Struggling with lunch and dinner

[Chow44]

Hi there.

I feeling a little frustrated and could do with a little advice if anyone can help. My boy is 15months old. He's having 3 bottles of 7 fluid ozs a day. He's not exactly taking to eating food as such. He will have a slice of fruit loaf or bowl of porridge. Lunch and dinner are so different tho. I put some veg, maybe some meat and pasta. Obviously changes everyday. Anyway his lunch and dinner are pretty much eat one thing and thata it. He's throws the rest on the floor.

Do you think it could be that he's having too much milk. I can't remember what my daughter was on at this age. Well i think she was down to 2 bottles but this little man is so different.

Any advice is much appreciated?

[RachelModerator Moderator]

Hello Chow44 ,

It's great that you are offering your little boy a range of healthy foods to try.

Are the bottles that he's having milk? and if so, is that formula or cows milk? I think you may be right, and he is filling up on milk and not feeling particularly hungry when it comes to mealtimes.

It is recommended by the NHS that your little one has approximately 300-400 mls, (10-14 oz) of full fat cows milk a day.) So it would definitely be worth looking to reduce by at least one bottle. It may be worth thinking about when you are offering the milk, for example is it before, or not very long before you would be expecting him to have a meal.

Obviously the above is a guide and some children will be getting enough dairy from their diet with a couple of serving of cheese/yoghurt or fromage frais a day.

What other drinks is your little boy having?

It might be useful if you could start keeping a little food diary, so you can consider the amount of food he is having over a course of a few weeks.

First Steps nutrition have a handy download which shows portion sizes for children 1-4 years.

firststepsnutrition.org/eat...

I hope this is helpful.

There are lots of other things that can affect appetite too, from the hot weather or teething.

Let us know how you get on.

Best Wishes,

Rachel -Assistant Practitioner

[Chow44 in reply to RachelModerator]

Hiya. Thanks for getting back to me. He is on cows milk. I will definitely try and drop a bottle or do u think I could just lower it to 5floz with the 3 bottles a day. He has his bottle in the morning about 7ish then breakfast about 1hr to 1h30mins after his bottle. Then about 11 he has another bottle. Then has a nap between 11 - 1 depending how long it's takes him to go to sleep lol. He then has his lunch once awake. Which he only eats abit of it. Then has a proper dinner around 4 - 5 which he eats more of as he don't eat much at lunch time. He then has his bath after dinner. Next milk bottle between 6 and 7 and then bed at 7.

He also isn't taking too well to holding a sippy cup, he doesn't quite get the jist of it that you must tip it back to get water lol. He only drinks water. Which then he only has 1 sippy cup of water a day because he isn't really interested in drinking.

I'm just finding my boy very lazy lol with everything which is rather frustrating.

I will try a diary and definitely lower his milk intake and hopefully thatll make him eat his food better.

Thanks

[RachelModerator Moderator in reply to Chow44]

Hi Chow44 ,

Sounds like you've got a plan sorted there. I think if you can stop the mid morning one, he may be a bit more likely to eat lunch, but it maybe he uses that as a cue to have his morning nap, so do what works best for your family routine.

It's great he is having a sippy cup for his water, you probably find he will spill more of it than drink it is it one of the non spill ones? they can be a bit harder to get the hang of.

If you wanted to complete the food diary and then experiment with the milk, you could always give us a call in Just One Number and we'd be very happy to take a look at it for you and see if there are any other tips or suggestions we can come up with. Just give as a call on 0300 300 0123.

Look forward to hearing from you soon,

Take care,

Rachel