Meal ideas for 1 yr old that are not dinners

yogibear77

So my LO is turning 1yr and is going to start creche mornings only. He will be getting his lunch there which would be more like a dinner, veg, meat, pasta or spuds etc.

His schedule at home was porridge and bottle for breakfast, dinner at lunchtime with water, at 3pm bottle with fruit puree mixed into baby rice......I know he still shouldn't be on this but he loves it. Then a bottle going to bed.

So my question is really what should I give him to eat at 3pm with his bottle as I know he should no longer be on the baby rice. I'm just scared he will be hungry. I've tried him with soft boiled egg and scrambled egg. They went down so so. Wasn't too keen on the boiled egg. A side from eggs im drawing a blank and dont know if its a good idea to be giving him two dinners a day.

I know he should be on more finger foods. We tend to give him these when we are having our dinner. Suppose I'm just scared to give him these at 3pm in case he doesn't get enough to eat and I know at this stage we should nt be relying on bottles to fill him up.

Thanks for your help......slightly stressed first-time mammy

Loveinapril

Is the 3pm thing supposed to be his tea/ lunch? Is it his last meal of the day? Why not give a sandwich, wrap or crackers? For lunch, my 9 month old loves anything on toast, hoummus and pitta, cheese and crackers, breadsticks and dip. He also loves omlettes that I load with tomatoes, cheese, spring onion etc. and French toast. We do baby led weaning and there are great resources out there with tonnes of ideas.

yogibear77

Yes it is. He has a snack when we are having our dinner. We aren't doing baby lead weaning. Supposed that I'm just scared if I use that meal as a baby led meal, it will all end up on the floor and he will be hungry.

What quantities should I be giving him? What size omelette do you make.

Loveinapril

When I cook with eggs, I will use a whole one for an omlette or one egg and one slice of bread for French toast. When you start BLW a lot of it does end up on the floor but that starts to lessen as the baby develops their motor skills. The thing with baby led weaning is that they stop eating when they are full but I don't know how that works if it is introduced later. I don't know if there is an expectation of a spoon coming that may lessen the interest in self feeding. Maybe try giving a slice of toast in finger shapes for the baby to eat themselves and maybe you feed them yoghurt or something just so you are happy with the amount consumed.you can then start putting things on toast or give sides like cheese, cucumber, tomatoes etc.so it's kinda like a deconstructed sandwich. My hope for my little guy is that he will get used to all the components and soon will have the skills to eat a 'proper' sandwich.

shesty

i think the advice is that he should be having two "dinners" a day at that age(I'll have a look to source that)!Is he only having bottles from 3pm on?I'd give mine a dinner at our dinner time in the evening, be it a proper mashed bolognese and pasta, or just toast and beans and fruit.If we have rice,I give them some in a bowl, and sometimes some of the sauce we are eating mixed in, to make it a bit wetter.My second child (now two) would have had a bit of chilli or whatever mixed with her rice.If you are having veg, give him some steamed broccoli/carrots on his tray or some pieces of pasta (fusili shapes are good, they seem to find them very manageable).
To be honest you would need to introduce a good bit of finger food and lumpy food at this stage because he needs it to develop his cheek muscles and through that, his speech.

Marz66

I would give a “second dinner” as well - mashed really well if he’s not used to finger foods. Shepherds pie, stew cut up and mashed, spag bol cut up and mashed, fish mashed into potatoes and veg.
More lunch stuff could be soup and strips of bread or bread roll, sandwich/toasting easier to hold, french toast, banana & blueberry pancake (ripe banana mashed into egg and fried)
Google Annabel Karamel recipes.
He should be on 3 meals a day now. Ease him in to that routine and he’ll be fine.

yogibear77

Hes used to very lumpy food and has finger food for snacks. I was just worried that because hes having a dinner at lunchtime in yhe creche giving him a second spud or pasta dinner in the evening would bee too heavy on his little stomac.

linpoo

I've been following Mummycooks book and Instagram page and she gives really good advice on what to give and portion size etc. There is recipes in her book too that my baby loves.

I think at 1 year old he should be on breakfast, lunch(dinner), dinner and 2 healthy snacks.
I'd drop the bottle with his breakfast because he should be filling up on food now and give 2 to 3 beakers of milk throughout the day only.

My 12 months old baby gets:
7am Weetabix/porridge etc for breakfast with fruit
9.30am Beaker of milk and a healthy snack
12pm Lunch sometimes it's a dinner and sometimes its scrambled egg on toast/spinach bites with beans etc it varies
2.30pm Beaker of milk and healthy snack
5pm Dinner
7pm Beaker of milk.

Just sharing his schedule as a guide so you know what another baby of the same age gets. Obviously the timed vary depending on how the day goes