Probably silly questions

[Athena-Nadine]

Things were so much simpler when Robert was tiny and I was his only source of nutrition. :lol: Then, I never wondered if he was getting enough to eat.

Right now, it seems that all he wants to eat are fruits and vegetables. I am happy that he is choosing foods with high vitamin and mineral content, but I worry that he leaves most of the proteins and carbohydrates on his tray at every meal. I swear he's going to turn into a blueberry or something! :lol: He ate an entire peach at breakfast yesterday and mostly ignored his wheat toast, something he normally loves. I know it's probably silly, but I worry about it some because he is weaning off breast milk and only weighs 19 1/2 lbs. as it is. I am starting to think that so much emphasis is placed on eating and weight gain that we all unconsciously believe that there is something wrong with our children if they aren't noticeably chubby.

Also, how will I know when he is ready to go from two naps a day to just one? Right now, he wakes up between 5:30 and 6 AM, takes a nap from 9 to about 10:30, takes another from 2 to about 3:30, then goes to bed for the night at 7 PM. I know he isn't ready to give up one of his naps yet, and I have no desire to make him do so, but he is 12 1/2 months old so I figure he will probably want to give one of them up in another couple of months. I'm just not sure what I should be looking for.

[Lunacie]

I think you've got a point about thinking our babies and toddlers aren't healthy unless they are chubby. My daughter only weighed about 16 pounds when she was the age Robert is now. She ate pretty good and was still nursing at least twice a day.

I wonder if some children are more chubby because they aren't allowed to get down on the floor and play. I've seen children who were still stuck in child seats when they were 8 and 10 months old and should have been crawling or walking. Maybe my daughter and grandchildren weren't chubby because they all walked so young, and once they start walking it isn't long until they're running and climbing and being very active exploring all kinds of things.

My daughter didn't give up both naps until she was over two, but all that activity wore her out I suppose. :) Her children were the same way. I think the youngest, who is five now, would still take a nap in the afternoon if she wasn't in the afternoon class at Pre-K. Some days she comes home and climbs into the big chair to watch Arthur on PBS and falls asleep. The girls spend the weekend with their dad and I pick them about 5 pm on Sunday evening after I finish work for the day - and the little one almost always falls asleep in the car seat on the way home.

You know that kids are all different. There are some general guidelines of what to expect and when, but they're just not all cut out with the same cookie cutter. Sometimes they even stop taking both naps for awhile and then go back to needing both naps for a time. And as they develop their sense of taste they often go through phases where they prefer one or two foods and won't touch others, even though they were the preferred food just last week or last month. Which actually keeps things interesting I always thought.

[Ceres]

You worry too much! Like I am one to talk..... :lol:

Next week he will eat only carbs and no vegetables and you will worry about that. Dont worry, it all evens out. You will drive yourself crazy trying to make it balanced. Is he still nursing? If he is, there are no worries, even at a year he is getting everything he needs from your milk. Even if he is weaning, as long as you offer a balanced diet, he is going to choose from those things and get what he needs.

The nap thing will work itself out. I usually imposed my wishes on my kids in this by waking them to arrange their schedule so it suited mine. So when the time came for them to give up the morning nap, I would just keep them awake and then move the afternoon nap to an hour or so earlier. When they started to stay up later in the afternoon showing they were as tired, I would deliberately keep them up even if they were sleepy at 4 pm in order to get them to bed at 8 pm.

[Athena-Nadine]

Yes, I know I worry too much. :lol: I'm pretty sure that isn't going to change any time soon, if ever. Hopefully I won't torture him too much with it as he gets older and starts to rail against it. ;)

Honestly, there is a part of me that's hoping he will continue on this way until he is at least 2. I'm thinking that his taking those same 2 naps a day would make life a bit easier when I have another newborn in the house. But, who knows? He may just decide to refuse to sleep at all once the new baby is here.

Like I said, I think my worries over his eating habits are mostly induced by outside influences. It's bizarre when you think about it. We are pushed and pushed to watch every ounce they gain as infants, always being told to make sure they are gaining enough fast enough, and then they reach school age and we are all told our children are too fat.

Right now, he has only had two nursing sessions a day dropped so far, so he still nurses (grazes, really) 5 times a day. I know he is healthy. I don't question that. He's just such a tiny little peanut compared to when he was born and he spends all his waking hours walking around now (and almost moving fast enough to be considered running) that it seems some days he's going to waste away to nothing! :lol:

[Kalika]

String cheese is your friend! :lol: (Kids love the stuff)

He'll let you know when he's ready to make the nap switch... just follow his cues. :p

[Athena-Nadine]

String cheese is your friend! :lol: (Kids love the stuff)

He'll let you know when he's ready to make the nap switch... just follow his cues. :p

That's if it lasts long enough without me eating it for him to get some! :p :lol:

[Kalika]

:lol:

Yeah, I have that problem myself.

[Lyrien]

Enjoy that he eats the fruits and veggies now. There will come a time where he's on the chicken nugget, mac and cheese, or pb&j diet. My son went for two weeks eating nothing but pb&j. Don't worry about it. If you truly can't handle the no carb eating thing, give him a small bowl of cheerios or gold fish as a snack.

The nap thing will happen on it's own and with mine it usually was at about 18-24 months and took a few months to make the transition. However, I loved the one nap far better than the two. All of a sudden I had a huge three hour moment of peace every afternoon! That was actually long enough to pick up AND have a bit of free time.

[Chesna]

Kids go thru phases. My daughter was only about 15 or 16 lbs at 12 months...so was soo skinny and some times she ate everything..sometimes she did not. Offer it and see what happens. I think though around 2 or so..maybe a little later I started the concept of needing to finish what was on her plate. I made sure to put small amounts so I was not asking her to eat too much and she could always ask for more.

As for the nap...he will tell you. If he resists the Am nap and he can do fine but may get crancy an hour or so before the PM nap..move the PM nap. I think my daughter dropped her 2nd nap at like 3.
Now if I could just get the baby on a napping schedule I would love it!!

Chesna

[Morr]

I am no expert LOL but if it were my kid, I'd get creative and get some blueberry or peach jam on the toast, and see if he likes it!

Maybe he likes the sweetness of the fruit, and you get get some yummy fruity jams on his toast to lure him into getting some wheat into him?

[Sequoia]

Kids inherently know what they need at that age. Their little taste buds tell them what's good for their body (provided you aren't leaving out junk food for them - who can resist an oreo or chip?).

At least he's not doing what I did when I was in 1st grade. I ate nothing but ketsup sandwiches for months. I don't know why I didn't die or something lmao

[Seren_]

Get used to the faddy eating, because it will probably only get worse...Tom was always a fruit and veg kind of boy, then after he hit 12 months, suddenly one week it was all about bread and pasta and cheese. The next week it was fruit...last week he completely refused any vegetables or new foods, unless I gave him pasta in a smooth sauce with all the veggies hidden. Then suddenly he decided to try lettuce and loved it. This week he's keen on carrots and bananas (he ate four bananas while my husband was looking after him on Sunday morning). He tends to get a lot more finicky when he's teething or feeling under the weather.

You will probably also find that Robert's appetite will vary greatly from day to day or even week to week. Some days he might not eat much, the next day you won't be able to keep up with his demands :lol: This is nothing to worry about either, it all evens out over time. If you're worried you can keep a food diary of everything he eats and you should see that over the week he'll get a good variety of foods and a good quantity too. Now Robert's walking, his weight gain will probably slow down for a while, but he'll soon bounce back.

With the naps, you'll know when he grows out of them. He'll tell you. Loudly :T With Tom, he gets up when he wants to and naps when he wants to (but not after 4pm), although generally he sticks to a fairly predictable schedule. Recently he's given up his morning nap - it started that he still seemed a bit tired, but wouldn't settle so I started letting him stay up an hour or two to see if he could handle it. Now he gets up around 8am and has a nap at about 2-3pm, then bed at 8pmish, but that can change when he's having a growth spurt or is teething - he tends to sleep more.

[Ceres]

Every kid goes on food jags...hell I go on them now and again.

My kids all had similar growth patterns to eachother and my first was a non eater, so once I got past that, it was easy. They all ate like birds as babies and toddlers, then ate everything I made them from 2 - 4 and then started wanting everything seperate on their plates (so no chilli, soup, casseroles or stew) then at around 10, they were willing to eat just about everything. Everyone is at a healthy weight and eats a wide variety of foods, so I guess it all worked out.

[Semele]

Just wait for the true toddler days when you are thrilled if he gets any nutritional content into him through out the day. Just keep offering everything.

[Nitefalle]

I have a questions for all you wonderfully wise moms out there. I have a stepson, JT, who is just over 12 months old (he'll be 13 months on Monday). He is still in his 2-nap phase and I know his immune system is developing because he has a cold about every 3 weeks, lol. He is a big kid - probably about 25 pounds, though for the past several months he has not gained any weight, only gaining height. I know that he is healthy and I'm not worried about his weight, but he is *always* hungry! So, I worry about overfeeding him. We only have him Wed. night (we pick him up from daycare that day) through Saturday, so I don't really know how he eats at home (we don't have a good relationship with the bio. mom). I don't let him snack that often, maybe once a day, and I try to make sure it's healthy, something with fruits or veggies in it. He's still weaning off the baby food jars and drinking whole milk - so for his meals, I try and make sure he eats a 1/2 jar of a Gerber meat w/ veggies (stage 3), and a 1/2 jar of a fruit or veggie mix with a 4-6 oz bottle of milk or juice. Any opinions on this?? He's also teething, so perhaps he just likes to have things in his mouth? Here is his feeding schedule:

Breakfast at 8 am: some dry Gerber cereal mixed /w milk, some jarred oatmeal w/fruit, or a diced up banana
Lunch at 12:30: 1/2 meat & veggie mix, 1/2 fruit or veggie, 4 oz bottle
4 pm - a 6 oz. bottle of milk or juice
Dinner at 7pm: 1/2 meat & veggie mix, 1/2 fruit or veggie, 4 oz bottle

[Seren_]

Every child is different and so are their appetites, so it's difficult to comment. I think it's difficult to overfeed a child as young as your stepson, provided you're giving him the right things (i.e. avoid sugary snacks etc, the obvious stuff) so if he seems hungry he probably is hungry. Don't forget that he can still have growth spurts, and during these times he'll have a much larger appetite than usual.

At such a young age kids still have very small stomachs and tend to eat what they need (unless there's sweet stuff on offer - there's always room for sweets!), when they need it, so generally I wouldn't worry about overfeeding him. He's a growing boy. If you know he's within a healthy weight range for his age/size, and he's eating plenty of good stuff an getting a good amount of exercise, then his appetite sounds normal.

With teething, my son tends to prefer to graze throughout the day rather than have set meals. While it might seem he's constantly eating, he's not really having any set meals so he's probably eating about the same...Your stepson could be doing something similar. Teething rings can help if you want to limit the snacking, I guess.