When do you stop feeding baby cereal?
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Anonymous
| DD is nearly 14 months and I still feed it to her. She is allergic to eggs and I like spoon feeding her part of her meals because finger foods are such a mess and i feel like it would otherwise take 40 minutes to an hour for her to ingest enough calories. I am wondering if I should stop, though I am not sure about what to give instead. |
Anonymous
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It really is best for at her age and beyond to be mostly feeding herself. You can do it sometimes but the messy feeding is a really important part of the process. That’s where they get used to texture and explore. The mess can be hard but the easiest thing we did was just strip down before meals. My son was also allergic to eggs and we never did baby cereal - things we did: avocado toast cut into strips, fruit, toast with peanut butter (thin) cut into strips, yogurt, oatmeal (he would literally scoop it into his mouth or explore using his little spoons), hmm forgetting what else we did but follow feeding littles and kids eat in color on Instagram for ideas.
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Anonymous
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Yes. Stop. Or at least stop only giving cereal and feeding it to her yourself. At 14 months she should be self feeding almost 100%. Finger foods and working with a spoon and fork are great for her development right now. You have to just go with the messiness (I am a very clean and tidy person so I get it).
Give her strips of toast with PB, cream cheese, or laughing cow cheese. Cheerios with milk. Applesauce. Sliced bananas, strawberries, and halved grapes or blueberries. Greek yogurt. Bites of Nutrigrain or Lara bars. Smoothies made with milk and frozen fruit. Frozen waffles and homemade pancakes or French toast with yogurt or nut butter on top. Tons of non-egg options to be had! But encourage her using utensils and self feeding herself now. If she doesn’t eat a ton then provide a snack late morning until she gets the hang of self feeding. You continuing to feed her like a 7 month old isn’t doing either of any favors! |
Anonymous
| Whatever works. My oldest still ate from a spoon well until 2 for part of the meal. Youngest refuses all spoons since 12 months. But you can switch to just regular oatmeal etc. |
Anonymous
Let her get messy. It’s part of life. She’s never going to learn if you don’t provide her with opportunities. There are lots of other foods other than eggs? I mean, adults still eat cereal, but by 14 no, your child can and should be eating a huge array of foods, properly sized. Look up kids eat in color or one of the jillion and one feeding blogs online about BLW (which your kid is a little old for, but you could get some ideas). Eggs is a limitation, but not prohibitive. Hummus, yogurt, lentil (or any) dal, tofu, appropriately sized meat shred, toast fingers, crackers, Cheerios, pretty much any fruit and vegetable, etc.... etc |
Anonymous
| In terms of ingesting enough calories, I would encourage you to think of it more that your job is to offer her food and it’s her job to choose how much of that food to eat. Some days she’ll eat more, some days less. For breakfast you might offer a little avocado toast, some soft fruits cut small, we sometimes would even do roasted broccoli because it was easy and not messy. Then from those she can choose what to eat and how much - if she wants more toast she gets more toast (if you have it and there is enough available for everyone) if she only eats raspberries and more raspberries and more raspberries that meal that’s ok too! Kids are really good at knowing what they need. You would just not serve raspverries for lunch for example (because it’s your job to decide what is served) |
Anonymous
| The self feeding is a huge part of the learning, think of it that the important piece here isn’t just ingesting calories - it’s learning to enjoy a variety of foods, know when her body feels full and be able to recognize and respond and listen to her body, learn to enjoy many different textures etc. As others have said kids eat in color and feeding littles - look at their highlights for a good place to start. |
Anonymous
| One last thing on the calorie thing - this is one reason usually kids this age and for a long while after often get breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner. Some of these they will eat almost nothing, some a lot. A predictable routine for this helps and will help any of your nerves about it. Remember that it’s normal for toddlers intake to go down, growth slows down after 1 so they don’t need as much. And if you’re feeding at predictable times every day you can feel ok if she doesn’t eat much at breakfasts because she’ll have snack offered in a couple hours. No pressure is key. Another place with tips is big little feelings on Instagram. |
Anonymous
| You definitely need to let her feed herself. Yes it is messy and takes a long time. |
Anonymous
| It's ok if it takes her 40min to an hour. She's learning while she's eating! |
Anonymous
| Fine to feed her. |
Anonymous
I disagree. It’s fine every now and again but OP’s child should be feeding herself. And definitely no more baby cereal!! |
Anonymous
| If you are worried bout mess get a splat mat to put under the high chair. I personally bought some medical water proof pads I could wash over and over again. Even my four year old has a pad under his chair. It helps |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks everyone. Just to clarify that she does mostly feed herself at lunch and dinner. But I feel less creative with breakfast and I also like the idea of not starting the day with 40 minutes of cleaning up the baby, the chair, the floor etc. Oh well... |
Anonymous
So give her toasted frozen pancakes or waffles (dry) with a pouch of yogurt and a couple slices of apple for breakfast. |