Feeding a 1 year old

PaulStat

PaulStat

PaulStat

Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2003
Posts
5,508
Location
Cotham, Bristol
Our little boy is going through a bit of an awkward patch at the moment, we think because his molar teeth are starting to make an appearance, anyway he's a nightmare to feed at the moment, he'd be quite happy to live on toast alone if we let him!

Some things he just plain refuses to try, others he'll try and then proceed to pull them out of his mouth! We'd like him to have what we have but he tends to refuse home cooked food, instead preferring the baby food from jars (which smells and tastes disgusting to me).

Obviously we don't want him to go hungry, but we also don't want to give in to his demands.

Any tips? It was actually easier to feed him when he started weening and we were giving him cubes of boiled mashed up vegetables.

I can't wait for all his teeth to come through, getting up every night at 4am is not fun
 
i feel your pain mate

our little girl just had food from jars and a bottle of formula until all her teeth come though and now she eats our cooked foods :)

good luck though mate :)
 
Make a nice chocolate stout. Use a lot of oats, and maybe throw some strawberries/raspberries into the mash. That'll cover a fair few food groups. :D
 
djshauny1 said:
i feel your pain mate

our little girl just had food from jars and a bottle of formula until all her teeth come though and now she eats our cooked foods :)

good luck though mate :)
Click to expand...

Yeah same here, just wait it out, try some differet stuff from the jars/pots they will like it. My 18month old likes the pasta ones with tuna.
 
I don't have children so don't really know that much about this. So hopefully someone that does know will say if this works or not, but on one of them 'my kid will not eat' programs they said it takes on average 15 tries of a new food before a child knows it is ok to eat.
 
When my daughter was about 1 she went through a 6 month period where she'd only eat mashed potatoes. You could put anything else on her plate but it'd never get eaten.

All I can suggest is to just keep showing them new foods - eventually they'll give it a try.
 
just feed him whatever, plenty of time to worry about bad habits.. the little lads only 1 :-) keep him happy
 
Baby food tends not to have much seasoning in, being very bland, so try to give him some of your food before you add salt. Also, he might just like the texture of jarred baby food; have you blended your food to a similar consistency?

Lastly, don't worry. You simply cannot force-feed babies and toddlers: they eat what they want to eat, so don't put pressure on yourself (or him). Unless you think there's something wrong (in which case pop down the GP's, obviously), don't fret about mealtimes as anxiety might cause food issues later in life. Just let him eat what he wants and have fun, experiment and distract to try and get some 'better' food down him!
 
make it fun for them ;)

maybe make a face out of food or something silly and maybe there favourite cartoon character on there plate like micky mouse or whatever
 
Mine is 16 months old and he can go off food when teething, wheetabix always goes down well and so does cold fruit from the fridge, it soothes while he chews it.
 
persistence is the key then, can be a bit frustrating when you go to the effort of making something for him and then he either flatly refuses it or scrapes it from his mouth. Kids eh! :p
 
You shouldn't be adding salt to a 1 year old's food, full stop.

And about the only way is to just go hardcore through it. Stop feeding him the baby food crap and move on to real food. Mash up/chop up whatever you're having. If he won't eat it, let him go hungry. He'll soon learn. You can use rewards, but be careful, as you don't want to get him into the habit of only eating stuff because he wants whatever sweet thing you're offering for dessert.

And I'm hoping the beer thing was a joke, given that it's illegal to give alcohol to a child under 5 unless it's for medicinal purposes...
 
yes it was a joke, he often tries to grab my beer if I have a pint in hand but I don't actually give it to him.

and we don't add salt to our cooking anyway, haven't got the taste buds for it
 
Vonhelmet said:
And I'm hoping the beer thing was a joke, given that it's illegal to give alcohol to a child under 5 unless it's for medicinal purposes...
Click to expand...

Having my dummy *hiccup* dipped in sherry *hic* when I was a baby hasn't done me any ha...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!?!

*passes out on the floor*.
 
Is baby food actually that bad these days? We home-cook all our stuff, the only thing the little one has is an Ella's Kitchen pouch when we're out-and-about and can't take home-made food, which is a rarity so I'm no expert.

I've had a quick look on various packets out of interest and they seem to be full of 'normal stuff' like fruit and veg rather than 'bad stuff', but companies have a habit of disguising things...
 
Not direct advice for your problem, but whenever we had veg with our own dinner we would cook a whole load of it (without salt etc), mash it up, put it into ice cube trays and freeze it.

Then whenever we needed a meal for our 1 year old we could get a variety of food cubes out from the freezer and defrost them for lunch. From what I remember it worked really well.
 
One of the best pieces of advise my parents ever gave me was

"no child will starve themselves to death"

Ultimately if you are patient and wait they will eat almost anything you want them to. Giving in now can lead to problems as they grow up - the infamous beige food toddlers.

If the child is teething some of the best things to ease the pain is to give little one some frozen carrot sticks, our lot have all enjoyed gnawing on them as it eases the pain. Frozen grapes have also been used to great effect.

All of our kids (apart from the first) were breastfed until they weaned so we never had issues with bottles and jars of food as we refused to use them.

Mainly plates with different fruits and vegetables (lots of bright colours and textures) will work a treat.

We have number 5 due in January and one currently going through weaning so I understand the pain!!
 
PaulStat said:
Our little boy is going through a bit of an awkward patch at the moment, we think because his molar teeth are starting to make an appearance, anyway he's a nightmare to feed at the moment, he'd be quite happy to live on toast alone if we let him!

Some things he just plain refuses to try, others he'll try and then proceed to pull them out of his mouth! We'd like him to have what we have but he tends to refuse home cooked food, instead preferring the baby food from jars (which smells and tastes disgusting to me).

Obviously we don't want him to go hungry, but we also don't want to give in to his demands.

Any tips? It was actually easier to feed him when he started weening and we were giving him cubes of boiled mashed up vegetables.

I can't wait for all his teeth to come through, getting up every night at 4am is not fun
Click to expand...



there are several other reasons why some babies won't eat properly or are selective about food and its taste, 2 common ones are oral thrush and a tongue tie as this can make certain textures / types difficult to chew.

it is always worth getting him checked at the docs.

some things are just difficult to eat without teeth. equally some food just tastes like @#~@. rule of thumb for ours was if i wouldn't eat it and they didn't like it then it was a no go. luckily the wife and i can cook some tasty dishes, same can't be said for the inlaws.

otherwise, keep up with whole milk or the 1+ follow on milk in the baby cups (non teeted bottles) as this is all they really need then just keep trying other foods.

Bar said:
One of the best pieces of advise my parents ever gave me was

"no child will starve themselves to death"
Click to expand...

not true
 
Have you tried Annabel Karmel recipes. Her Baby & Toddler Meal Planner book is good. Things like butternut squash risotto, courgette & pea souper, things like that. All dead easy and quick (15min) to do.

But yea, persistemce is the key. Stop feeding them stuff you don't want them to eat and only make available what you do whant them to eat. They'll only go hungry for a day or so before they go for the new stuff and there'll be no harm caused.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom