What is your 14mo eating?

[leaves]

My son is going to be 14 months old in a little over a week, and he is still mostly breastfed, which is fine with me. But I'm wondering if it's enough to keep him healthy and growing? For example, yesterday he had maybe four bites of green beans. A couple bites of bread. The day before he ate half a banana and a couple bites of cheese. Day before that, a couple chunks of cooked carrot and maybe two bites of yogurt. From the beginning of introducing solids, everything he eats is more like a snack. In fact, he may have been more interested in solid foods at eight months old! These days, if he is interested in something, he'll most likely only take a few bites before he doesn't want it anymore.

His iron was recently tested and it's a bit low. I want to be able to offer him more iron-rich foods, but he won't eat anything! He is completely satisfied with just nursing, and he hardly goes an hour without asking to nurse, even if it's just for about two minutes. We are still nursing 6-7 times during the night as well.

How long can I go only giving him breastmilk? At what age is it important to really start eating solids?

[lkmiscnet]

We're in the same boat, but have a 16 mo old DS.

He is mostly BFing and up every 2.5 hours to nurse at night because he needs the calories. It's a vicious circle because the more I BF, the less he will want solids and I can't deny him BFing because that's his only source of calories. So, we don't know how to break the cycle.

He was doing about what your LO was doing on solids about 3-4 mo ago and, at times, taking in maybe 25% solids per day. But, now his solid intake is maybe 1% each day.

He is also very skinny and small, so there is a concern over whether or not he is getting enough calories. He still fits in 9 mo pants.

I talked to a lactation consultant and she said that it's likely that the BFing can't keep up with the amount of calories he needs/burns in a day because he is so active now. She said most kids his age are only nursing 2-5 times per day!

We're finally going to a feeding clinic next week to see if there is anything wrong just to rule out any physiological issues. That appt will involve a pediatric developmental specialist, dietician, occupational therapist and speech therapist. Alternately, he might just be picky and hates what I feed him. I'm finding that he eats quite a bit off my fork when we go out to eat (e.g. salmon especially) and I just don't know how to cook or know where to find the time. I still have him predominantly on homemade pureed food because I don't know what else to give him. So, I think he has texture issues as well.

Not sure that I've offered up any help, but at least wanted to commiserate. We figured they would have some great suggestions on how to wean him healthfully and carefully.

[leaves]

Of course, it is always good to know someone is in the same boat as us. My son isn't particularly small - he's 50% in height, 25% in weight, however that's from going from 75% in weight and height seven months ago. I know babies tend to slim down a lot when they get to this age, but I'm not sure if that's too much.

My son also likes eating off my fork when we're at restaurants. A couple weeks ago, I swear he ate nearly a cup of rice and beans! But that's not something that happens often. I'm not interested at all in weaning, but would love to be able to balance weaning with eating for solids.

And 2 to 5 times a day! Wow! I can't imagine my son only nursing 2 to 5 times a day... LOL.

[sunnygir1]

I would just keep nursing on demand and offering healthy foods. It sounds like your baby is trying foods and eating some. If all else is normal I wouldn't be concerned about it at this point.

My dd had low hemoglobin, and I just started offering her only iron-rich foods. I found a couple lists on line to work from, maybe one of them was from Kelly Mom. I gave her things like: oatmeal with raw tahini mixed in, greens steamed and chopped, squash, beans, chicken, peaches(?), I can't quite remember everything.

[BathrobeGoddess]

Moved to toddlers

[Abraisme]

Originally Posted by leaves

And 2 to 5 times a day! Wow! I can't imagine my son only nursing 2 to 5 times a day... LOL.

Out of all my friends that breastfeed on demand ALL of them nurse more than 2-5 times a day (at 14mo). The only babies I know that nurse that little were forced to night wean or strongly encouraged to drink cow's milk. My baby eats a lot of solids, but still nurses 7-12 times in a day..

Some babies just simply aren't ready to eat a lot of solid foods, even at 14mo. I can't imagine that you should force a normal, healthy 14mo to eat when he's not interested. My best friend's toddler hardly at anything until 14-16mo and then it FINALLY clicked on. While he's always been really small (-3%), he was small, healthy and too busy to eat. I've heard of some kids hardly eating solids until 2. Good luck!

[confustication]

My 12 month old is just making the leap to getting nutrition from solids. He is also nursing less during the day as a result. This was not the case with my older two before about 18 months. Even now, my 2 yo does not get 100% of his nutrition from solids.


I just keep offering whatever we are eating, and they seem to make the shift to more solids when they are ready.

My 12 month old's diet yesterday:

Toast and scrambled egg
granola (as a snack mid morning)
sliced up grapes
Cheese quesadilla with salsa to dip in
pita crisps and hummus
spaghetti and tomato and cucumber from the salad I threw together

He also nursed about 5 times during the day, and another 4 or so overnight. (Growth spurt, I think- this was a LOT for him to eat.)

My 2 yo had:
Toast
Grapes
pita crisps with v. little hummus
a couple of the veggies from the salad

He ate far less than his younger brother did- and only nursed about 3 times in a 24 hr period.