Transitioning from " food is fun b4 1" to after 1

My twins are 11.5 months and are eating primarily finger foods 3x a day. I think they don't eat very much and suspect that between the 2 of them they are eating for one child.
I'm not too worried as I believe food is fun before one and to offer a variety of food. But they will be one soon and so what to I do differently?
Right now DS gets 4 bottles of 210 ml a day and DD gets 3 bottles of 180 ml plus a bottle of 240 ml and middle of the night bottle of 90 ml.
Am I suppose to drop a bottle? I will be introducing cows milk too.
For solids DD may eat 1 tbl rice cereal plus 5 pcs of banana and 30 ml of prunes. DS eats a bit more banana and that's it. Lunch is veggies and cheese which DS eats much much more than DD and dinner is a quarter chicken thigh for both plus yams and veggies and cheese. DD eats very little of this meal but sometimes will eat more.

I'm also concerned about DS eating habits. I put food on his tray and he just scoops and puts in his mouth and doesn't really chew. There's often whole peas in his diapers and he's thrown up chunks of peaches he didn't chew. How do you encourage chewing? Less solids and more purees? Chop up solids into tinier pcs?

 

You should be dropping bottles. We were down to 2 by 11.5 months, and we dropped those right at and right after 1. Then start giving them whole milk. They don't need a ton of calories and slowly transition to eating more.

 

We had moved to one bottle before one and just have them milk in their sippy cups with breakfast and lunch. Trust your kids, they will eat. Somedays, my boys would eat like pigs; other days, hardly anything. As far as chewing, that will come. My boys still have whole peas/corn; mostly though, they learned chewing quickly.

 

I would start serving a variety of flavors and textures and slowly drop the bottles/start with a cup of milk. My boys weren't picky but my daughter is- the one thing she likes consistently is Mexican and Indian food.

 

Thanks everyone. I will move to cows milk and then start dropping bottles.

 

One of my favorite milestones. No more bottles!!

 

I think you have gotten good advice and have a good plan to reduce milk.
 
I agree that kids eat different amounts all the time.  One of the challenges of preparing food is 'who knows' how much they will eat!  Dinner has never been a big meal for my kids.  (We do our dinner foods at lunch since that is when they are more ready to eat.)  
Remember, their stomachs are the size of their fists..

^^ that sounds about right.
 
 
Trust your kids to eat what they need.  One of the best things i read when looking into 'Baby Lead Weaning' was about a study were they offered variety of foods to a group of babies.  some self-fed others were spoon fed, but they all had the choice to eat what they wanted.  They documented what they ate but did not encourage one food over another.  At the end of the time period (a month i think), they analyzed what they had eaten.  ALL the babies had a balanced diet, including the one who would eat only one food for days at a time.
I decided my job is to keep sweets away from them (since obviously, there is nothing nutritious there), offer a balanced diet, and trust them.
 
Sounds like what you are doing is exactly right.
If you are worried that they aren't eating enough get a scale and monitor their weight.  Try not to 'push' them to eat more than they want.  In my experience that has the opposite effect.  Unless their Dr is concerned about their wts, provide the food and let it be their job to eat.  

 

Bringing this thread back because I have a related question.  My girls are turning 1 this week (!) and are eating 3 meals of table food plus 4 bottles per day.  It's time to switch the bottles for cups.  They are super fussy with the bottle lately, the same way that they had been every time we had to move up a level in the nipple because the flow wasn't fast enough.  We're already on the fastest flow nipple though, so clearly they need to go to cups instead!  They are good at drinking from a straw cup.
 
My question is about the logistics of this.  How do I "drop" a bottle?  They will drink milk from a cup but never more than a few sips.  Right now they're still getting about 26-28oz of milk per day (mix of breastmilk and formula).  We don't give bottles the same time of day as solids.  Do we just offer a cup when it would normally be time for their bottle?  Or do we try to give cups with solids and stretch the between-meal time with a solid food snack?  What do I do if they won't drink the same volume from cups that they have been from bottles?  They already get constipated easily so I really need to make sure they get enough fluids.

 

Well my girls are 11 months and we are preparing for this same situation. They drink from cups but still have their four bottles a day. Yesterday I opened a bottle set from their babyshower that was a different style then they are used to and they totally refused it. It was the weirdest thing so I have a feeling transitioning from bottles to soley cups is going to be difficult. The way I did it with both my older boys when they were transitioning is one night after they went to sleep, I got rid of all their bottles and replaced them with sippys. They both were confused but after a short temper tantrum, they accepted that's the only way they were going to get their milk. Hopefully it goes as smooth with my girlies. I don't know of any other way. I know the more u give in to them the more they know they can get their way which makes it harer on us parents.

 

I remember the first time I put milk in a straw cup for my kids instead of just water.  They each took one drink, looked very confused, and refused to drink even one more sip.  I was so worried that they wouldn't drink milk that way ever.  BUT, they actually took to it quickly once they realized that milk could come in that cup, too, instead of just water.  For awhile, I "warned" them each time it was milk so that they would know
 
I first dropped them to three bottles a day. Then, I swapped out one bottle for sippy with lunch.  Then I swapped out the next one (morning), and finally the last one (night time).  It actually was easy once they got over the initial confusion.
 
ETA: Once we had no bottles, I added a small morning snack and a small afternoon snack, too.  Usually fruit, yogurt, cheese, or crackers - something easy and simple.