Nutrition Requirements for a 12 Month Old

N.,

You may try to find some information at the La Leche League website www.llli.org. They are a breastfeeding support organization but they have a whole lot of good information on healthy nutrition for toddlers. And a strong emphasis on cooking whole foods without added sugar, etc. I don't have a specific answer to your question about how much is okay. I did the breastfeeding on demand routine and still nurse my 2 year old.... we never did baby food and I have been comfortable allowing him to set the pace with foods. I try to offer a variety of healthy foods and snacks throughout the day and allow him to decide how much (or if) he eats it. That has worked well for us. Because we continued nursing we didn't have the formula/milk issue... I am pretty sure after one year you would be fine with whole milk (although anyone selling you formula might tell you differently). Water and 100 percent juice are also healthy options. If you are going for the natural healthy options you might like the cookbooks from LLL, they have several available for reasonable prices. Or you could find a local chapter and they usually have a free lending library (or try your local public library). A few titles I remember are Whole Foods for the Whole Family and Sugar Free Toddlers. This is a link to one article I found, it lists a few books as well.

Good luck,
T.

http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/NBMayJun99p86.html

N.,

Here is a site I refer to from time to time... there is a section that has sample menus and charts. It also has a lot of simple recipes that you may enjoy trying. Good luck!!

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

C.

N., ask your pediatrician. Since there is so much information out there, I rely on my ped's advice. We used infant formula until 12 months, then gradually changed to whole milk. My ped's advice is to stay on whole milk until two years old, then switch to 2%.

When my son was about 12 months we had to take him to a nutritionist because he hadn't gained weight between 7 and 12 months. This is what we were told that babies at this age should be eating (with the exception that for our son we needed to add an additional 100 calories to every meal and snack offering to increase his weight gain).

Calorie needs at this age are @ 1000 cal. Breakdown: 200-300 at meals, 100-200 at snacks - this includes calories in milk offered at meals and snacks.

3 meals and 3-4 snacktimes a day

At this age baby should eat about every 2-3 hours alternating meal and snack. Limit meal time to 20-30 minutes in the highchair.

At all meals and snacks include protein (meat, cheese, yogurt, eggs beans), starch (crackers, pasta, rice, potatoes) and a fruit or vegetable serving.

The nutritionist also told us to avoid juice because it doesn't have significant nutritional value so we just give our son milk and water.

Also we were giving our son 2% milk because it's what we drink and thought it was only 2% less fat but we were told that they need the fat in whole milk. Whole milk has 38% more fat than 2% milk.

Feel free to email me if you think I missed something.

After 12 months babies can drink whole milk until they are 24 months. Then you can switch to 2% or skim. I would defintely see what your doctor recomends. A good book is "What to expect the Toddler year" There is a sample diet among other useful info. Also check www.babycenter.com