How are your 9-10 mos old eating?

[jingwen]

Hi,
i actually have a few questions.
#1 How much are your 9-10 mos old eating? 3 main meals with snacks? are they getting a variety of food groups?

My almost 10 mos old ds will eat cheerios and carbs like its going out of style. He won't let me spoon feed him anymore, he wants to self feed but the food has to be hard texture so he can grab it-which means more carbs. I've tried every fruit and veggie in the market and they just squish between his fingers and he won't eat it. lol ! So basically his diet consists of a lot of cheerio like snacks and BM......which of course his caloric intake is low and therefore he nurses all night long! See the cycle? :

Is there something i can do to increase his calories during the day? or is this normal and wait it out?

Thanks!!!! being a new mom, everything is an experiment

[orangebird]

Ha! This is my issue right now too. DS is barely 10 months old. He wants to nurse all night and I'm trying to increase daytime calories but he is too busy to nurse alot during the day. He still doesn;t eat much during the day. He will eat more food if we offer it, but often we don't even think about offering it. Some days he doesn't eat any solids at all. Other days he might have a few crackers and a banana (he sometimes will eat a whole banana ) He too hates the spoon now. I try to offer lots of finger foods, cubed cooked fruits and veggies. Once in a while I'll give him a little piece of organic cheese. We don't eat meat but he has beans or tofu whenever we do. I basically just offer him whatever we are eating. I didn't think they needed any real quantity of solids until a year so that's why we are pretty lax about it. As for 3 meals plus snacks- wow! That seems like alot of food. I didn't think a baby would eat that many times a day. Not that I'd complain if it meant I might get some sleep at night! I'm curious to hear what others are doing. Maybe my DS needs more food :

[~Megan~]

My d is 8 months but I though I'd answer anyway. She eats about 1/2 ounce of solids a couple of times a week.

I wouldn't worry too much about dc solid intake at this point but I'd probably cut back so he is getting the more nutritious breastmilk. It just may take him a bit longer to be interested in other things

[MarigoldB]

An additional question for this thread...

CK's Mama, my son was born 4-12-02, too!

I've been pretty much only breastfeeding with an occasional finger food for a taste of something new. He's not really interested in actually "eating"--just likes playing with it.

I'm having a problem with what to give him. I'm afraid he'll choke on things, so I cut them too small I guess. He can't pick them up easily and when he finally does get one, it's hidden in his fist and can't get it into his mouth. What should I give him and how big should the pieces be?

So far he's had cheerios (BIG mistake--tore up his little tummy after ingesting only FIVE of them!), which dissolve nicely, of course, but he will no longer be eating!!

Cooked carrot cut into small diced pieces. I did notice that, if I'd wanted to, I could have counted how many actually made it in. They didn't digest at all!

Banana cut into little 1 inch quarters

Shredded apple

a fat pretzel that he kept biting pieces off of. I was afraid they wouldn't dissolve before he swallowed.

What else is there for finger food that I could give and feel that I didn't have to hover over him waiting to perform the Heimlich maneuver?

He likes spoon feeding OK, and will eat whatever I give him. Doesn't really show interest in anything we're eating, though.

Oh--he has 8 teeth now (four came in in January!!). Great for cutting things, but nothing for chewing...

[Jish]

My boys got there teeth pretty early, but even those first molars aren't really used for chewing, so if your little ones don't have teeth yet, don't worry. They all just gum stuff anyway.

Also, your kiddos can likely handle more than you would like to think. I was much more worried with my first. By the time my second came along he wanted whatever the first had so he was eating much more than my first did at the same point, and much larger chunks. I think more important than the size of the item, is how many the shove in their mouths. If they have too much in there the risk is that one could slide down while chewing on others and then they could choke. If they only have one chunk they are much less likely to choke.

Here are some things that my boys loved:

*Shredded cheese. We shredded our own cause it is much better than the pre shredded stuff.

*Cottage cheese

*Peach, and pear chunks. I dried them off on paper towels so they wouldn't be so slippery.

*Grapes, sliced in very tiny peices (sliced into about 12ths if they were big grapes) I sliced them lengthwise twice and then width wise a couple times depending on the size of the grape. I was more diligent with grape because of the peels and the fact that they loved them so much that they shoved huge handfuls in at a time. This is still my ds2s favorite food.

*Mashed potatoes

*Diced veggies or peas (I squashed these with a fork to break the skin)

*Toast with spread which I diced into pieces

*Any type of pasta and sauce. I just cut it into small pieces and let them go to town. Note -- Marinara sauce really stains. I learned this the hard way:

*Rice -- alone or in a casserole mixed with something such as cream of mushroom soup.

I hope this gives you ideas. If I think of any more, I'll let you know. It's been a while since we've been there (my youngest is nearly 2 1/2) and I forget things so quickly.

[momof1baby]

DD was born 4/16/02. She eats a lot of different things. we give her the number 3 jarred foods, they have a lot of texture. She was a little uneasy with them at first, and we had to pat her on the back a few times till she got the hang of it, but she loves them. We also give her zwieback toast (It's good cause she can't get chunks off, she just gets little bits, if that makes any snese) and cheerios sometime. She has gotten the hang of them. Oh, one thing that she really likes is wagonwheels, I think they are by gerber, they pretty much dissolve, but she can bite into them too.

Its funny, cause we also give her some of what we are eating, she has had creamed spinach (she can't get enough of that), little pieces of chicken, some pasta cut up real little, and whatever else is on our plates that we think would be okay for her. DH makes homemade applesauce and she loves that.

She has 8 teeth now and she does really well maching things up.

She also gets formula and Breastmilk. I was always worried, cause she doesn't drink as much Formula during the day as I thought she should, but the doctor told me that babies will never overeat or undereat, and not to worry about it so much.

HTH,
momof1baby

[snuffles]

Re: How are your 9-10 mos old eating?

Yes it is normal!! My 11 mo is eating the EXACT same way!

I think there are some great food suggestions already.. just wanted to say that I am going through the EXACT same thing!!

Mel

[DaryLLL]

With all solids, watch for choking, gagging, tongue thrust, digestive upset, or rash on face or bum. If baby has bad reaction, or just doesn't like them, stop and wait a month or so.

Go slowly. Breastmilk has all the nutrition they need for at least one year.


recced foods for 8-9 mos and up:

avocado

banana

cooked carrots

pears

tofu chunks

beans and lentils

bits of chicken or turkey

swt or white potato, small cooked chunks or mashed

shredded apple or sugar free applesauce

frozen peas or blueberries (great for teething)

fresh peaches or melon in season

*Other recs, but more likely to be allergenic:

hard cheese and plain yogurt (sweeten with fresh fruit puree)

grain products such as brown rice or barley or quinoa. Wheat may be OK but proceed with caution



Foods to avoid until one yr:

straight cow's milk (the rec above for cream of mushroom soup, esp commercial canned, I do not agree with, as it contains straight cow's milk and way too much salt)

fish

eggs

citrus

strawberries

honey

tomatoes

nuts and nut butters

[its_our_family]

Tracy WAS eating soooo good! He'd nurse 4 or 5 times a day (and most of the night.....) and eat 2 or 3 solid meals plus snacks; but he had the pukes for 6 days and now the only thing he'll eat is honey hoots and cheerios! He had stopped eating anything pureed before he was sick but now he won't eat greenbeans or peas or anything else. I don't think he trusts anything at this point! I hope he didn't turn into a picky eater because of all this!

[mrs_hacky]

All these April 2002 babies - I just had to reply!

My dd (April 24th) doesnt' eat much of anything. She is sooo different than her brother who gobbled up anyhting we gave him at 6 - 7 months! Mira will suck/gnaw on a apple slice, carrot, celery, green or red pepper slices (skinless)and Cheerios. She has taken a couple of small spoonfuls of homemade rice cereal (brown basmati), oatmeal and Malt-o-Meal (wheat is not a problem for us). She refuses banana I couldn't believe that one. (Maybe it is genetic from her maternal grandpa?) She nurses day and night, with the length of time varying from 1.5 to 4 hours in between nursings. I don't mind the day time, but night time is starting to get to me! Ds was sleeping through the night by this age, so I am not used to this.

I am willing to let every child I am blessed with go at their own pace - it is amazing how diiferent each one can be, and I only have two so far!

[istamama]

my 9 1/2 month old dd is the same. she will eat bits of banana and melon, which is her favourite, and pear. she loves mashed sweet potato, which we are able to give her with a spoon, if we let her hold the spoon sometimes. i tried creamy cooked brown rice but she didn't really go for it. she gagged on puffed kashi. she never eats much and is still really reliant on breastmilk.
Istamama.