My 11 month old daughter will be going to an in-home child care in another month or so part-time. I want to prepare her for some independence. Currently, I am feeding her stage 3 Gerber foods and she drinks formula from a bottle. She tries to feed herself but the food ends up everywhere instead of her mouth. She eats finger foods really well, like lunch meat, bread, etc. When should she feed herself? What should she be eating? Should I move her to Gerber Graduates? Drinking juice from a cup is not a problem. Should I be weaning her from the bottle to a cup now? How should I do it? I'm a first time mom. Any suggestions would be helpful! Thanks!!!
I appreciate all of your suggestions. I bought a different spoon and a fork for my daughter to try. She seems to grasp them a little easier than the other. I've also tried to give her some of the Gerber Graduates. It will just take some time. Thanks again!
My 11 month old is eating the graduate meals, mainly on nights we eat something we don't think she will like. She mostly eats what we do though. She does make a mess but there are things she eats without the mess. And don't worry about the bottle. Our daughter prefers her sippy cup during the day and a bottle at night, but all of the one year olds i know give up the bottle if you stop offering it.
By 11 months I would have her feeding herself as much as possible - there's no reason really to restrict her to Gerber Graduates, although they do have some cool products. Diced ham is good, canned vegetables are great because they are soft (look for the no salt added variety) there are lots of good no sugar added varieties of applesauce cups, my daugher is big on blueberries, raspberries, bananas, mandarin oranges, canned pears and peaches for fruit. Cheese (my daughter likes the shredded or crumbles variety, my niece would only eat the cubes) is a good protein. Rice, macaroni and cheese, elbows with pasta sauce, cut up meatballs. Fish sticks, tuna salad - there are lots of good possibilities - just think about what you eat and consider whether it's a food that she's allowed to have (like, not peanut butter), and is is a choking hazard and you should be pretty good to go - remember to cover all the food groups over the course of a day. Then supplement with the stage 3 foods if she's not eating well, but it's important to let her have a shot at it first. It definitely wouldn't hurt to move her to the sippy cup - developmentally there's not really any reason to continue on a bottle. Just offer the cup at every meal.
I hope this helps - good luck
H.
My son is going on two and he doesn't have the patience yet to use a fork normally he uses his fingers for everything still, so he still makes a mess. If he wants things like applesauce or yougurt I will still feed these to him. Depending on how many teeth your daughter has she can get pretty much anything soft. Like yougurt, applesauce, cheese, gerber puffies, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots anything thats soft enough for her to chew.
At 11 months, my son was eating just about everything that we ate. He even had some Christmas dinner. He loved Michealina's Wheels & Cheese. He didn't eat stage 3 foods. He didn't like them. We went straight to "big people" food. At this age, you & your day care provider should expect a mess. I try to feed my day care kids slightly less messy things, but they still get mac & cheese and spaghetti. On these days, they just get "naked". Stripped to the diaper. Makes for much easier clean up & I don't have to worry about their clothes. I even feed hot dogs. To be perfectly honest, I don't understand the idea of them being a choking hazard. I've heard people say that but these same people feed things like chicken nuggets. In my personal opinion, hot dogs are much softer to eat than nuggets. As for the cup vs. bottle, both my kids were using a cup as soon as they could hold one. The bottle was then used only for milk, at nap or bedtime. Every other time, it was some kind of juice in a cup. Somewhere around a year old, they did/will get the bottle only at bedtime. I don't believe that there is a hard & fast rule as to when to take away the bottle. That is up to you as the mom.
J.,
If she is eating lunch meat and other things, and has a lot of teeth she can eat everything you eat. Gerber garaduates are good but my son did not like the taste of them. as far as bottles if she will take milk in a cup take a way her bottle in through out the day. but if you are planning to take away her bottle do it now or wait till she gets comfortable with the sitter or she may resist the too much change at once. take it from me i am a preschool teacher
M.
Our pediatrician suggests that babies be off the bottle right around their 1st birthday. With my first daughter, that was no problem at all. However, my second daughter is 14-1/2 months and JUST gave up her morning bottle (today was our 4th day without it!) ... which was the only one she really fought me on. She still eats some Stage 3 baby food and Gerber Graduates, but that is more out of convenience than anything else. She likes big people food, and as long as I can time her schedule with our meals, that is what she gets.
Stage three foods are table foods that are in smaller portions. At this age I would begin giving her a plate with smaller portions of what you are eating on it. She will spill the plate some at first, it may be easier to put the food on her high char tray.
I always made sure my little ones saw me plating their food at the same time I fixed mine. That way they understood it was the same food and eventually stopped asking for mine.
