grandma :slight_smile: ).

She is a very healthy and active baby so we’re not concerned.

10

There is your answer! :slight_smile:

One thing in your OP stood out to me:

If you’re giving him a formula bottle, it IS likely that your breasts have stepped down production. However, the reason we don’t feel that full, engorged feeling when the babies are older is because the breasts have regulated to the amount the baby is eating. They’re engorged when he’s a newborn because they don’t yet know how much the baby will eat, so gobs are produced, just be sure. Then, they self-regulate. Our bodies are marvelous! :slight_smile:

The squash and sweet potato hint is a good one. I too can’t stand the smell of jarred baby foods (but keep some around for times when the food I make isn’t baby-friendly). But here’s another good hint, buy can white beans (or make your own from dried beans; delish!). They mash easily. My 8-month-old doesn’t even need them mashed, really; they’re that soft. He also loves refried pinto or black beans.

On the seasonings – NONE of us need all the salt and refined sugar we eat. Keep it out of baby’s system if you can; it’s hard on it. But don’t worry about it excessively. I just scoop out baby’s potato before I butter and salt mine, etc.

Oh and try giving him smoothies. Mine loves them!

11

Sounds like he’s just fine. If you feel he’s getting good foods and he’s not gnawing on his toes all day, he’s getting what he needs, IMO.

Oh…and that spicy foods thing? Bah. Kalhoun Jr. ate anything and everything, including Pintos and Cheese! He is now an adult and a very adventurous eater. If he’s not getting sick, crying, or getting diarrhea, I don’t see what harm it could do.

12

My son ate half a bratwurst (cut up into tiny peices) at about that age. Probably not the healthist baby food in the world but he survived.

13

Thanks for all the food ideas, I am going to try some of them. It sounds like he is doing ok. I think I will start trying to get him off the jarred food a little more, he does enjoy feeding himself. Ellen, that is good info about milk production. I got used to being a little engorged early on and now I feel like there is nothing in there, but that makes sense about just making what he drinks. Get ready for more questions from me when it is time to wean :).

If fingernail growth is an indication of nutrition, then my worries are over. It seems like I have to cut his claws off every other day!

14

I never used much jarred food, either. It’s insanely expensive.
The one thing I never understood: jarred bananas. It’s so easy (and sooo much cheaper) to just mash a fresh banana on your own, and it tastes and smells much better. Applesauce, too. Just buy the “no sugar added” kind and give him that. Most kids like the texture better than all that smooth pureed stuff, anyway.

By 10 months, he can eat green beans if they’re cooked fairly soft. He can pick them up and just pop them in his mouth, too.

He’d probably like mac & cheese. Try the Kraft mac & cheese, and just give him a few pieces at a time.

He can eat regular oatmeal, rather than the baby stuff. Make it a little thinner than normal (if it’s too thick he could choke on a big mouthful), and add some applesauce or smashed bananas.

A lot of that baby food is a huge ripoff, IMO. By a year, they can be eating all table food - there’s really no need to buy that Stage 3 food.

15

Velma,

You’ve gotten some great answers here and to me (mom to a 2 year old and a 3 month old) it sounds like you are doing fine.

As your baby phases into being a toddler - and probably eating what seems like nothing for days on end - remember that toddler nutrition is judged on weeks not days. That means that if there is a day where your kid will eat nothing but bananas and peanut-butter crackers that there will be another day that week where he’ll only eat peach yoghurt at all 3 meals. The question is, does it all work out over the space of a week. If so, you are golden.

Also remember bigger kids still go through growth-spurts. I swear my kid lived on a few bites of bread and milk for a few weeks there, wouldn’t eat anything else. Now she weeps if we forget to give her some salad or beans just like mine (I practically have to count things out to make sure they are equal) and she eats it all. So what I’m getting at is portions will change as your baby’s needs change. If his cheeks are plump and pink, he has lots of energy and output is equal to input you can feel good about his nutrition.

Agreed on the make your own nuggets hint above. Add some wheatgerm to the breading for added nutrition. Because my kid loves bread I started making my own wheat bread, and again adding wheat germ. Now she even asks for the “Brown sprinkles” to put on her pizza like Daddy puts on that red peppers stuff!

Best,

Twiddle

16

Spices are just fine as long as he’s not at risk for any allergies and he’s willing to eat them. Breastfed babies may be more willing to be a little adventuresome in their diets, because they’ve had some exposure to those flavors in their favorite food already. :slight_smile: There’s also nothing wrong with butter at this stage. Trying to put a child under 2 on a low-fat diet is a very bad idea. Fat is necessary to myelinate the neurons. That’s why they tell you to use whole milk for children under 2, not lowfat or skim.

It sounds to me like he’s doing just fine. I did prefer the plain meat jars to the “dinner” jars, because they seemed to be more filling and to have less crap in them. Read the side of the jar sometime and compare them.

My 15-month-old would happily subsist on nothing but cheese, hotdogs, and breakfast sausage if I let her. (Oh, she’s probably accept some hash browns, too.)

17

Lemon wedges were a treat for my daughter at that age. Some say to wait on citrus due to allergies though. Low fat diets make for brain damaged toddlers. Toddlers need fat. A bit of salt or butter is not bad, but unneeded in most foods. My daughter liked chicken cut up fine.

Avoid meats with nitrates in them more often than once a week, and probably altogether until 18 months or so. Too many can lead to heart problems in children.

18

Nitrates are in things like hot dogs and lunch meats, right?

Right now I am waiting on giving him things like green beans because they seem to be too fibrous for him. He does very well with things that he can mash or that dissolve in his mouth, but when I gave him bits of bean the other day he was excited and put them all in his mouth. I thought he was eating them but I found he was just storing them in his mouth like a hamster. After he got too many in his mouth he choked a little and out it all came in a ball for the dog to run over and eat. At least I didn’t have to clean it up!

He does like pasta and bread very much. Sometimes I feel like I am feeding a duck as I toss him bits of bread.

19

Think of it this way - when my dad was a baby in the late 30’s in dirt poor backwoods Georgia, his mother fed him the same way a mama bird does, by chewing up whatever she was eating and spitting it into his mouth.

Not only has there not always been baby food (certainly for poorer people in the world yet today), there hasn’t always been blenders, either. He’s 74 now and definatley survived babyhood (although I’m pretty sure Granny couldn’t even conceptualize, say, ethnic food - Dad just had Mexican for the very first time last month, believe it or not.)

20

Lemons…Heh-heh…we would give Kid Kalhoun a lemon wedge if he began to get cranky in a restaurant. The look of utter amazement on his face was priceless! And no more tears!!!