What My 9-Month-Old Eats in a Day (For Meal Inspiration and Encouragement)

I typically do not endorse “What I Eat in a Day” videos or content.

I’m certain that the vast majority of the people consuming it have disordered eating and are watching to compare, copy, or covet. And I don’t want to contribute to that.

However.

I have been wanting to share an example of what I feed my 9-month-old baby in a day (and what he actually eats of it!) to provide other mommas with some fun meal ideas, inspiration, and solidarity; I, too, am spending a large chunk of waking hours nursing, prepping food, sitting next to Theo while he eats, and cleaning the messes. It’s just a season, but it’s a daily part of life for a mother and that won’t end. So we might as well make it fun, hey?

I really enjoy cooking for my child, and I hope you can find some ways to enjoy it too. Maybe I’ll write a post on this as well!

Without further ado, here is what my 9-month-old ate one day last week! All recipes mentioned are included at the bottom of this post.

We always start the day with a good nursing session. Theo is still up in the night these days, at least once. Lately he will have a “dream feed” around 10pm and then sleep until 5am or so, where he’ll wake up ready for more milk. Then he’ll go back down for a couple more hours, and we’ll start the day between 7-7:30am with a full milk feed.

About an hour later, so 8-8:30am, we’ll have breakfast.

This day, we had peanut butter banana muffins with raspberries and steamed edamame.

I try to offer a vegetable at every meal, including breakfast! This helps to include both a sweet and savoury option, introduce Theo’s palate to more tastes and textures, and hopefully limit pickiness down the road.

We’ll have some play time then before Theo’s morning nap. I usually start his wind-down routine around 10am (which includes sound machine, sleep sack, books, song, in the crib drowsy) and he’ll sleep until 11 or 11:30am. More often than not, he will need milk before this nap as well, around 9:30, or I’ll end up nursing him to sleep because he wouldn’t take any at 9:30 ;).

If he didn’t have any milk before his nap, he’ll wake up hungry for milk at 11. If he did, he’ll often sleep longer.

Either way, he’s ready for lunch around noon. This day, he had sweet potato hummus and another muffin.

By the time lunch is eaten and cleaned up, it’s close to 1pm and we’re back in our play corner. Then we’re winding down for afternoon nap around 2 or 2:30pm. I always nurse him at some point before this nap, whether it’s to fall asleep or sooner than that.

He will typically sleep until 3:30 or 4pm at this nap, which leaves a great wake window of 3.5 hours before a 7/7:30pm bedtime. When he’s up at 3:30/4pm, we will usually nurse and then have a small snack 30 minutes later. The snack will consist of a whole grain and a fruit or veggie typically. This day we had strawberries and some zucchini banana bread.

I still try to “cluster feed” if Theo will before bed, so I’ll feed him whatever milk he’ll take around 5:30 before a dinnertime meal around 6pm. This day for dinner, Theo had sauteed ground lamb with corn and pasta. After dinner and clean-up, it’s time for bedtime routine (bath, PJs, books, song, prayers, milk, bed) which includes a large milk feed before Theo’s down for the night. And again, he will typically wake around 10pm for a bit more milk and then 5am for an early morning feed before starting the day around 7am.

I want to emphasize again that this is a very rough schedule, but it’s fairly accurate to our days at home. I don’t allow nap schedules to keep us from living life, though, because that’s not good for me or Theo, nor what God calls us to. I do, however, believe that there are times that saying no to going out because of Theo’s naptime is valid, ie. if he hasn’t had good naps for a while, etc. It’s not fair for me to constantly take Theo on the go, especially if for selfish reasons. However, my weekly moms’ group, seeing friends/family, grocery shopping, dates with Johnny, helping others are all examples of great reasons for Theo to have a shorter nap or skewed schedule, and I am learning to go with that flow.

I didn’t expect to write that schedule rant in this post on Theo’s meals, but here we are!

Some great options for on-the-go snacks at this age are:

• Banana Pancakes (just 1 banana, 1/2 cup oats, pinch baking powder, pinch cinnamon, 1 Tbsp almond butter, 1/4 cup water, 1 Tbsp flaxseed, 1 Tbsp coconut oil blended up, cooked in a pan with coconut oil)
• Steamed fruits/veggies or raw where applicable (raw fruits like avocado, smashed berries, ripe peaches, etc. are soft enough for safe eating)
• Zucchini Banana Bread (recipe below)
• Organic Fruit/Veggie Pouches (I liked these for 6-8 months. .We’re starting to phase them out now.)

Almond Butter Banana Muffins

Ingredients

Coconut oil for greasing

1/2 cup pitted and chopped dates

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 cup cold water

1/4 cup almond butter

1 banana

1.5 cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a muffin tray with coconut oil.
2. Place the dates in a bowl and add the hot water. Mash it up until you have a paste.
3. Add the date mixture to a blender or food processor, along with the remaining ingredients. Blend until the batter comes together.
4. Fill the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until cooked through. Cool completely before serving to baby.

Zucchini Banana Bread

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs (or flax eggs)

2 cups oats

1/2 cup pitted dates

1/3 cup all-natural peanut butter

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups grated zucchini

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool completely before slicing and serving to baby.

Sweet Potato Hummus

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, scrubbed

1 can sodium-free drained and rinsed chickpeas

1/4 cup sunflower seed butter

3 Tbsp water

pinch of ground cumin

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Bake sweet potato in the oven until tender, about 45 minutes (check on it in 5-minute intervals after 40 minutes). Let cool, then remove the flesh and discard the skin.
2. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Let baby eat with his/her hands, or serve on a spoon or with something safe for dipping.

I hope you enjoyed this example of a day on Theo’s plate and maybe garnered some recipe inspiration!