“My baby is ALWAYS hungry!” This feeling is very common when you have a newborn baby, but what about when an “older” baby never seems to be full?
In this Q&A, a 10-month-old baby is “never” satified. Let’s take a look at what can or should be done.
Mom’s Question:
My 10-month-old baby is ALWAYS hungry. I introduced her to solid foods (cereal) at 5 months. She has always been a good eater. Now we are attempting to cut back on bottles and formula and increase solid foods. She has three meals and two / three snacks a day.
At a typical meal, she will drink an 8 oz bottle of formula, eat 4 oz of pureed veggies, 2 oz of pureed fruit or half of a banana, an oz of cooked turkey or chicken, and a handful of crackers. A snack usually consists of 4 oz of diluted juice or water, 1/4 diced fruit, cereal bar, and a handful of dried cereal.
Even with all of that she just never seems satisfied. She is not overweight, 50% percentile for weight, and 90% height.
Any recommendations, something I am missing?
Holly
Filling Solid Foods For Hungry Baby
How great that your daughter is such a good eater! You seem to be giving her plenty of healthy solid foods.
A question; What is she having for breakfast? Many older babies need both formula and maybe an hour later, some baby porridge for example mixed with fruit purées and even some crackers.
Another thing; from what you describe in your question, it seems like your baby’s food is very low on fat. In addition to being filling, healthy fat is important for brain development, so try to add more fat to your baby’s food.
I have also noticed with my babies that they need a more filling snack in the afternoon than in the morning to remain satisfied until the evening meal.
Other than that, the only thing you might be “missing” is that babies (just as adults) have very different appetites. Some just seem to need more food; they might be more active, have a growth spurt, or just need it anyway.
Since your daughter is certainly not overweight, why not simply increase the amount of food you give her? As long as you give her healthy foods, I can’t see that it could do any harm – rather the opposite!
You can also feed her more often since babies have tiny tummies and need to eat a lot more often than we do. You can check out this baby feeding schedule, that I’ve used for my children. It worked really well until they were well over 1 year old.
Also, many moms are sharing their feeding schedules for their 10-month-old babies here.
I hope this helps,
Paula
Paula Dennholt founded Easy Baby Life in 2006 and has been a passionate parenting and pregnancy writer since then. Her parenting approach and writing are based on studies in cognitive-behavioral models and therapy for children and her experience as a mother and stepmother. Life as a parent has convinced her of how crucial it is to put relationships before rules. She strongly believes in positive parenting and a science-based approach.
Paula cooperates with a team of pediatricians who assist in reviewing and writing articles.
