Is he getting enough protein?

[handstand79]

DS2 is 21months and I'm a bit concerned about whether he is getting enough protein. He is following the 2nd to 9th centile for his weight so I know he is eating enough calories, but I am a bit concerned about the foods he eats. He will ate porridge, weetabix, shreddies, rice krispies, corn flakes, raisin wheats, cherrios, shreddies, toasted tea cake, toasted fruit bread, crumpets, yogurt, grapes, apples, satsumas, blueberries, banana, peach, nectarine, pear, plum, raspberries, strawberries, pineapple, raisins, dried apricots, bread sticks, crackers, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, peas sweetcorn, baked beans, pasta, rice, naan bread, tortilla, homemade pizza, cheese and tomato flatbread, Yorkshire pudding and green beans. He will not touch any kind of meat (o eat veg if cooked in a casserole with meat) , eggs, cheese (unless on pizza or flatbread), quorn, potato, toast, sliced bread. Is this a balanced enough diet or should I ask the health visitor if we can see a dietician? He doesn't seem to be having enough protein to me, or calcium, although he has milk on cereal and still has two breast feeds a day. As you can probably tell from the food list, breakfast is no problem, he has loads, and snacks are ok too, but lunch and dinner are a nightmare. He either has baked beans or crackers with butter for lunch with yogurt and loads of fruit and at dinner time he usually just eats the rice, pasta and veg. I am not stressed by it at mealtimes and we don't make a big deal of it. He is offered what we are all having and left to his own devices. DH does try to sneak meat in with a loaded spoon sometimes but he spits it straight out and starts crying. We don't really eat much vegetarian food, but I guess I ought to try to find some more pulse based recipes to try. Does anyone have any recommendations?

[FestiveTidings]

From your list, I would say that he gets enough protien from yogurts and dairy. Ok, milk has to be hidden and cheese has to be cooked but roo is the same.

I cant offer any suggestions on incorporating pulses other than flatbread with hummus or lentil and chorizo soup (leave chorizo in large chunks and remove before serving) but I'm hopeless at menu ideas.

I would keep offering the meat, even if it's just one peice on his plate. One day he will fancy it. Roo went through a vegetarian phase (much to his carnivore dad's horror) at about 12 months. He started eating meat properly about 14 months.

[PerpetualMadness]

Adding more pulses would be good and since he eats baked beans, it's worth a try. You can substitute lentils for meat in most recipes. This 'cottage' pie is very tasty:

BBC Home > Food > Recipes
Lentil shepherd's pie with champ

by Sophie Dahl (adapted to reflect what I did!)
from The Delicious Miss Dahl
Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 50 mins + 30 mins
Serves 4

Method
Quick recipe finder
Ingredients
For the champ topping
- 1 kg (pref. floury) potatoes, peeled, chopped
- knob of butter
- 25ml/1fl oz milk
- garlic paste
- 75g/3oz mature cheddar, broken into chunks

For the lentil mixture
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped (garlic paste
- 4 small carrots, peeled, chopped into small pieces
- 2 celery stalk, trimmed, chopped into small pieces
- 400g/14oz canned chopped tomatoes
- splash Worcestershire sauce 
- few drops Tabasco
- pinch paprika
- 1 fresh bay leaf
- 1 l chicken stock (knorr stockpot x 1)
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- splash balsamic vinegar
- 200 g dry Puy lentils
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C
2. For the champ topping, heat a pan of salted water, add the potatoes and bring gently to the boil, then simmer until the potatoes are cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, for the lentil mixture, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and gently fry the chopped onion, garlic, carrots and celery for 5-10 minutes, until softened.
4. Add the remaining lentil mixture ingredients except for the lentils and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
5. Stir the lentils into the tomato sauce.
6. Bring lentils to the boil. Boil for 10 mind uncovered then cover and simmer for 40 mins.
7. When the potatoes for the champ topping are done, drain, add the garlic, butter and milk and mash.
8. Spoon the lentil mixture into a medium pie dish and top with the champ. Scatter over the cheese.
9. Place the dish onto a baking sheet and bake the pie for 30 minutes, or until the potato is golden-brown.

While he eat peanut butter?

[ches]

I read recently that rice has exactly as much protein we need and that we are basically protein junkies because meat is yum.

I would try offering the foods you want him to eat at breakfast. It could be a time of day thing rather than a type of food thing.

[handstand79]

Thanks for your replies. I'm going to try that recipe PM. That's really interesting about the amount of protein in rice ches, I always just thought of it as a carbohydrate! He will eat LOADS of rice so that's good! I've tried him with the new Heinz 5 pulse baked beans which he absolutely loves. He'll eat a whole can at lunch! But it seems posting on here has made him magically try meat! This week for the first time ever he has tried of his own accord steak strips, homemade beef burger, pork steak strips, gammon steak and fried egg. Fingers crossed it continues!

[ches]

Rice has very little protein! It's just that we don't need much protein, but a combination of the meat producer lobby and dieters preferring protein because it's digested mostly in our stomachs and makes us feel full longer, means people have this notion that we need a lot of it. http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cer ... sta/5716/2