Transitioning 13 Mo to Table Food and Milk

Hey I am a mother of three and have some really picky eaters and some really sensitive stomaches. My middle child isn't lactose intollerant she just does not like cheese or milk or most dairy products. You just need to put food in front of her and she will get what she needs. Put a spoon down on her tray as well and she will continue to learn from trial and error. The sooner you stop using the bottle the better but I know it is hard to sometimes let go. As for healthy foods. I am an avid Super Suppers fan. It has really helped my family eat nutritious meals together. It has also saved us a fortune on eating out and grocery shopping. The best thing is that they (at least the one I go to in Sugar Hill) will substitute the cheeses and dairy products with lactose free products. All you have to do is ask. My youngest has been eating Super Suppers since she could eat table food at 5 months. I hope this helps.

I try to stay away from the gerber toddler meals. The sodium content alone makes them very unhealthy, and lets face it, I don't know many people who would willingly eat food that sits on a shelf, uncanned, without needing to be refridgerated for months on end! Eeeek!

You can keep on with the formula as long as you like, or try the lactose-free milk the stores sell and see how she does on it. I forget the name of it, but my MIL uses it regularly for her own lactose intolerance.

As for foods, my youngest was slow to start solids. He completely refused them till about 10 months, and wasn't regularly eating 3 meals a day until 14 months. They do things in their own time. Just make sure what you are offering is healthy. Stuff like bananas, peas, shredded chicken, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans were all favorites here :)

Also, don't stress the spoon thing. The milestone lists all say 15-18 months for using a spoon, so she is not even expected to be in that game yet :)

Best of luck to you!
S.

Hi B.,

S. again from the long email about disciplining. You have a great mom instinct - your little girl is ready to eat and eat from a spoon! You need to let her. My daughter stopped eating all baby food at 5 1/2 months! Crazy!!! I had to begin cooking three meals a day to get her to eat anything - might have been too much, but it helped. We began eating better too. Go to the bookstore and look for some cookbooks especially for children and babies. The longer you keep her eating baby food the longer it is going to take for her to eat real food. Give her a plate and spoon and real cup (you can start this too at the table - hang in there she will get it soon). She will love eating like you do. Yep, you should sit down with her and eat. I started sitting with my two babies and they picked up on eating so much quicker!! Physically - she is ready to eat anything. They know how to chew and break it down before we think they can.

Hope it goes well! S.

I have one recipe that my kids have liked since they were little (and they are almost 11 and 7 now!) It is hamburgers down in gravy. You can serve it with whatever veggies your daughter likes and mashed potatoes. All you do is take hamburger meat, season with salt and pepper, brown in a skillet. Once the meat is brown, add a package of lipton onion soup mix and a cup of water, let that simmer for about 20 minutes and you are ready to go. You can cut up the hamburger and she should be able to eat it. Your first child is so hard to let go and let them do for themselves. Believe me, I understand. But remember, kids want to have that independence and they need to learn it.

I am a first time Mom too, but my child is now 3 years old. I had good luck with the boxed little meals made by Gerber. I can not remember the name of the actual product, but it is by the baby food. He seemed to really like the food and it was solid, but easy to eat for the little teeth that he had. he also did well with the fruit cups and oatmeal. I know that it is messy, I hated that part and still do, but she needs to start eating with a spoon if possible?

Surprising enough, we just tried things that we thought were safe to get the process of a little more indepence under way. It did make things easier to know that he could eat with a spoon and found some foods you can interchange for not a lot of money. Once she gets off the bottle that will be a lot easier for you too. We are going through getting off the sippy cup, which is not bad, but it is kinda easy to do that because once again it is not messy, but we are just doing it at dinner for right now and it is getting better. I know that my son really likes the fruit h20 product and it is just sweetend water, so that may get her more on the sippy cup and it is not loaded with sugar like juice but taste like it.

Hopefully, some of these ideas will work for you?

B. -
My 15 mo son is lactose intolerant too. We made the switch to milk (Dairy Ease 100% Lactose Free - the whole milk) at around 12 months and he loves it. It ends up costing about 1/2 of the formula costs.
As far as the table food - I do a couple of things (depends on how tired I am at the end of the day :) )
We use the Graduates for Toddlers by Gerber alot of evenings. It's easy for them to pick up and feed themselves. They make a Macaroni and Cheese and a Cheese Ravioli - skip these, I think they have regular milk products in them and my son gets a diaper rash immediately after eating any cheese.
So on nights that I'm exhausted, I let him feed himself (naked except for a diaper) and then we bathe right after.
Other nights we do a two spoon method. I feed Mark with one of the spoons and he feeds himself with the other - about every 3rd bite or so, I load his spoon for him since he's usually not gotten any on it by himself (just takes time I guess).
Finally as far as food goes, I don't want a picky eater and while I know it's out of my control, I'm making sure he eats a little of everything, so on nights that we can get dinner for the family ready early enough - he eats a little of everything we have - I found out that he loves salad, asparagus, and lots of other things I never would have thought of. Even if he's already eaten, we fix him a little plate of table food so he can eat with us (I'd love to say we sit at the table for dinner every night - but we only manage that about once a month).
While you are getting started, you might consider keeping a quick diary of what your daughter ate, so that if she does have some skin irritation or diaper irritation, you can limit it down to the food that might have caused it.
Good luck and keep us posted.

I agree with what some of the other moms have said. It she shows interest, let her go for it. My son is 16 mos, and he doesn't eat a wide variety of foods. He also had no interest in any of the gerber foods at all. However, if your daughter is still on the formula (which is perfectly fine, I only took my son off it because it was a pain to remember to take it to daycare with him) you probably don't need to worry too much about her getting proper nutrition. There are a lot of good baby and toddler cook books out there. In fact, I've found a few really good ones at my local library. I've also found, as irritating as it can be, that my son likes to eat the food off of mommy and daddy's plates. I don't let him take it directly off my plate, but let him see me put my food onto his plate. I'm not sure why, but he eats it when I do that versus when I put it directly on to his plate. Good luck. If you find something that works well, let me know. Picky eaters are hard to figure out.

Hi B.,

I have a 15 month old who began eating table food at 12 months. She has four teeth - and only had two when she began eating table food. She decided on her own that she didn't want babyfood anymore. We feed her everything we eat as long as it's soft enough for her to chew "gum is more like it!". She's a champ. Eats everything you mentioned and more. Think about dividing her plate in four parts and filling it with 1 each - protein, vege, fruit, and cereal/bread. If you stick with that she'll get what she needs nutritionally... it is also a good rule of thumb for you and your husband.

Try to stay away from spicy stuff since she's got a sensitive stomach. It just prevents a lot of gas and tummy aches. For her cereal/bread buy things that have whole grains, oats, etc. My daughter loves oatmeal muffins, bran muffins, etc. Also, baked sweet potatoes are a huge hit with her. Definitely don't underestimate your daughter... my husband's been good to feed her things that I didn't think she'd be able to eat (like a soft taco from Taco Bell) and tell me to relax (which I appreciate).

My daughter is also lactose intollerant, so we've transitioned her from Nutramigen to whole Goat's Milk (you can find it a Publix, Walmart & Whole Foods - Walmart is the least expensive, then Publix, then Whole Foods - and it's the same brand name). It's been better for her then formula by far - and she'll drink it out of a cup. She's never gotten the whole sippy cup thing, but uses a straw like she took a class on it.

We only use bottles at night, which we started about three weeks ago -she's 15 months now, and she gets the rest of her nutrients through table food and drinking out of a cup.

Oh - finally, just in case she has trouble with juices (if you've tried those yet), Pear juice is awesome and goes down well.

Hope that helps!
Chris from Kennesaw, GA

My son is now 17 months old and he started on table foods at about 9 months. They started him on them at daycare. They would give him things like graham crackers in his highchair and let him feed himself. He only had two teeth on the bottom for a long time. Then they would give him rice and gravy kind of mashed up. Within a month they were giving him chicken nuggets and mashed potatos and macaroni and cheese. I know you said your daughter is lactose intolerant but maybe you could give her the noodles without the cheese. My son didn't like any of the stage 3 foods except for some of the fruit. Try giving her the food for toddlers like the apples and peaches. They are super soft almost mush if you try to pick them up she might like those.

Hi-

My son is not lactose intolerant, but is allergic to the protein in milk. His formula is about $40 a can. Thankfully insurance pays for it. Anyway, I try to cook things that I can take some out for him before adding dairy and I even keep his leftovers separate.

My son isn't interested in the spoon at all yet- he still does the finger foods. Keep up the great work!

Have you tried soy milk, its lactose free and you can get different flavors. my boys(4 & 3) like the very vanilla flavor. Also have you tried the gerber finger foods? You can buy a plastic mat to go under her chair or high chair for when she eats. That way there is no mess on the floor and its easy to clean up. I got one from the baby section in wal-mart for like $3. Hope this helps