How Much Should I Feed My 20 Month Old Son?

Hi D.,
Have you tried putting what you're having in a blender? That way he's eating the yummy foods you're making & enjoying. I don't know, just a suggestion.
Good luck!
H.

Have you introduced "real" people food? For instance...have you tried real creamy mashed potatoes? Or applesauce from a jar? Tomato soup is a good one as well. Baby food has so much water in it. I was told, by my pediatricians office, that the sooner we got my son off baby food the better. It is probably why he is eating so much of it, it is mainly water. Gradually increase the textured food as well. Try kraft mac n cheese. It's soft and you can cook the noodles even longer and they will get real mushy. Go slow and start from there. Hope this helps.

this is like going back in the past 4 1/2 years. my daughter had the same issue. what i did was buy the magic bullet and whatever we were eating i would puree a small portion for her it works well. if the food is too thick then add water and puree some more. baby food is too expensive and its 15% water. good luck.

I don't know about jarred food by my 19mo boy out eats me regularly with ease. Put that in a jar and thats a lot of jars. He needs about 1200 calories in a day. Look at the nutrition facts. 20 stage 2 jars plus his milk?

Try pureeing what you eat. Immersion blender or small food processor. Then he can eat what you eat and not gag. Then he will be used to the flavors of what your family eats when he can get it down. He could watch you take the same food and puree it for him so he knows it is the same. Really, you can dice up just about anything, just add a little water as necessary. I imagine it will save money, be healthier, and he will like regular food once he can get it down. Taste baby food. It just doesn't taste like the food grownups eat.

Could you use a food grinder (we got ours at Babies R Us and it's really easy to use)? That way you could grind up what you're eating to make it a good texture for your little guy...hope things work out well for this tough feeding situation!

Make your own food. Take what you are eating and grind it up in a mini food processor. I have a big cuisinart food processor for when I made batches of food for my son and then I bought a cup size one from Target for about 10-20 dollars and I just put what we were eating in it and ground it up. That way, your son can start to get a taste of the foods he will soon eat once the gag reflex is gone. This way is more economical too, than buying all the jars.

I have a quick question: Why aren't you blending down the foods you cook for your consumption? It would help a lot with the quanity of food he is consuming and with a child's food grinder or blender you can save a lot of money on prepared jars of food. I would start feeding him table food. He is past ready for mashed potatoes, squash, sweet potato, creamed corn, etc., and the other foods can be blended/grinded down. A can of pea soup, etc., is all ready done for you! I fed my children from a divided dish and gave them table food from the time they started eating food, just cut back on the spices I cooked with. Mashed broccoli, cauliflower, and grinded down the meats. Some really easy foods are spagetti, mac and cheese, ham, chicken, etc.

If you are wanting to give him regular table food, I would suggest that you try using a baby food grinder.
You can put cooked meat and vegetables, and/or pasta in it, as well as anything you think he would have trouble chewing.
You can grind just as much as he will eat at a time.
Add a little gravy or juice or water if you like for whatever consistency works for him.
You did not say how many teeth he has or if he is chewing properly, but I would certainly encourage him to chew his food.

I would ask for a second opinion, he's getting awfully close to that 2 year mark and should be moving towards improvement if that's the "deadline" so to speak. It sounds like a physical problem more than a mental one, but you never know. I've seen some stubborn kids (I used to care for infants in a daycare before having my own kids) who just really preferred the jars, but they outgrew that by age 1. Most babies should be able to eat most safe table foods by age 1. I would suggest trying soups, brothier ones obviously, tomato maybe, squash. Try the noodles, they practically slide down your throat - like the Chicken and stars, they're really little and overcooked. Again though, I really think this sounds like something that needs further investigation, there may be exercises or some other type of intervention that he needs. I would feed him as much as he needs to feel full - kids this age can really eat a lot and the jar food is very thin compared to the table foods most kids this age eat. Good luck!

A woman in my LLL group had the same trouble with her daughter who did just outgrow it. She made all her food to save the money since the jars are WAY expensive. All you need is a food processor or a blender and if you don't think you can do it on your own, a book like "Super Baby Foods". Also, this way you can gradually increase chunkiness.
I'd say you feed him until he turns away or says "no". Make sure he's getting enough, I'm sure he'll let you know when he's had enough. It will probably take more of the jars than of home-made because the jar food is so watered down for a 6-month-old. Don't cut him off just to save money!
Also, smoothies are easy and you can throw all kinds of extra stuff including vegies and protein powder in them and still get them nice and smooth and give them to him in a sippy or straw cup.

Your doctor isn't worried about this severe developmental delay? Go get a 2nd opinion!! Call First Steps and they'll come evaluate your son for free. It sounds like he'll probably qualify for therapy to help him overcome this problem. Almost all babies are eating only real food by their first birthday. I was always told that the goal is 100% self-feeding (with fingers, spoons come later) normal food by 12 months (by doctors, by First Steps, etc) - just cut up whatever the rest of the family is eating into pea-size bits and put it on their plate. If he's still having issues eating foods most babies can handle at 6 months (ie, cheerios, puffs, chunky bananas, etc) then further investigations needs to be done. A gag reflex like that could be an indicator of future speech problems, and he's probably not getting the variety of healthy foods he needs. It can also indicate more serious sensory issues that just haven't cropped up yet. ALL babies go through a 'gagging stage' when they are first learning to handle food. In the process of learning how to move food around with their tongue, it hits the back of the throat and they gag. Most overcome it within a few days/weeks as long as they are kept given solid food so they have plenty of chances to practice and it's not even noticible in some kids. Once they learn how to manuvuer their tongue/food, they don't have any more problems. It sounds as though your son just never learned to do that.

As for the amount of food at 20 months... my kids were always eating what seemed like alot at that age... 3 meals a day at the table with the rest of the family eating almost adult size portions. We'd start with just small amounts on the plate and they kept asking for more. A typical dinner for my now 14 month old is a cup of beans, palm size piece of chicken, cup of pasta and cup (or more) of fruit -- and she's in at 50% for height/weight. All my kids ate like that until their 2nd birthday when they slowed down their growth but they were always around 50% on the weight/height charts so I didn't worry about them eating too much. They were just active.

We never gave our kids jarred baby food. It's half-water anyways. Just take whatever you are eating and put it into a blender or Magic Bullet (perfect for the individual portions). Heck, at 8 months our son LOVED taco night... just fix up a normal taco and put it into the Magic Bullet with a tiny bit of water and out popped pureed taco - he loved it with salsa. :-)

Hi D.,

My 16 month old eats very well. We did baby food only for the first 8 foods that I gave him and then only to give me time to figure out how to make my own. My son eats about 4 ounces of one recipe plus about 3 ounces of cereal and 100ml of formula three times a day. I give him one snack of 150ml formula and 2 animal crackers between lunch and dinner. I guess a 20 month old could eat a little more. As for the textures issue. My son also went through this. He has 16 teeth now. I noticed that once he got his teeth, he is doing better with the textures. Most of his food is the consistency of thick mashed potatoes with some chunks of very soft veggies or shredded/minced meat mixed in, or some creamy soup with chunks of veggies or very soft meatballs. My son's older cousin is six months older, and he can't eat as well as my son. His cousin doesn't have as many teeth. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but it might. How many teeth does your son have?

Like I said, I've been making my own baby food. It tastes much better than the stuff in the jars!! I also noticed that the higher up in the stages, the more like chemicals the food tastes. I was given a few Stage two and Stage three baby foods by a friend who moved and I thought that it would be nice to use if I was short on time. My son refused to eat them. I tasted them and they were nasty tasting to me. I didn't blame him. Here is a copy of a post I made earlier this year about the cookbooks I use.

I've been using 3 of Annabel Karmel's cookbooks. They're great for having leftovers to freeze for later in the week. She also gives us lots of tips on how to make meals healthy and fun for the kids. I have three of her cookbooks. My only complaint is that some of the recipes are duplicated in the books, but she more than makes up for it with the other information she has included with each recipe. Her recipes are easy and fairly quick to make. Most of her recipes take less than an hour. Many are around 30 minutes cooking time. I like cooking, but I have a disability with one of my hands. I was originally left-handed, but now have to do everything with my right hand. I accidently cut the tendon in my left thumb. Anyway it greatly slows down my preparation time when cooking, yet I can still manage to get these recipes done fairly close to the times she has suggested. I guess that any of her books are going to be good, but here are the ones I have and what I like about each one.

Top 100 Baby Purees: I made my son's babyfood. He loves all the veggies that I have given him. Some of the recipes in here are so delicious that I have addapted them to make adult food, by simply not pureeing them at the end and adding in some extra veggies.

SuperFoods for Babies and Children: This book is full of useful information on how to make meals more nutritious. It has tips for coping with fussy eaters, meal planners which help keep me organized, and some of the presentation ideas are eye pleasing to children (and adults too)which helps to make eating fun for everyone.

Favorite Family Meals: The best thing about this book is that she starts out with how to organize a healthy pantry, freezer, and refrigerator to always have food on hand that can easily be transformed into many different meals which kids will eat. The book has chapters on breakfast, lunch, and dinners, as well as some low-fat recipes, vegetarian recipes, and desserts. Some of the recipes can even be made with the kids helping!

When I ordered these, I was worried if it was going to be worth the money and effort to read them, but I have been completely satisfied. It is such a good feeling to cook healthy home cooked meals for my family. Plus, I don't really have to think about what I am going to make for dinner anymore. I know that I have the ingredients on hand. I still make my old favorites sometimes, but her books have become my staple on cooking. You can check out her website at www.annabelkarmel.com to see some samples of her recipes. Happy Cooking,
D.

When my son was one he had natural gagging reflux disorder he could not each stage 3 foods at all or he would choke or gag. The doctor made him go to speech therapy it is not for talking but it helps them to swallow better and they get an evaluation. My son is 5 now everyonce in a blue moon he chokes on something but he was fine by like 2 maybe a little after. I have a 5 month old now and I am praying she doesnt have it. If she does I will definitly be taking her in for an evaluation.

Hi D.... I have a 17-month-old son and he had a somewhat similar problem, but it ended up being a medical condition called Allergic Esophagitis. He has an allergy (to what exactly we don't know yet, but are in the process of finding out) that causes his esophagus to swell up. Now, my son can swallow but will gag on seemingly nothing at times. We ended up going to a GI specialist and he ended up having an endoscopy done. During which they did biopsies that showed tons of allergic cells in his esophagus. The good news is they treated it w/ an inhaler called Flovent. It's a steroid that's normally used to treat asthma, but it's actually the best treatment for this condition. Anyway, it has helped tremendously. I'm not suggesting that is what your son has, but if this has been going on for a LONG time and it doesn't seem to get any better I would suggest either talking to your doctor more in depth about the problem or asking to be referred to a GI specialist. Our regular pediatrician had told us the same thing that it would go away w/ time and that it was due to a flap that food passes to go to the stomach. But he was wrong. Oh, and our son eats all sorts of table foods now. No baby food jars since he was 12 months. Hope this helps.... Abby

I agree with some of the other responses as to make your own baby food. Annabelle Karmel has an excellent book (I think its 100 Baby Food Purees) Or you could grind up what you're eating. I've been making my own baby food and I find it really easy to just freeze in little containers and it's so convenient just to stick in the microwave when you need it. I just spent one afternoon and made like half a freezer full of food that will last months and months. A food processor worked amazingly (I borrowed my Mom's :)) or if you want to do small batches you could use something smaller like a Magic Bullet.
I'm not sure of quantities since my son is only 10 months old, but I wish you the best of luck!!!

I second the food grinder. We got ours (Munchkin brand) at Target for $10 I think and saved well over that in the baby food we didn't buy since DD was eating what we ate instead.

As for how much, I'd feed him until he doesn't want anymore. Kids aren't wired at that age to eat emotionally like adults so he's eating b/c he's hungry and will consequently stop when he's full. Most baby foods (esp the stage 1 and 2) are all fruit or vegetables so there's little fat/protein in them, just calories (mostly from natural sugars) and vitamins and minerals.

For table food options, have you tried yogurt, small curd cottage cheese, soup, watery oatmeal, soft tofu, or frozen yogurt? My son had texture issues too (still does with only a few foods now that he's 3) and he was on baby food for a long time too. If your ped says he'll grow out of it, though it's hard not to worry, I'd let nature take its course, keep feeding him foods he can handle and wait and see.

HTH-
J.

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