Feeding

our twins are turning one in 9 days and we are heading into the second year.

I am feeling stressed with feeding them as they begin to transition into toddlerhood.

1.) They self-weaned nursing at 10 months.
2.) They dislike their formula. They will not drink it in a cup or bottle. I mix it with their baby food/cereal and that is how they get it.
3.) We have to use Soy because one of our kids has life threatening dairy allergy.
4.) They do drink diluted juice from a sippy cup.

I have always kept my little ones on formula for at least the first two years because of the no dairy in our diet. All my other kids always drank their formula out of bottles/sippies with NO problem. It has always been soy and for two it was allergy Neocate. These are the first babies' to dislike it and I am stressed about it.

Around one year of age, my babies' generally stop eating baby food and transition to beginning regular foods. I have always supplemented this stage with formula since we don't have any milk products.

I have started introducing them to regular soy milk and am also going to introduce the coconut milk products that are available.

I could really use some ideas and thoughts.

What are you feeding your "just turning" second year babies?

Thank you!

 

I'd just switch straight to soy milk if they'll drink it and ditch the formula. Now seems as good a time as any to switch them to table food. Give them the fats etc that they're "missing" from their formula with other fatty foods like avocado, baked chicken thighs, olive oil etc. My kids loved beans as snacks; black beans, kidney beans etc, which were good for iron and protien. You could also try eggs if you haven't already. There's also lots of non-dairy alternatives out there for yogurt, cheese etc, that aren't too bad.. or at least kids won't know any different! :lol: We use a lot of vegan products around here that I tried when I had to cut out dairy while nursing and I really liked them.

I'd probably also ditch the juice, even if it is diluted, because any amount of sugar will decrease their appetite for other foods which might be a bit challenging at this point.

 

I would skip the soy milk and use another alternative milk, like almond, coconut or hemp. Unfermented soy has estrogen qualities that make me leery.

At ten months, they are probably more than ready for table food. Try looking into baby-led weaning books. The basic premise is to skip the baby foods and go straight to (appropriate) table foods. It would probably have some good ideas. There is also a flashcard thing called 'boddler bites' with alphabetized suggestions of baby/toddler appropriate food. Also there's group I follow on FB called 'weelicious' that has lots of pictures and suggestions for fun and healthy kid food.

 

There is so much to consider in your situation because of the risk to your dairy allergy child so I can understand how this must be difficult for you that your babies aren't taking to the soy formula. I'm sure you are aware of the balance of the nutrition they need if they are moving on to rice milk this early, as you would have gone through this with your older child but perhaps it would still be worth speaking to your paediatrician or a nutritionist about this as there are many options.

My girls are already eating what we eat. As they are in bed by 5.30pm, I usually put aside a little of what we've eaten the night before and give it a quick spin in the processor the next day for lunch. Things they've eaten are spaghetti bolognese, roast chicken with cauliflower cheese, stir-fry vegetables, cottage pie, baked salmon... For meat free days we have chickpeas, beans and quinoa, polenta instead of rice/pasta. But I also keep in the freezer, chopped sweet potato to mix with pea, zucchini, parsnip and or carrot and pumpkin as well as different fruit puree. I also make mini-muffins (gluten, dairy and egg free pre-mixed) which they have after lunch. For snacks they have rice cakes, corn crispbread, dried fruit (no sulphur) and of course they have plenty of fresh fruit, apple cut in quarters and peeled, grapes quartered, mandarins peeled, banana... there is so much more... a good site I go to for ideas is Wholesome Baby Food Guide by Maggie Meade (she also has a fan page on FB)....

And these are some links which I thought you might be interested in...

Milk for Toddlers

Replacing Milk with Soy

 

A dairy allergy was not an issue with my twins, so dairy was included in our diet. But they ate what we ate. Breakfast would usually be a cereal with no milk (at that time they liked cereal dry), cut up toast, some eggs, cut up waffles, pancakes. Lunch would be cut up sandwiches, vegetables, fruit. One of their favorites was a little recipe posted by a TS member: cut up apples steamed in the microwave with some cinnamon, they loved that at one. You can add a little sugar if you wanted, but it's not necessary.
I also found that it helps to keep in mind the serving sizes at that age, when I would think my two were not eating enough (and at one, they were in the 3rd and 5th percentile for weight, so our pedi did want us to put weight on them), I would remember a serving size is a tbsp for each year.

 

I also meant to add that my brother had a dairy intolerance as a baby and my mum gave him goat's milk, cheese and yoghurt which I love! And one of my friends always has rice milk (borderline vegan) and she gave it to both her kids instead of cows milk although they're pretty anemic looking (PS I saw that in my earlier post I wrote rice instead of soy - sorry about that, hubby talking to me while I'm typing!)

Nancy, we put either cinnamon or nutmeg on our pears and apples too! It's a great hit! I bake mine in the oven, the house smells so yummy! Looking for some new ideas, what did you put in their sandwiches? I've been thinking of trying this but haven't really got to it yet. And goodness I knew my babies were big eaters! They eat about 2-3tb at each meal plus their fruit plus a healthy treat AND their 4 bottles/day - I'm dreading them dropping the bottles, what more can I feed them!