Questions on diet / milk consumption for 13 month old baby

Happysoul1234 · Sep 26, 2009

Hi Friends,

My son is now 13 months old. He is an active, happy baby but his iron level was low - 8.8 at his one year check-up. We have started him on iron drops and it seems to have given him a lot more energy. I am still concerned about his diet and would love to get your advice on how to improve his food consumption.

Currently he gets 20 ounces of breast milk per day in 4 feeds, and he gets 3 solids per day. His typical schedule is something like

Breakfast - 1.5 boxes of yobaby yogurt with some grated cheese or fruit on the side (maybe 1tbsp). The yogurt has oatmeal and fruit in it too.

1.5 hrs after breakfast - 5 ounces of milk.

Lunch - Pureed veggies , fish and/or chicken with multi grain cereal and some grated cheese on the side. about 6 oz. of food in total. He wont eat the puree unless it has our indian spices and ghee tadka.

1.5 hrs after lunch - 5 ounces of milk

Dinner - Pureed veggies, fish/and or chicken with whole wheat cereal or cream of wheat. Fruit on the side. About 6 oz of food in total

1.5 hrs after dinner - 5 ounces of milk

Bedtime - 5 ounces of milk

My main concerns are

1. Is he getting too much milk?
2. He is used to everything pureed. if I give him whole foods, he gags, even on khichdi or couscous. How do I get him used to regular foods such as daal chaval roti sabzi.
3. I need ideas on how to increase his iron content. Food wise, we are more or less on the north indian diet.

Many thanks in advance for your guidance.

Pooja

SupriyaDinesh · Sep 26, 2009

Pooja,
1.Breakfast i would say is a wrong choice.Go for homemade oatmeal/bread/roti with milk.shift that to after lunch.
2.start with soft cooked rice and dal.Make it a bit watery.Time to start more of carbohydrates and protein which is lacking in this diet.
3.you can give egg.
4.spinach,raisins,iron fortified cereal/orange juice sources of iron.
5.Limit milk

beautifulpictur · Sep 27, 2009

Hi Pooja,

For a toddler of this age, milk intake should be in the range of 16 - 24 oz. Too much milk can also be a reason for iron deficiency, as milk hinders iron absorption.
Iron deficiency is a common problem during this age. Our ped also prescribed iron drops for my son. Are you using iron fortified cereals?
When you are giving any iron rich food, you can combine it with any Vitamin C rich food, which will help iron absorption.

Regarding pureed food, one of my friends faced the same problem with her daughter...she would take only pureed food. But now she is ok...takes very softly cooked and mashed rice/dal etc.
Try introducing in very small quantities of very soft mashed rice n dal, you can add veggies also to this. Mash well and give lil bit before regular puree food...just for chewing practice. Eventually they'll learn.
Per my experience Idly is a very good starting food to get toddlers learn to chew. You can try that if possible. But the idly shoud be soft, and the bite size should be very small initially. This is just an option...you have mentioned yours in a north indian diet..anything soft cooked can be given in very small quantities to start with.

Regards,
Lekha