12 Month Old Suddenly Refusing Dinner

[clarym]

I've been working over the past couple of months on getting my daughter onto a "normal" eating schedule, slowly moving her from eating every two hours to "my" schedule.  The timeline below began earlier this week:

7:00am 6 oz formula
9:00am 6oz solids and 2 oz formula
1:00pm 6oz solids and 2 oz formula
3:00pm Snack and Water
5:30pm 6oz solids and 4 oz formula  <--- Trouble Spot
7:00pm 4oz formula
7:30pm Bed

She eats ravenously all day long, that is until the 5:30pm feeding at which time she refuses solids, drinks only part of her formula and fusses the entire time I'm trying to feed her.  The prior week her schedule looked like this:

7:00am 6oz formula
8:30am 6oz solids
10:30am 3oz formula
1:00pm 6oz solids
3:00pm 3oz formula
5:00pm 6oz solids
6:30pm 4oz formula
7:00pm 4oz formula
7:30pm Bed

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?  One other tidbit, she is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight.

[Seona1973]

You seem to offer a lot of formula feeds - by that age both dd and ds were down to 2 milk feeds and had snacks and water instead of daytime milk feeds.  I also offered water with meals as opposed to formula so our day was like this:

7am - milk
8am - breakfast
10.30am - snack and water
12pm - lunch
2.30/3pm - snack and water
5pm - dinner
7.15 - milk

 

[LizzieN]

Agree with pp, was just wondering if you give finger food for the dinner.  My LO has just started getting fussy too (partly teeth as well), but is much happier if it's finger food and I'm not feeding him   I would also just offer water with all solid feeds

[clarym]

Thank you.  Yes, I've been feeding her at dinner vs finger foods.  I will try that option next.  As for giving her milk only in the morning and night, I'm open to trying that as well if I could get her to drink water during snack time but she doesn't really go for that.  Puts up a fuss and throws her sippy or bottle around.  She needs her fluids which is why I've stayed with milk.  Suggestions on how to get her to start taking water?  I'm trying to stay away from juice if possible.  Perhaps watered-down juice or a Pedialyte/water mixture?

[LizzieN]

Perhaps you could try water in a different cup as she is now used to milk in the sippy and would get an unpleasant surprise when it wasn't what she expected.  I just put a small amount of water in a mug with a handle for my LO, he loves drinking and tipping it everywhere....I doubt she doesn't like water (and I would stay away from juice for now too, especially until she really takes to the water).. I would tell her how exciting it is to have a big girl cup (get her a nice bright one) and really really praise her for all her efforts (try not to laugh if she tips it all over herself because she will keep doing it)....

If you are worried she might not have had enough fluids as she is learning, increase her evening (before bed) bottle a little....if she needs it she will drink it, if not you know she is ok

Good luck

[AshleyB]

I think what you're describing is normal for her age, from what I've been told here lately. I also give my LO 8 oz formula/milk feeds in the morning and before bed. She also gets a mid-afternoon bottle with cookies as a snack. However, we only give her water with solids. My LO also doesn't seem to interested in the water in a sippy cup, but she will drink it out of a bottle. We just keep giving it to her because eventually she's going to have to figure it out. She also like drinking water right out of a cup with no lid with  my assistance. We have issues with dehydration, too, which is the only reason she's still getting the afternoon bottle. Once she figures out how to drink from a cup, we'll drop it.

Also, my LO is also sometimes refusing food at dinner. I don't really know why, but I don't worry too much about it since she's at a good weight.