Food for 1 year old???

Hey everybody!
Thane is almost one and is still mostly eating Gerber Stage 2 foods. He has 7 teeth total on top and bottom. He gags when I try to introduce a lot of the finger foods and such. He is NOT a good eater and when its time to eat he hits the spoon to try to get it out of his face when its the Gerber baby food. he pretty much ONLY wants to eat finger foods such as little cubes of cheese cut up into eigths, And peeled grapes quartered up. I can't give him any food that is bigger than that cuz he will choke. When he gets bored he starts throwing his food and a lot of times its when he first sits down to eat. Do you think he just isn't hungry? he is small for his age so i am concerened about how much and what he eats. I was thinking of buying those mini meat stick things and quartering them up for him to see if he'll eat that. What kind of meat do your kids eat?

here is a typical day:

Nurse in AM
Breakfast at 10 am - Rice cereal and yogurt(only if i can distract him enough to eat about 3 tbls full!!!), 3 or 4 quartered grapes, the rest if the yogurt to drink and cheerios or puffs for dessert.
Lunch 230 pm - I TRY to trick him into eating about 1/4 jar of sweet potatoes and turkey or apples and chicken, 3 or 4 quartered grapes or some of an orange cut up, 3 cubes of cheese cut up really small. cheerios or puffs for dessert.
Supper 630 pm - 1/2 thing of sweet potatoes and turkey or apples and chicken, baby food bananas (1/2 thing), I try to dice up some baby carrots and he will eat a little like maybe a half of a baby carrot.

He nurses or drinks out of a bottle while i am gone about 8 oz with the babysitter, but nurses slightlyl more while ive been on vacation these 2 weeks.

I just really am concerned how he doesn't want to eat and should it be this DIFFICULT where I have to have a damn circus on his highchair to TRICK him to eat!!?!?!?! this is ridiculous and i'm hoping someone can shed some light...

thanks!!!!

7am - half bowl of cereal until full

8am - 8 oz of whole milk

10:30 - snack (crackers, Puffs, fruit)

12pm - lunchtime....toast or Kraft Dinner, soup , honestly whatever i feel like making. Followed by a yogurt or cheese or fruit

1pm - 8 oz of water (that's if she drinks it)

3pm - snack

5pm - Dinner whatever we are eating chopped up small or manageable for her to eat.

6:30pm - 8 oz of whole milk

Well Molly pretty much follow a similar routine to Audrey

7am Sits and drinks some full fat milk from her cup in front of the tv while Mum and Dad have a cup of tea and get ready for work or get showered.

8am Breakfast, this can be oats, cereal or egg on toast

9.30 Snack of banana/raisins/apple/bread sticks/cheese finger

12.30 Lunch, when all of us are at home we will sit down and all have our main meal, when just one of us we will have a meal with Molly with vegetables and fruit and yoghurt or custard for desert.

14.00 Snack if hungry, dried fruit/cheese/biscuit

16.30 Light tea such as sardines, not usually as much as lunch time, followed by yoghurt/jelly.

18.30 Bottle of 8oz milk

She also sips water from her cup throughout the day and with meals and will probably finish about 6oz

Sorry, it probably doesn't answer your question to be honest. What sort of meats do you give him, have you tried ground meats so he doesn't have to chew so much or even sticks of corned beef from a tin. Does he like pasta? You could puree a bolognese sauce and add it to some soft cook pasta so he will get the iron from the red meat that way? To be honest, I'm not sure grapes are all that great. Molly chews well but even she does not get on with grapes.
With regards to food throwing, we just ignored Molly as we realised she was doing it for the reaction more than anything. Don't worry about him going hungry because if he was that hungry he wouldn't throw the food away. I just got up and said fine it's not a game Molly! Then put all the food back on the plate and carried on doing whatever I was doing.

Thank you Emma!!

I actually just give Thane the sweet potatoes with turkey or apples with chicken Gerber stage 2. Today i bought him those meat sticks from gerber and he basically crushed them with his bottle of yogurt *sigh* I cut everything he eats into REALLY small servings like a grape is cut into 4 pieces, so he eats them very well! He loves the grapes and cheese but that's about the only thing he doesn't throw. I am mostly worried about meats. I would give him some chicken and stuff that i cook but its not quite soft enough for him to chew with his front teeth.

I appreciate your input! thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!!!!

Duh! Thank you melanie also! I thought i'd responded already! I wish Thane would eat like your girls!!!!

XXX Thanks!

No worries, hehe!

I think chicken is the best to give Audrey. I'm actually making chicken thighs in mushroom soup in the oven right now and will probably steam some veggies and maybe some rice and give that to Audrey. With the rice I usually feed it to her myself It's just difficult to get into a routine and the worst is when we work and get home, don't feel like making anything and when we do, it'll be ready at like 6:30pm and Audrey eats earlier then that. So I always cross my fingers that she's eaten at her babysitters which 'sigh' isn't always the case and that's okay, just has me think like a mad woman when I get home and wonder what on earth to quickly make for Audrey that's got all food groups, lol!! sometimes those Toddler Entrees by Gerber or Heinz, not sure....they are great for meals and has everything they need and Audrey gulps it all down.

Yeah Audrey has always been a little piglet....she definately loves her food and when she doesn't like something I am shocked. Like she didn't like the eggrolls I made for Christmas, lol!!! I must say they were yummy though and DF enjoyed them aswell seeing as he has 12 the night I made them, :lol!:

Just keep on top of it Ginny...I also find during teething or illness Audrey doesn't eat as much....or growth spurt she can't STOP eating

But yeah I'm definately NO Martha Stewart, I do whatever is easy and most convenient

haha! thnanks melanie!! Martha stewart - i bet you are!!!!!!!!!!! your eggrolls sound delicious! youll have to send me some!

I wanted to post some pix of thane's supper tonight. he moved it around really but i don't know how much he actually ate...just to show you the size of the food all cut up! he chokes so badly on darn near everything! He had carrots, pickle, wheat roll, chicken stick, hamburger, cheese, grapes, and green beans. i was trying to see what he liked best! it was grapes of course...

Awww he's so cute and NO I am not Martha, lol!! Soooo far from it!! Well with Audrey I have to cut everything up pretty much that size too, lol!! She does choke on everything too. I haven't tried grapes with Audrey since she was 6 months old, lol!! I think her sitter may have though. With Audrey we strictly feed her actually dinner or lunch and then if she's still hungry she'll get fruit or yogurt...always been that way. Kids have sweet tooths so that's probably why Thane was going for his grapes but they are still good for him

I'm glad Audrey didn't want to eat hte chicken tonight, I don't think it was cooked to the full, because I felt like crap afterwards, not good with being preggers either so I have to make sure DF microwaves his left overs for dinner.

Oh yeah, Mel that's not cool being pg! Hopefully it was cooked though! :S I can see how that would make you feel ick!!! I hope you are doing well by the way! I know when I was pg I didn't want meat AT ALL!

Well, Thane is throwing up a little after his meal..probably all that different junk I gave him!!!!!!!!!!! But I think it may be cuz now that he's walking he is freakin EVERYWHERE 90 mph so I think and HOPE that its just his stomach getting jostled after dinner! Plus he keeps trying to nurse and move around at the same time...doen'st want to stop to nurse even Hopefully it was a fluke!!

He is TONS better with the diaper changes!!! So,I hope that soon he will eat in peace and not throw his food and knock the spoon away. He should be hungry cuz he didnt eat much today and I am worried I don't know what to do. i may call the dr monday and see what she says!

thanks again!!!!!!!! xxx

Hey Ginny -
My mom told me that when my sister was little (older than Thane) she would only eat
PB and J. She took her to the DR. and he said, "what's the problem? let her eat what she wants because she will outgrow it!"
I know that's not the answer you are looking for but you may just need to give him more time. We often forget that our babies have tiny tummies and don't require nearly as much as we may think. I think I would keep giving him grapes but keep trying new foods every few days.
Also - Owen eats some stage 2 foods and some stage 3. He likes stage 3 squash, bananas and sweet potatoes but he wont eat any other stage 3. Those 3 foods are thicker and not lumpy. Have you tried those?
I also think that he is still getitng tons of nutrition from breast milk so nourishment wise, I'm sure he is fine.
Meal time is messy at our house too! Sigh - the joys!!!! haha!!

hmm, kaydance has always been a VERY good chewer even when she didnt really have any teeth, so i guess i just got lucky. shes basically been eating everything that we do for a while now, like a few months i think. she likes chicken nuggets and fries, baby peas, sliced cooked carrots and green beans, hot dogs, hamburger meat, bananas, bisuits, eggs, bacon, cheese, toast (preferably with margerine and cinimon on it lol), plain bread, she LOVES blueberry muffins for breakfast too, and then the baby stuff like wagon wheels, animal crackers, raisins, biter bisuits, yogurt drops. she likes pickles too lol!

i do cut her food up smaller than we would eat it (most of it though, like toast i will just cut the slice in half and she eats it that way, but hot dogs i will cut in half long ways before slicing for her to eat).

i agree with lou lou though that kids go through stages and get over it. if he only really wants grapes and cheese, than give it to him and do try to get him to eat other things in the meantime cause some day he will surprise you and eat something different! haha.

Oh Ginny, I wish I knew what you could do. I'm not sure what types of foods you have over there either. Can you get soft meats in tins? That might help. Also, it sounds to me like he has a bit of a sweet tooth, have you tried making something slightly sweeter for him, like sweet and sour chicken or fruity chicken curry? You could always add like a pinch of sugar to things like pasta sauces, it won't do any harm. What about giving him the spoon and letting him get involved. I usually sneak spoonfuls of food into Molly's mouth while she is playing with bits of it on her tray when she is being like that as it seems to kind of distract her a bit.
With the foods bits, I would just keep persisting with giving lumpy food. He will gag but that is purely a reflex to stop them choking, it doesn't mean he will choke. He just needs more practice of pushing food around his mouth.