My 11 month old still breastfeeds predominantly. Hardly wants solids. Anyone else?

[grlprpl19]

He just doesn't eat a whole lot.  And yet he's always been in the 90th percentile.  he eats maybe 2 jar's worth of solids a day and the rest is bottled breast milk during the day and breast in the evening and night. I plan to breastfeed until he's ready to stop.  I'm concerned about his nutrition and eating habits.  he's happy and obviously thriving, but is this normal?  I feel like the entire first year as a new parent is the question, "is this normal?" 

any advice or experiences would be much appreciated =)

[Bokonon]

My DD was almost about 99% exclusively breastfed until after about 13-14 months of age.  She just didn't want to have anything to do with solids.  She eventually took to food with gusto, weaned from nursing on her second birthday, and has a robust appetite and varied diet.  :)

2 jars of food at 11 months sounds like a lot to me from my experience, LOL, but that doesn't mean it's not normal.  I didn't really do jarred food much with my kids (they hated it).  Have you tried giving your baby bites of food instead of purees?  Googling baby-led weaning would be a good place to start.

[katelove]

 2 jars of food sounds a lot to me too  My almost 13 month old has only just started eating more solids (we do BLW) but I would say she still gets more than 90% of her nutrition from BM.

[BananaBreadGirl]

That's normal and healthy. My son "liked" solids at that age, but he was only interested in a few bites of each thing. He turns two this week and he ate the last jar of WIC baby food this morning...I stopped using WIC when he was 10 months old. I don't think he ate a whole jar of food until he was a year old or more.

This is my favorite source of info on balancing breastmilk and solids:

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html

[Lilymomma]

My almost 11 month old is interested in solids, likes them a lot- but still nurses as her primary nutrition.  Some days she doesn't eat more than a few nibbles of solid foods.  We have been strict BLW (she's had 5 jars of baby food in her life, most of which was rejected or wasted in the fridge).  I think that this is totally normal.  I would continue to offer healthy options, as far as solids go, and just follow his lead.  When he is ready, you will know :)

[boomer78]

DD was pretty much exclusively breastfed at that age, I'm pretty sure she didn't start 'eating' untill about 14 months or so. 

[l3erly]

So happy to find this thread! My DD is 16 months old and EBF. She also doesn't eat much solids, in fact, it seems like she doesn't eat much of anything but her 'mik'. She is thriving, however, and her growth is normal according to her check-ups. Glad to know I'm not alone in this and great to read all the advice :)

[Julybug]

I had a mom friend tell me to just pay attention to what my son seemed to need re: solids, and not worry about what others thought.  My son ate less than 2 jars (I assume you mean the medium-sized ones?) per day at 11mo, and had only just been consistently having 2 very small solids meals a day since about 10mo.  Soon thereafter, though, I had a feeling he wanted to have a solids lunch, too, so I started giving it to him most days.  Around the same time, he started nursing every 2 hours during the day (although he would usually go a 6hr stretch at night) for 2-3wks.  He learned to walk and got a few new teeth just after that stretch ended, so it was clearly what he needed.  He continued to not eat a lot of solids, although he was usually having 3 meals a day, until he was 14mo when he started eating more, and then had another bump-up in solids intake around 16-17mo.  It also took him until 17-18mo until he had enough teeth and the desire to eat more foods that required more chewing (chunks of chicken, etc.).  Now he's almost 2, still nursing, but most days eating TONS of solid foods. 

So, I would just keep paying attention to what you feel your child needs (forget others trying to press solids on your child!), and you'll gradually get a sense when he's ready for more.  Just keep offering appropriate foods (depending on ability to swallow, number of teeth, interest he's shown in similar foods, etc.), and he'll gradually try some as he's ready.  My son's first food was avocado, and he almost single-handedly finished a serving bowl of avocado yesterday at a BBQ.  :)  So it will almost certainly happen eventually that he'll eat a lot more solids!

Good luck.