Almost 1 year old doesn't wanna eat meals anymore

DubDani

Our daughter will be 1 next week, and so far she has been a great eater. She literally has eaten everything until a few days ago.

Since then she more or less refuses any solids that we try to feed her, except the stuff she really likes AND can feed herself. Currently she just takes:

- loads of fresh milk
- Bananas
- Pears
- Cheese
- Brown Bread (only one specific brand and that always and as much as you give her)
- Dry Rice
- Milk Rice

But as soon as you try to feed her any "proper" meals she will just refuse to even take the sppon or spit it quickly out again.

Do all kids around that age have such a phase? Beside that she is in a great mood, walking all day and up up to all kind of mischief.

We just would like to make sure that she eats properly again. Yesterday the wife tried to make little portions, put them in breadcrumbs and fried them, but she even refused them outright.

Cheers,
DubDani

crazy cat lady

Megan has had the sniffles quite bad the past week or so and hasn't been eating great. And now that she's on the mend she's beng a bit of a scamp and meal times still.

She doesn't really take much in he way of finger food, a bit of bead and cheese is all really. I know I should be encouraging her to eat more herself but its so convenient shovelling her dinner into her!

We're just going with what she wants at the minute. They're still babies and will eat if they are hungry and will stop eating when they are full.

Just perseverance I guess!

cynder

Must say all kids go through different phases, at different times. Seems like you have a very independent baba. good luck you will need it when she is a teen

CK2010

my girl went through a phase when she was around two (she has digestive problems to begin with so that didnt help!) when she wouldnt eat anything i called 'dinner'! eventually dinner had to be called food/snack! regardless of what it was, if i called it dinner she wouldnt eat it! dont know why!

i think all kids just need to get used to food/eating habits, its all new to them so they want to push boundaries and make their own decisions at times. she might just prefer finger food atm as it gives her a bit of control.

nothing to worry about. your little one is still quite young so it may just be an appetite issue, maybe she might be coming down with a cold.

you could also try waiting til her dinner is cold so she can use her hands if it gets the food into her then dont worry about her eating properly, theres time for that once shes a bit older. sounds like shes not suffering from hunger so just go along with her for now!

Vel

We've been going through something similar with our 21 month old son for the past few months. He went from being willing to try everything, to refusing more and more things until all he would eat was pasta and mince with a tomato based sauce, toast, grapes and apple.

We happened to be at the doctor with our younger daughter and mentioned it and the doctor said its very normal for this to happen. She suggested that rather than get into 'battles' with them, just feed them what you know they will eat until you begin to gradually re-introduce other things.

Gradually, I started to try him out with different things. At the beginning I would get very stressed when he refused and I'm sure he picked up on it. So, I began not to make a big deal, just took it away and walked away myself.

I began to notice that the more attention I gave him, the more he would play up, so a few weeks ago I made some fish and mashed potatoes and put them down in front of him. He started to freak out straight away so I walked away but kept looking over. When he could see me looking he was moaning and pushing it away but when I turned away fully and watched him through the glass, he started to eat it when he thought I wasn't looking.

So, I've realised that if I left him to eat, pretended to do other things but kept a sly eye on him without him realising he would eat it. Just this week, he has eaten things for me without me having to pretend I'm dong something else and I can sit there with him and interact during the meal. He will still turn his nose up at some things but he will now try most things I put in front of him and has happily eaten a few things he was refusing a few weeks ago.

This wasn't an overnight thing and we went through a bit of stress worrying that he wasn't getting a balanced diet but if you can stick with her I think she will eventually turn a corner.

limerick_lady

OP - at least what your daughter is eating is actually very balanced and healthy! I know it's easier for you (in restaurants etc) if she ate everything but at least you don't need to worry about her getting the right nutrients! She's doing pretty well on the food pyramid if you look into it!

I agree with the previous poster's advice of not drawing attention to it, but I know with a 14month old, that's not practical at the moment for you! Our wee lad started to refuse food recently, we'd feed him the first few spoons of something then he'd start shaking his head at us, or batting away our hand. Then we tried giving him his own spoon, and amazingly it worked!!

He was trying to get more independence but letting him feed himself all the time is impractical and time consuming! This is a half-way house, he feels like he's doing stuff - we let him dip his spoon into the bowl/tub every so often, he guides it to his mouth and is delighted with his achievement! In this time, we've prob fed him another 3 spoons of it ourselves but he's so distracted by his own task that he's stopped fighting with us!

It's worth a try!!

Lorri_L

My son is 13 months and is the same. He just started refusing to eat anything I tried to feed him, especially by spoon.
You need to remember that their eating is one of the few things children this age can control so they are going to push the boundaries and test you, you just need to find a way to take the control back.
My way of doing this was giving him food he loves for breakfast and lunch such as toast, bananas and ham/cheese sandwiches. For dinner he was refusing to eat any "real" meals so I introduced a dessert afterwards. Now when he eats his dinner he gets a liga when its all gone. He still wont let me spoon feed him but will eat anything with his hands. Including bolognese and stew. It can get messy but I dont care once he eats.

BengaLover

Dont make an issue out of it - if she senses its important to you she could very well play on it, food is power to a lot of kids.
DO, however, keep up the ritual of setting the table and making her sit at mealtimes regularly, this routine is an important factor in getting kids to eat meals.
If food isnt eaten, take it away after a reasonable amount of time, but dont offer substitutes once she has left the table/highchair.

LashingLady

My fella started to do this when he was around 10 months. Like the others he just didnt' want to be fed mush on a spoon. So I changed his dinners to more finger friendly foods. I baked a couple of chicken breasts and then chopped them into toddler size portions and froze them individually wrapped in tinfoil. I just had to take one out every night nad put in the fridge to defrost, then I would cook him a baby boiled potato and a handful of frozen veg and he could eat it all with his hands and no less mess! He definitely ate more when he was feeidng himself.