LO Eating Habits

[maryxc1]

I feel like DD eats a ton. I know they need more nourishment now than later in life, but then I am reminded of the old "food before one is just for fun". Basically when she is eating finger food we eventually cut her off because she doesn't ever stop herself. I will ask the pediatrician at her well check but I am curious how much everybody else is eating.

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle?

2) How many times a day do you feed solids?

3) Does LO drink water yet?

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?

[maryxc1]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle?
- She nurses about 6-7 times per day.

2) How many times a day do you feed solids?
- 3

3) Does LO drink water yet?
- No. She has no interest in a sippy cup. She was never really in to bottles so the concept is foreign to her. I need to be more consistent in offering.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?
- Most meals are either two finger foods or a purée and finger food. If we go out it is usually just a purée because it is easier.
- Today's menu is: Breakfast was a whole banana and about three button mushrooms (ignore our weird combinations). Lunch was half a zucchini, about 1 1/2 carrots and some Puffs. Dinner will be baked chicken and probably a purée.

[dreemkin]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? 4 times a day for a 6oz bottle (or 5 if she's going through a growth spurt or wonder w.)

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? 3 and she eats a ton! Like enough for an adult.

3) Does LO drink water yet? We give her a sippy cup of water mainly so she gets used to drinking out of it. She gets a bit out of it but nothing more than an ounce or two.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids? We give usually three different things per meal - all finger foods now. We just rotate whatever she can have or that we have "in stock" lol.
ETA: example. Last night for dinner she had almost a whole hard boiled egg. A small hand full of noodles. A couple spoonfuls of peas.

[seamonster]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? Nurses 7-8 a day. 2 bottles at daycare

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? 3-4 (3 meals, occasional snack)

3) Does LO drink water yet? Only at daycare. We'll add a sippy cup of water at home at 20 months, but focusing on getting enough milk for now

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids? Fruit or oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner is usually meat and veggies. Maybe pasta or a grilled cheese sandwich or yogurt. Adding more finger foods. 4-6 tablespoons for a meal although he can demolish a whole small banana.

The whole food before one thing is about letting babies explore different taste and textures and explore feeding themselves, while acknowledging that milk is their primary nutrition source.

[mishka29]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? 4-5 nursing

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? 3 meals plus snacks. She is an eater.

3) Does LO drink water yet? Yes. Her love of water had her mastering a straw cup in minutes. At dinner she will start screaming for her water cup. I'm looking forward to when she learns to say wawa b

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?
Breakfast - fruit and yogurt
Lunch - leftovers, a bit of meat, veggies and fruit
Dinner - whatever we are having. Last week she had sheppards pie, pasta, tuna cakes and chicken burgers. Potato soup was a total bust so I threw so tofu in yogurt and gave her some more tuna cakes and squash.

This kid loves to self feed so usually refuses any purée unless it's a fruit. I always keep some frozen mixed veggies in the freezer just so there is some veggies on hand.

Amount is tricky. Some times she likes something more and will eat quite a bit.

[kaydee0402]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? Nurses 4 times a day and gets three bottles at day care.

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? Three servings of solids on the weekdays. Two on the weekends.

3) Does LO drink water yet? At daycare, yes.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids? 2 oz. of oatmeal with half a banana for breakfast, whatever is on the menu at daycare (the other day it was chicken, baked beans and corn), and a little bit of whatever we have for dinner plus half a container of yogurt. Tonight he gets mac n cheese and some of our grilled chicken.

[aggiebug]

The "food before one is just for fun" is really not the case. Yes a majority of their calories still comes from BM or formula but they should be getting about 40% of their calories from food. That is a lot. DD will always eat carbs (ie puffs, cheerios, mum mums) so I limit those but I don't ever limit fruit and veggie finger foods.


1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle?
5 although she is about to drop to 4
2) How many times a day do you feed solids? 3

3) Does LO drink water yet? Occasionally she likes to play with sippy cups and is getting the hang of them.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?

Breakfast a cup of oatmeal and a banana
Lunch toast with peanut butter and a handful of a fruit or veggie

Dinner 1/4 C of chicken and the same of a veggie. Sometimes we give her more at this meal sometimes that is all she wants. this meal is sandwiched between 2 close nursing sessions.

[taberbtb]

Brooke has decided just this week that daytime bottles are for suckers. Since Sunday she has started waking at 5am for a bottle, a second at 8am and then refuses all bottles until she wakes from her afternoon nap at 4 plus another at bedtime. Weirdo…

How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? 4 bottles/day each or between 4-5oz

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? We just increased to 3 times since I was worried she wasn't getting enough nutrition from refusing daytime bottles.

3) Does LO drink water yet? Yes. She will only take maybe an ounce or two from the sippy cup but will drink water, smoothies and whatever else from MY cup/straw all day long.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for solids? Today for breakfast she ate half a banana, half a muffin and half a yogurt. Lunch was 2 scrambled eggs and half a slice of toast. Dinner was maybe 3 tbsp of shepherds pie plus 2 mum mums with guac

[cougarette]

This is making me feel like we're not giving him nearly enough food. Maybe because he's on the younger side?

DS is 8.5 months old

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle?
Nurses about 3 or 4 times and 3 bottles at daycare

2) How many times a day do you feed solids?
2, but sometimes we skip the evening one because we just don't have time. Seriously, how do people who get home at 6 do it?

3) Does LO drink water yet?
Not yet. I handed him a sippy cup with a spout, and he grabbed it and brought it to his mouth, but didn't get any out. I wonder how he'd do with a straw cup.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?
About 2oz puree at daycare. This is either fruit or veg, depending on what we have. Then anther 2oz puree at dinner. Sometimes it's the same fruit or veg, sometimes it's another. I haven't intro'd meat yet. Not sure why... I guess I'm not sure how or when.

Ugh, this is so confusing. Someone just give me a guideline/menu to follow with exact times and amounts.

[GeekBeagle]

cougarette I feel the same way you do. I think you and I may have been the last to start solids at a little after 6 months. I keep reading everyone else eating all these finger foods and we're only doing purees. We were only doing 2 meals a day until I asked daycare what they thought about starting lunch and they said it would be "a good idea" and made me feel like I'm starving him. So now we added a third puree to the mix. And I had just been giving 2 oz of purees at a time as well, but daycare got him to take 4 oz today, so maybe I need to up the amount as well.

I've tried a couple of finger foods and either just plays with it or threw up when I tried putting it in his mouth. I just bought a ton of new purees to at least get him introduced to more foods. And I started giving him Lil Crunchies yesterday to get him used to self-feeding, which is actually going pretty well, so hopefully it's a start. I just feel so behind.

[GeekBeagle]

cougarette Oh, and I get home after 6, but DS doesn't go to bed until 8:30-9, so we make it work.

[GeekBeagle]

I guess I'll answer the questions as well.

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle?
5 bottles a day, 5-6 oz each.

2) How many times a day do you feed solids?
Just started 3 on Tuesday.

3) Does LO drink water yet?
Not really. We have a sippy cup that we really only use when out to eat to keep him occupied. He can kinda get water out, but he tips his head way back instead of tipping the bottle up. It's quite funny.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?
All purees. About 2 oz each meal, but that may be changing.
Breakfast: fruit
Lunch: veggie
Dinner: meat/veggie or fruit mix. A handful of Lil Crunchies after.

[seamonster]

cougarette He has his second and third meals at daycare. We get home between 5 and 530pm. Since he's up for the day between 5 and 6 in the morning, we go straight into bedtime even though he just woke up from a short car nap (he's still tired).

Breakfast at 630am. Lunch around 11am. Dinner around 330-4pm. He could have breakfast at daycare, but we like to feed him one of his meals. He sometimes gets a snack of fruit around 9, but only if he drinks all his milk because I don't want to be up all night with him reverse cycling because he didn't get his milk during the day.

[Deleted]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle?
I think we nurse about 6-7 times a day.

2) How many times a day do you feed solids?
2-3 times. Sometimes fruit for snacks to keep her occupied.

3) Does LO drink water yet?
Yes. She loves the sippy cup.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?
Breakfast is usually oatmeal with some kind of fruit (plum, banana, mango).
Lunch is leftovers from last night/anything we have in the fridge.
Dinner is the appropriate ingredients of whatever we're eating mixed together.

DD loves normally loves her solids, but she refuses to eat whenever she has a cold (which is often!). We still try to offer, but we don't push it. She just gets finger foods or something else to keep her occupied while we're eating.

[aggiebug]

cougarette it is overwhelming! I swear I was at least somewhat prepared for most things but this whole feeding thing. Wha???


I do recommend adding in a meat source. Anemia is a common issue starting at around 8 months old (they check at 9 months) and feeding meats is one of the best ways to prevent it. DD is one of the oldest and has only had 3 meals for about 3 weeks now. All of a sudden it was very obvious she was hungry and wanted it, before that she didn't really even want to eat her 2nd meal of the day.

[cougarette]

Nov 13, 2015 7:14:53 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

cougarette it is overwhelming! I swear I was at least somewhat prepared for most things but this whole feeding thing. Wha???


I do recommend adding in a meat source. Anemia is a common issue starting at around 8 months old (they check at 9 months) and feeding meats is one of the best ways to prevent it. DD is one of the oldest and has only had 3 meals for about 3 weeks now. All of a sudden it was very obvious she was hungry and wanted it, before that she didn't really even want to eat her 2nd meal of the day.

I picked up some of those jarred turkey and veggie mixes, so I may give those a try this weekend. Because he still doesn't have teeth I worry about giving him shredded chicken. Maybe ground meat would be ok,though.

[seamonster]

Nov 13, 2015 8:00:54 GMT -5 cougarette said:

Nov 13, 2015 7:14:53 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

cougarette it is overwhelming! I swear I was at least somewhat prepared for most things but this whole feeding thing. Wha???


I do recommend adding in a meat source. Anemia is a common issue starting at around 8 months old (they check at 9 months) and feeding meats is one of the best ways to prevent it. DD is one of the oldest and has only had 3 meals for about 3 weeks now. All of a sudden it was very obvious she was hungry and wanted it, before that she didn't really even want to eat her 2nd meal of the day.

I picked up some of those jarred turkey and veggie mixes, so I may give those a try this weekend. Because he still doesn't have teeth I worry about giving him shredded chicken. Maybe ground meat would be ok,though.

Shredded meat is fine without teeth. They aren't really chewing it when they have eat. You can also flake fish. Ground meat also works well.

[cloe111479]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? She gets 6, 4oz bottles of Breastmilk.

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? 3 -- breakfast, lunch and dinner

3) Does LO drink water yet? Occasionally in a sippy cup during meals.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?

Breakfast-- she has one of the breakfast mix one -- pears and oatmeal, or mixed berry cereal. She has a few puffs/wheels to occupy her while i pack her stuff. Then a bottle on the way to the sitter.

Lunch -- container of a veggie or fruit. More puffs/crunchies..

She also has a morning snack bottle and one in the afternoon.

Dinner -- she either eats what we are eating or on of the "dinner" stage 3s with turkey, chicken or veggies. Again -- More puffs/crunchies/wheels. She has a bottle after dinner.

One more bottle at 7/7:30 before bed.

[maryxc1]

Nov 13, 2015 8:00:54 GMT -5 cougarette said:

Nov 13, 2015 7:14:53 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

cougarette it is overwhelming! I swear I was at least somewhat prepared for most things but this whole feeding thing. Wha???


I do recommend adding in a meat source. Anemia is a common issue starting at around 8 months old (they check at 9 months) and feeding meats is one of the best ways to prevent it. DD is one of the oldest and has only had 3 meals for about 3 weeks now. All of a sudden it was very obvious she was hungry and wanted it, before that she didn't really even want to eat her 2nd meal of the day.

I picked up some of those jarred turkey and veggie mixes, so I may give those a try this weekend. Because he still doesn't have teeth I worry about giving him shredded chicken. Maybe ground meat would be ok,though.

DD doesn't have any teeth either and I gave her some chicken breast this week for the first time. I just cut it really small and she did fine.

[aggiebug]

Nov 13, 2015 8:00:54 GMT -5 cougarette said:

Nov 13, 2015 7:14:53 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

cougarette it is overwhelming! I swear I was at least somewhat prepared for most things but this whole feeding thing. Wha???


I do recommend adding in a meat source. Anemia is a common issue starting at around 8 months old (they check at 9 months) and feeding meats is one of the best ways to prevent it. DD is one of the oldest and has only had 3 meals for about 3 weeks now. All of a sudden it was very obvious she was hungry and wanted it, before that she didn't really even want to eat her 2nd meal of the day.

I picked up some of those jarred turkey and veggie mixes, so I may give those a try this weekend. Because he still doesn't have teeth I worry about giving him shredded chicken. Maybe ground meat would be ok,though.

I understand the concern jarred is just fine. DD has no teeth and we give her pieces of chicken all the time and she had no issues without teeth, however I wouldn't give her meat as her first finger food. Teach them to gum foods on mashable stuff

Form is all about your baby and your comfort level.

[PikoPiko]

Hmm... I sometimes wonder if we're the only ones not doing finger foods. We just haven't the time for it.

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle?
4 bottles a day, 7oz each. He sometimes only takes 5ozs.

2) How many times a day do you feed solids?
3 times. But lately he's too tired by the end of day and doesn't want his dinner.

3) Does LO drink water yet?
Yes. He drinks it with his solids, either out of his cup or an open cup I hold out for him when we're at home.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids?
Breakfast: 6oz of fruits chopped finely with some baby cereal
Lunch: 6oz of some sort of mixed veggie and chicken concoction I make - chopped up finely. He usually eats some fruits too, about 4oz
Dinner: 6oz of something similar to lunch, but a different recipe of veggies and meats.

[johanna]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? Transitioning from 5 to 4 bottles daily. 5-6 oz x 3 and 8oz at bedtime

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? We have been doing 3 meals for just the past few weeks.

3) Does LO drink water yet? Yep. With meals. Just a couple ounces.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids? I don't measure the solids. I just let her eat what she wants (but a lot ends up on the floor for the dogs. I know that she is done when she starts throwing it all down on the floor for the dogs). Anyways, here's a typical day:
Breakfast: 1/4-1/2 an english muffin, a kiwi, and unsweetened applesauce.
Lunch: scrambled egg or 1/4 egg salad sandwich, leftover veggies (sauteed or roasted).
Dinner: whatever we are eating with a heavy focus on the veggies.

[lilyelayne]

1) How many times per day does LO nurse/get a bottle? - nurses 5-6x during the day and 0-2x MOTN

2) How many times a day do you feed solids? - twice, lunch and dinner.

3) Does LO drink water yet? - yes, in a sippy with solids. I don't pay much attention to how much he drinks; anywhere from 0.25-2oz in a meal, depending on how thirsty he is. He loves water & is very good at his sippy.

4) What is a typical daily menu and amount for the solids? - I have no idea how much he eats. We never did purees. I offer veggies first, meat second, carbs last - unless he doesn't seem interested in anything, then I put a little of each on his high chair tray for him to choose. I continue to give food until either (1) he indicates he is done, usually by dropping food deliberately from high chair tray to floor or (2) the adults are done eating & chatting, whichever comes first. I sign "all done," take away his food, clean him up, and remove him from the table.

I will give puffs if we are not quite ready to sit down to a meal and I need to keep him occupied, like while his food cools, though often he is happy to drink water while he waits. I will also give puffs at restaurants waiting for our food to arrive.
I give mum mums when I haven't offered a carb that day or I don't think I have enough food to offer or he's not into whatever we're eating. I prefer to spread them with avocado if I have some.

At home in the evenings, we often are ready to eat as soon as I am done cooking, so I fix DS's "plate" (actually a little bowl) and stick in in the freezer while DH & I fix our plates so that baby's food is appropriately cool when we sit down.

[lilyelayne]

Eh I guess the real question of the thread was how much does LO eat in a day. I will guess at the serving sizes I gave for a couple days this week. They are absolutely guesses and I'm not great at volume guessing, so eh. Take it with several grains of salt. We ended up eating with family extra this week; normally we only eat with family on Wednesday and Friday evenings.

Tuesday-
lunch at home:
homemade oatmeal rolled+steelcut oats; I make my oatmeal very sticky and firm, no excess liquid. You could eat it with a fork. Very easy for DS to eat with his fingers. (4-5 tbsp? he loves this stuff)
watermelon (1 slice)
supper at SIL's:
boiled potato (2 tbsp)
ground chicken/sloppy joe (4-5 tbsp, he couldn't eat enough!)

Wednesday-
lunch at home. Leftover stir fry:
noodles (long ramen noodles, 1-2 baby handfuls?)
broccoli (2 florets)
carrot (1 piece, 2inch long)
bell pepper (1 piece, 1.5inch long)
He wasn't interested in eating at this meal, so I'd say he had a few bites of broccoli and a handful of pasta. Maybe 1 scant tbsp of food consumed altogether.
Supper at my grandma's:
baked sweet potato (2 tbsp, probably ate 0.5)
broccoli (3 florets, ate most of it)
roast beef (2-3 strips, ate most of it)

Thursday-
lunch at home:
Black beans (he devoured these, no idea how much I gave him)
Supper at my in-laws':
black eyed peas (2-3 tbsp)
white potato (1-2 tbsp)
baked chicken breast (no idea)