Feeding FAQ: 9-12 months – Weaning/Solids

My 9.5mth twins are beginning to refuse to eat their meals without distraction and every meal takes a long time. What should I do?

I need your advice on a subject that I am really confused about.
I am sure most of the mothers have this dilemma that I have.
With my 9.5 month old twins, feeding is usually a battle.

I have followed Gina’s weaning guide to the letter, and it has been quite a success until the second stage.
Breakfast at 7.30am: I mix Weetabix or Readybrek with 75mlsformula and different types of fruits such as pears and apples which are pureed, or peaches, bananas and kiwis which I slice into pieces. As the girls have 2 bottom teeth and two lateral incisors so I presume they cannot chew much yet. After a short break I offer them 150mls formula. They usually drink around 120mls.
Lunch time at 11.30am: 50gr protein mixed with different type of vegetables, cheese, tomato sauce + 1 fruit pot of ready made fruit puree.

I prepare lunch by using a Baby Cook to steam and then puree their food. I will steam 50gr of meat/chicken/fish/recently liver and 100-150gr vegetable, then add herbs, tomato sauce and grated cheese and puree until smooth. This makes around 6-8 tablespoons.

3.30pm I offer 150mls formula, 120mls is usually taken, but they have started to lose interest in this if they finish their lunch.
Tea is at 5.15pm. I alternate home made lentil/vegetable soup [Gina’s recipe] and organic commercial baby food of different flavours.

With a lot of distraction like finger foods, toys, spoons, funny faces, sounds, cartoon on TV (unfortunately), and at the end of a 45 minute battle, they finish their plate but I am very worried that if I continue like that they will hate eating food as they grow up.

A lot of my friends tell me not to push them and if they refuse to eat, leave them until they are really hungry, ok, maybe it makes sense but if I do that then the routine will be disturbed so as their sleeping pattern.

SO….I can’t decide which one is worse…

Pushing them to finish their meal (they finish it eventually) and they will see feeding times as a battle and hate it.

OR

I will not push them and wait until they scream for food and the feeding / sleeping times will be all mixed up…
There must be solution in between, I desperately need your advice.

Following the advice I got from the message boards I have stated to limit the meal times to 30minutes and not use the TV or toys as distractions. Sometimes they eat, sometimes they don’t. I find that they eat the ready made meals more easily, even though they are for over 10mths but as they are only 20-30% of their meal plan I don’t understand why they like it more.

I am trying to prepare more lumpy foods [we are very far away from giving chopped or diced] but it is very difficult to feed them that.

I have been offering them water from a beaker for the last three months after their meal but they will just push it away. Recently they have started to play more with the spout [Avent soft spout, no valve] and will scratch at it with their teeth and put it into their mouth. As yet I have not tried with milk in a beaker. I am also working on giving water in a beaker with no lid on.

The twins were born 10 weeks early at 1.2kg and 1.3kgs. Their full maximum feed is 180mls but by 8mths they weighed 8kg and were still gaining 200-250gr each week. I don’t expect them to eat or drink the same amount as other babies but they are still constantly gaining weight.

Around this age it is not unusual for a baby to start resisting being fed with a spoon. It is easy to become concerned that your babies are not eating enough food and you will try any distractions which will encourage eating.

Babies of this age are gaining a little independence. They want to do things for themselves and may resist the attempts of adults to feed them. If you insist on feeding your daughters, as you are concerned that they will not eat enough themselves, you may find that they completely refuse to be spoon fed and become increasingly frustrated. There are things you can do to improve the situation with your daughters.

• Be aware of the amounts of food you can realistically expect your daughters to eat at a meal. These are laid out in Gina’s book Contented Baby to Confident Child, page 30.
• Be aware of the size of each serving. For example a serving of carbohydrates is 25gr [1oz] of cereal, 2 tablespoons of pasta or a slice of bread. It easy to think that, as your babies grow they will need bigger portions to allow for their growth but towards the end of the first year their growth rate has begun to slow so they may not actually need as much food as you feel they should take. Making sure they have their 50gr portion of protein each day is sensible but check out the other quantities you are giving them. As the girls may have slightly smaller appetites, although they are gaining well considering their prematurity, you will need to allow for this when calculating their meals.
• Letting your babies self feed is an important part of their development. It not only encourages hand-eye coordination but also increases their growing independence. Self feeding can be both slow and messy at this age. It may seem easier to spoon feed your daughters but they will enjoy their meal times more if you allow them to join in as much as they can.
• Finger food can be used in many ways at this age and will increase their overall intake. Your daughters are becoming much more aware and interested in the appearance of their food. They will be attracted by colour, shape and texture. If they continue to have their meals all blended together in a bowl they will lose interest and become bored, even with dishes they have previously liked.
• It is important that you begin to mash your daughters’ food now, rather than blending everything. It may take them a while to adjust to this new texture. You may have to give them half and half to begin with. For example, offer them a blended portion of peas, with some whole peas also mashed into the mixture. Gradually reduce the amount of blended food and increase the amount of mashed food. Keep back some of the vegetables you are serving and offer these as finger food so they learn to associate the taste of peas with the sight of them. Research has shown that a baby may need to be offered a new taste or texture several times before accepting it so, at every mealtime, offer your girls food that is not blended.
• How you serve your babies’ food is also important now. To attract their attention try to use plenty of variety, both in colour and texture, in each meal. Rather than offering just one or two vegetables with their protein at lunch try giving them smaller amounts of three or four vegetables such as a spoonful of peas, a piece of baby corn, two broccoli florets and some diced carrots. The meal can be offered to them on a plate which has divisions: the protein portion of their meal can be in one division, the carbohydrate part in another and the selection of vegetables can be placed in the third part. This means your daughters are able to see the food and decide which pieces they would like to pick up and eat.
• Even though they do not have many teeth yet it is important that your girls do get used to chewing. They will be able to chew on soft food with their gums. Chewing like this will help their new teeth to come through.
• At this stage of weaning it is a good idea to do a weekly menu planner so that they enjoy a varied diet. The Weaning Guide has a excellent selection of recipes. Many of these can be made in advance and frozen into portions so you will not always have to cook from scratch each day. Before their lunch you could steam the fresh vegetables that you are going to offer along with the protein. For example, you could make up the chicken casserole recipe and freeze it into portions. Before lunch you could cook them some peas, broccoli, corn and potatoes. Although it is probably quicker to blend them altogether it is better to begin to separate out each item. If you feel they are not yet ready to have their food chopped then at least stop blending all the tastes together. Even with mashed food you can separate out each part of the meal. This will help the girls get used to the different flavours and textures of each ingredient instead of having all the tastes blended together which may be why they have started to take so long over each meal.
• Let your daughters hold a spoon and show them how to dig into their food. Things such as mashed potato will stay quite well on a spoon even if they turn it over before it reaches their mouths. Filling a spoon, then lifting it and turning it towards the mouth is a complex action that often ends in the spoon being turned over or not reaching the mouth before the food falls off it. Some of the food is bound to end up somewhere else than their mouths, but try not to mop them up too much while they are busy feeding themselves. Some babies will let you load their spoon and then pick it up themselves. Others may let you help them guide the spoon towards their mouth. Some babies will give up using a spoon altogether and dig in with their fingers. One way to encourage your daughters to eat the savoury dishes is to spread small amounts of a casserole dish onto pieces of bread or roll and let each baby feed herself. They may allow you to spoon in some food at the same time as they will be occupied with the bread.
• Be prepared for the mess that will be generated by your daughters trying to feed themselves. Cover the floor with newspaper or lay a special splash mat under their high chairs. Use bibs which cover their arms as well as their fronts. It may be easier to remove their top clothes and feed your daughters in just bodysuits or tee shirts. Have several clean, damp washcloths close at hand to wipe them down when needed.
• If you are offering new dishes to the girls be aware that it may take several times of tasting it for them to fully accept it. If they reject it one day don’t feel they don’t like it at all but try offering it again the following week. If, after one try, you don’t reintroduce food that they do not seem to like you may find they end up with a very restricted diet.
• It is also easy to give your daughters foods such as fruit yoghurts and fromage frais when they appear to have eaten little of their savoury course, as you know these will be accepted and at least they will have eaten something. However, a baby of this age will quickly learn that if she makes enough fuss over her first course she will be offered a food that she does like. If your daughters have eaten a small amount of their main course but really don’t seem interested in more and are not making any attempt to feed themselves clear the dishes away. You can offer some fresh fruit or a stick of cheese but don’t always resort to the puddings you know they really like. Keep these for treats and special occasions. Use natural yoghurt flavoured with unsweetened fruit puree rather than commercial fruit pots.
• Always make sure that you are offering meals well spaced apart. Move their lunchtime on to nearer12 midday. You may find that they are hungrier at this later time and don’t fuss so much over eating their meal. This will still allow them an hour before they go down for their nap at 1pm.
• Also make sure that they are not too tired. By now your babies will be quite active and may be crawling so watch that you are not trying to feed them when they are too tired to eat properly. This can often happen at teatime.
• If you feel that the girls are losing interest in their 3.30pm feed cut it back to 90mls. This should help them be hungrier for tea. If you offer them yoghurt as a dessert at lunch and provide cheese at tea time they will get the equivalent of the milk they have cut out.
  Providing your daughters have eaten two good meals, at breakfast and lunch, you can be more relaxed about tea. Here finger foods can be really useful. Give them small pieces of homemade pizza, small pieces of quiche or mini sandwiches using savoury spreads. Once eggs have been introduced they may enjoy an omelette which has a filling inside, such as grated cheese. This can be rolled as a pancake and cut into slices so they can feed themselves. Commercial foods can be useful when you are very busy or rushed but consider batch cooking soups and freezing them in portions. This means the girls can still have a variety of foods at teatime but not get used to eating the bland textures of ready made food. The water content of commercial baby foods is quite high and the protein content lower than that of a similar recipe prepared at home. Continue to have a few jars of commercial baby food in the cupboard but start to give them for tea some carbohydrate rich recipes, as suggested in the Weaning Book. The teatime meal does need to be high in carbohydrates to help your daughters sleep well at night.
• Try offering your daughters cooked pasta with cheese or vegetable sauces at teatime. If you use the very small, star-shaped, pasta, often found in Italian deli’s, this is a great way to introduce your daughters to textures and lumps. When cooked, mix the pasta into a cheese or vegetable sauce. Start with a small amount of pasta and gradually increase the quantity as they get used to the texture. Penne pasta which has been cooked is great finger food, especially if offered with grated cheese. Once you feel that they have finished eating, finish the meal by clearing away.
• Keep encouraging your daughters to drink water from a beaker. It often takes a long time for a baby to learn how to drink from a beaker. Offering each baby a small amount of water in the bottom of a beaker without its lid is a good way to start. When at home, use beakers with simple spouts rather then the ones with valves. Beakers with valves are ideal when out and about or traveling as they do not leak but, otherwise, they are not encouraging your baby to sip at water since they require a strong suck to get any of the fluid.
• If you are concerned that your daughters are not eating enough, keep a food diary of all they eat and drink over several days. This will give you the full picture of their diet rather than looking at each day in isolation. Some days you may notice they eat more than on other days, and this balances out their intake. Unless they greatly reduce their intake of food for several days, which can happen with illness, they are unlikely to have very disrupted sleep. If you feel that one meal has not been very successful you will probably find that they make up at the next one.
• Make meal times into relaxed and happy occasions. Your daughters will sense any tension and stress you are feeling about the length of time or amount of food they are eating. Try to sit down yourself and eat at least one meal a day with them. Coping with twins who are feeding themselves can take up time but they need to see you eating, so they can copy you. If it is easier to do this at weekends when their father is around then try to have one or two meals together as a family.

Keep offering the range of foods that you have been providing. Relax and enjoy meal times, even if they are messy, and accept that your babies may not eat everything which is put in front of them every day. Giving them proper meals, where they can see what is being offered to them, rather than blending all their food together, should encourage them to become much more interested in food.

Take a look at the case study on page 32 of Contented Baby to Confident Child which may help you further.