Eating - Gilroy,CA

Hi Mama-
The deal here is to cook in bulk. Anything can be microwaved, especially chicken and potatoes, and they can last for a whole week.
I say cook it, separate it into meal sized containers (they make really great mini ones that can be microwaved at target) and send those. If you are concerned about veggie intake, maybe add some zucchinis or carrots to the chicken and potatoes so they are soft and introduce them with his favorite food.
I hope this helps
Good luck
-E. M

Have you ever tried jar baby food? That stuff is NASTY!! Sounds like he just has a well developed sense of taste. I suggest you start making regular food that he likes ahead of time and freeze it in small containers big enough for one meal. That way you can just grab one from the freezer everyday and take it to his daycare. It will thaw by the time it's time to eat and they can just microwave it warm.

Hi there, Mommy-

I can understand your concern- My son was always lean too: consistently in the lower 12% of weight, but upper end of the height. In fact, I just looked at his records, he weighed the same 18.2lbs at 9.5months. Pediatrician said- don't worry, if he's still growing, he's getting all the food he needs. He's now an extremely healthy 3.6yo with plenty of energy and good height.

He also liked homemade meals. He was partial to chicken soup, so I made a big pot of chicken with barley, carrots and peas, then froze it in ice cube trays. I would send it to daycare and they would heat it up for him. Glad also makes terrific 1/2 cup containers that work really well for little portions.

I got a lot of "input" from some of his daycare teachers that I needed to feed him variety. But that's what he liked and that's what I could provide as a working mom, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Son now eats a variety of food, including veggies, he just went through a 1-year stage where he enjoyed the familiar. No biggie, just roll with it.

Good luck!

You can make the foods he likes and freeze them.Baby sitter can use her microwave. Sneeke some mashed vegs into the potatoes, Keep on offering everything for him to eat. Dont talk about it just make sure he has it in front of him .One day he will forget he doesnt like it and just start to eat. It may take 6 months like it did for my son. At least he like things which are good for him ljl

CPG's mom, Sounds as if he is past the baby food stage. We have learned to try simple fingerfood -- turkey on a pretzel, cheese, and of course any let overs from dinner. Try knox blocks as well.
Non of my grandchildren wil eat babyfood or those toddler meals so we just have to plan ahead and feed them what we are having. Even fresh vegetables that are slightly steamed are good and they can dip it in yogart or ranch-- Unless its my 1 yr old and she wants ketsup!

It sounds like he has very discriminating taste in preferring what his mommy makes rather than that salty canned stuff. Have you tried making large amounts of what he likes and freezing it in meal sized portions in a plastic bag you can send to the sitters frozen for her to thaw and warm up?

I am sure this will work out. Good for him to be able to eat people food and good for you making food he likes!!

N.

Baby food is gross. Seriously..have you tried it? I don't blame kids for not wanting to eat it. At 10 months old your son can eat whatever you eat, except peanut butter and honey. My daughter loves lunch meat, any kind of pasta, potatoes, rice, all veggies and all fruits. She's almost 1 now, but I just make sure that the bites are small enough that she can swallow them with out choking. At 10 months he should still be getting most of his nutrition from formula or breastmilk. Food is basically just to teach them to chew and to explore new tastes.
If you want to send home made meals to the baby sitter, just pack up some of last nights leftovers for him. They don't eat very much at this age, so you don't need very much. Also, pack snacks. If he likes crackers, give him crackers. My kids both LOVE the multi-grain cheerios. I just put some in a small container and keep it in the diaper bag at all times. It's saved me in church and the grocery store on more than one occasion.
You can also try the Gerber meals, but they are LOADED with preservatives and salt.
Will your babysitter cook something for your son? Maybe some scrambled eggs? Or a piece of toast with butter? Take her a bag of frozen vegetables and ask her to heat up some for his lunch. Take over a can of fruit and have her feed him that with his vegetables. That stuff is actually a LOT cheaper than jarred baby food anyway. Not to mention, it's usually healthier. (Look for the frozen veg in the bag that don't have anything added to them and get canned fruit in juice, not syrup) Explore different things with him and see what he likes. You should be able to buy food for him for less than $5.00 a week.
At 18.5 lbs I wouldn't think your son is underweight. Like I said, it's not necessary for them to be eating 3 full meals a day at this age.
If you're really concerned, call his pediatrician and see what they say.

Have you talked to the pediatrician?

Don't worry about the baby's size. My baby is 14 months and only 19.5lbs, but she's growing along a good curve. The doc isn't concerned so I'm not either.

You've received a ton of good advice, but maybe checking in w/ your ped would give you some more ideas and/or peace of mind.

Good luck.

A few questions: was your son born early? If not, was he a small baby? What does your ped say about his weight?
Okay, have you tried rice cereal mixed w/formula fed by spoon?
You could take other foods like spaghetti and puree them in a blender.
I know all of this is difficult.
Will he eat anything else? Try bananas? Smoothies? A little bit of a protein shake?

We pretty much skipped the store brand baby foods and just went straight to regular food just because it's so darned expensive! We would do mac & cheese and chicken & rice, spaghetti o's, etc....anything that has small bites. Some of the chef boyardee items are offering veggies in their products and can be great in a pinch or for at the sitters. We also loved our lunch meat and cheese, finely cut up apples and split grapes, bananas, fruit cups with peaches and pears. Good luck!

If he doesn't like baby food, why not try him on say peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch? They are soft enough and the peanut butter is a great source of protein.

How does your baby sleep? Here is why I ask:

I have a son with growth hormone deficiency and we had a heck of a time getting him to eat OR sleep. Until he was about 2, the doc seemed to think we weren't feeding him enough, but we were feeding him as much as he'd eat. Sometimes, we'd end up giving him ice cream (after age 1) just to get him to eat SOMETHING.

Good luck with your son. At this point, I'd say let him eat whatever you can get him to eat, then try to supplement for what he's missing (with formula, breastmilk, whatever works for you). I would also suggest tracking him on a growth chart carefully. It's fine if he's just small, but if his growth "flattens" out, you may want to ask a pediatric endocrinologist for an evaluation.

Just so you know, our son with GHD gets a nightly shot, and the blood tests and MRIs he had to go through were NO FUN, but he has NO developmental issues whatsoever. He is bright, coordinated, and happy. But before we started his shots, getting him to eat and sleep was NOT easy.

Good luck!

By 10 mos we had DS stictly on adult food. He would have nothing to do with baby food anymore. So I would start looking for things that he can "chew" at his stage and switch him over completely.

Are you still nursing him or giving him Formula? (I don't know which you use).

For the 1st year of life, breastmilk or Formula is still a baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition, NOT solids and NOT other liquids, and they need to be fed on-demand. 24/7.

"Crackers' is probably not something he is able to 'eat' yet. Hard foods, are also choking hazards.
Does he eat ANY pureed baby food? Or minced up soft foods? It really depends on the 'size' of the foods you are giving him... at this age, still mince up or chop finely the foods for him... so that he can 'eat.'
Keep foods soft... or many babies, like pastas too.

Does your baby "chew?" Does he eat anything at all? Or nothing? Feed him whatever he will eat.

If he 'cannot' eat or chew or swallow his foods... then tell the Pediatrician. They need to know this. Some babies are also sensitive to 'texture.'
Try a variety of things.... and see what he 'likes' or what textures....

Does he still have his 'tongue-thrust' reflex? Does he push foods out of his mouth with his tongue? Or does he attempt to 'chew'?

You can feed him whatever you eat... but make it soft and mince it up.

Or some babies do not like seasoned foods. And others like it. So you have to see what your baby likes or not.

Here is a good guideline:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-by-age-guide-to-feeding-y...

Next, is your Pediatrician concerned about his weight/growth percentiles or not? If your Pediatrician is not worried, then you should feel fine about it. BUT, if your Pediatrician is concerned about it... he/she should have given you advice about that and what to do....

all the best,
Susan

At 10 months your son is probably interested in some more challenging and interesting foods than just baby food. In fact he can probably eat quite a bit of what you eat, if you cut/mash it up for him. I work full time and have made a lot of my own baby food since we started feeding my 1 y.o. solids. I make up a batch of whatever on the weekends and freeze it. This really helps me during the week. Or go get a rotisserie chicken from the market, shred up the meat and freeze it for later. If you are determined to get him to eat baby food though, make sure you're offering him the ones for his age level - they're slightly chunkier and a bit more interesting to eat. Also keep in mind that it takes some kids several exposures to a new food before they accept it. So keep trying. The other thing to keep in mind is that kids at various ages will go through phases of what they want to eat and what they don't want to eat. My daughter went through a phase where she ate everything we offered her. Then she only wanted pasta with meat sauce for awhile. Right now all she wants is dairy products. These phases are pretty normal and very, very common. Good luck.

My son would NOT eat any jarred baby food so I pretty much made all my own. (He also did not eat very much but he did eat a good variety of foods)

I dont remember the exact lbs but I do remember that at 14-15 months we'd had our fill of him being backwards facing in the car seat so I turned him around even though he wasn't 20 lbs yet! So I think 18.5lbs at 10m is pretty good. BUT he has to be eating some and growing well in order to not be concerned.

What we did was I'd take a bit of whatever we were eating and mash it up (or puree, but at 10 months you probably can give him soft chunky foods) and that was what he had along with us. We had lasagna and green beans for dinner, so did he. We had chicken and rice and veggies, so did he (pureeing the chicken for baby food). You get the idea. Oh and I discovered he didn't like salad unless he also had salad dressing! (sometimes after he was 1 though. Dipping sauces is great for toddlers!)

Do give him a variety of foods - cheerios, crackers, cheese cubes, green beans (there are canned 1/2 in diced beans, get that and put them in small containers for him to eat throughout the week.), steamed sliced carrots or if he has teeth, uncooked baby carrots (I'd prefer to slightly steam them so they're a bit softer but still firm enough to grasp). Waffle or pancake strips, bread strips or cubes. Yogurt. Canned peaches (not baby jar food) and stuff like that. Mac & cheese. Basically you want to give him a variety of foods - he is not going to like every food the first time he has it, but he'll get used to a variety, which is important.

What brand of babyfood do you buy? My daughter refused to eat Gerber and would only eat Beech Nut when we used jars, but I made all her food. Can you make him what he likes on Sundays and then use it for the week? It could be a texture thing or the babyfood isn't solid enough for him. Have you talked to your pediatrician?

You've already had a lot of people suggest what I would suggest... make ahead and freeze regular foods, then just take them out in portions for the day to take to the sitter. I use ice cube trays to freeze food in, so that I can take out the number of cubes that I think the child will eat of each item. Those can be sealed in a ziplock bag.
Do talk with your sitter about what you are doing with the feeding and be sure she is on board with you. I would also ask her to warm the frozen foods by setting the container in a bowl of hot water rather than in the microwave. That preserves the taste and texture of the food.

Can you just make a batch of chicken & potatoes & such and put in Tupperware for the sitter? Most of his nutrition is coming from milk or formula at this point. Sounds to me like he'd like to skip the baby food completely and I can't say I blame him!