BabyWhispererForums.com
EAT => Feeding Solid Food => Topic started by: Eva's Mummy on August 06, 2013, 12:25:32 pm
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My LO used to me a great eater now she is awful. It is hit and miss every day if she will eat 3 meals, what she will eat and how much she will eat. She used to eat everything now i am srtuggling to get her to eat a variety. I have been getting great advice from creations on an old thread but she is not getting any better. I feel i am miking her 3 or 4 different things for every meal just to see if she will eat something and most of it get thrown on the floor, or should i say everything gets thrown in the floor or spat out is the new thing. Its driving me crazy :o
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Their appetite drops a lot around one year old. Don't offer tons of alternatives, just make a meal which includes something you think she'll eat. If she doesn't eat, no worries. She'll eat at the next meal, or tomorrow. They do go through a phase where it seems like they can live on thin air.
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Agree with Anna - even now we have a good breakfast and lunch but tea is always a hit and miss affair. Around 1 year we had a lot of food refusal and throwing. I did as Anna suggested and made something for her to eat that included something I knew she'd try (for us, cereal, raisins and cheese are fail-safes). If she pushed it away or started throwing it, I'd give her one or two chances then tell her calmly 'it looks like you've finished if you are throwing your food' and take it away. I'd then offer the dessert (yoghurt, fruit) that I would have offered anyway but nothing else. Some meals she ate really well, others she barely ate a thing. But they don't starve themselves, she will eat when she's hungry. It's not so much about what they eat in one day at this age, more what they have over the course of a week or so.
One other thing you could think about - how much milk is she having at the moment? As she's nearly 12m if she's having quite a lot of milk, you could consider cutting it down a bit to make her hungrier for 'proper' food.
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Thanks, Just like you Katherine she will always eat her cereal ans raisins. So should i offer cereal at luch aswell as breakfast? The annoying thing is if she doesn't eat well she will wake for a feed but if she has a good day she sleeps through. The thrwoing is driving me insane does that just pass on it's own?
She will be 1 next week as she still has 3 bottles, 5-6oz on WU, 8oz late afternoon and 8oz at BT is that too much?
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No, give proper meals, but include something you think she might eat. You want to give a varied diet, not give her the idea that she gets cereal at every meal! Don't feed her in the night, and I would definitely drop the afternoon bottle.
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Yeah I agree, I'd offer proper meals (sorry if that wasn't clear before). Also agree about dropping the afternoon bottle. At this age DD was having a morning and night BF only, and very shortly after 12m just a cup of milk morning and night of which she drank only a couple of oz each time (drinks more now). They don't need milk as a drink really from one year - main source of nutrition is real food and she can get all her calcium requirements from cheese, yoghurt etc as well as milk x
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OK I'll start with dropping the afternoon bottle and see if that helps with the eating. She loves spaghetti with a cheesy tomato sauce, should i offer this once a day and keep trying different things at the other meal. Or just keep offering a variety knowing if she doesn't eat it she will take a yogurt.
Also it is rare that she does get a NF now, but if she has had a particularly bad eating day i do giver her it if she wakes or she just wont go back to sleep. So you think i should stop doing this as well Very though it is just occasionally?
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I wouldn't feed in the night at all- problem is if she wakes with a full or mostly full tummy then it just carries over to the next day as she won't be properly hungry for breakfast.
I also wouldn't offer spaghetti every single day either as that could lead to her expecting it for lunch all time and refusing to try other things. Kids will not starve themselves, so if you keep offering she will eat when she is hungry. I'm big on allowing my kids to decide what and how much they want to eat of what I offer and if they dont want to eat, oh well!
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Ok i just need to bite the bullet and do it, i find it so hard not to think oh she must be starving and just give her something else. But i guess that is not helping matters. Should i drop the afternoon bottle and stop offering different things until she eats all in the one day or do 1 at a time?
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I'd do it together.
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Sorry hundreds of questions. But should i replace the bottle with a snack and if so what kind of thing and postion size would you class as a snack. I dont really do snacks at the moment but she definitly gets hungr late afternoon.
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Could you just do tea a wee bit early then? Seems to me if you want her to be eating her meals, you don't want to replace milk with a snack else you'll be in the same situation.
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I guess, but she in generally hungry by about 3, would that not be too early and she would still be hungry before BT.
Sorry for all the questions just want to get it straight in my head what iam going to do x
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Well then I'd give her a tiny little snack, maybe a few tiny cubes of cheese and a few raisins. Or a couple of apple slices, or two strawberries, or a couple of cucumber sticks. Enough to tide her over for an hour, but not enough to fill her up at all.
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Brilliant thank you very much, i will try tomorrow and see how we get on :D
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Well then I'd give her a tiny little snack, maybe a few tiny cubes of cheese and a few raisins. Or a couple of apple slices, or two strawberries, or a couple of cucumber sticks. Enough to tide her over for an hour, but not enough to fill her up at all.
I would do the same! Good luck!
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Just chipping in to say that my DD is exactly the same she is almost 11months and pretty much most food is spat out, esp veggies all of them. As soon as she realises the texture is different to meat she spits it out and it's driving me nut. I'm still giving puréed food to get veggies in her. It's really frustrating and I'm worried about her vitamins etc.
So I'm wishing you luck and following along in the hope I can get some ideas x
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Hun I really wouldn't resort to purees, I think it will be a rod for your own back. They do go through phases with food. We can't make them eat, our job is just to provide balanced, healthy meals. If you're worried about vitamins how about getting her some drops like Abidec?
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Just want to say I totally agree with the advicr you've been given, I think its very difficult when you have a baby whose always eaten well and then they don't, I was convinced little man needed more based on previous but he didn't and I found things greatly improved when I stopped focusing on it, offerred him a balanced diet (only made one meal but tried to make sure at each meal there was something that was a dead cert) but didn't worry if he didnt want it and stopped trying to force the issue with him (not saying you are doing this). In terms of throwing on the floor, we had this for ages... I used to say to him 'you don't have to eat it but it doesn't go on the floor' and if he continued then I took it as him saying he didn't want it and offered the rest of the meal or finished it there. I also would offer him a 'are you done?' With a sign when he looked like he was finished and messing around with his food, eventually he started pushing the plate away and signing 'done' instead of shouting at me and chucking food on the floor! Didn't happen over night though!
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brummum so when you say the food thrwoing lasted for "ages", how long exactly is that?
She is starting to so a bit better but still not great, my HV suggested going back to purree's but i said no chance, i havent spent 6 months weaning to start from the beginning again.
I think she is starting to want to feed herseld as she is trying to use her spoon more and more so maybe this has something to do with it?
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Oh def give her some more independence, it was a big thing for us at this age. Load up a spoon then put it on her plate for her to pick up and feed herself, try to have some finger foods in at least one meal etc
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Hi Katherine, OMG look at the size of J she is a big girl now and so beautiful :D
Well today she ate normal pasta spirals with a tomato sauce, she just picked it up so thats good. If she eats that kind of thing how much should i expect her to eat, it doesn't look like much but i guess its more filling for her. I was going to try the filled tortelini but i can't imagine she would eat more than 2 of them?
my new problem is when she is at the CM she is having 1 x 2.5hr nap but isn't hungry enough to eat lunch before it at 11:30 but if she takes it after she wakes its around 14:45 / 15:00 so she then wont eat her dinner. There is always something ???
I am also trying to get her onto cows milk but she is not having it.
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She's on formula at the moment isn't she? You can gradually 'dilute' her formula with cows milk to get her used to it - so start with 1oz cows milk and then the rest formula and gradually build up :)
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Yeah she is, i will start that tomorrow i tried all cow's milk and it was just point blank refused ;D
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Erm.... 3-4 months?! Could the cm split lunch, so yoghurt and fruit before nap, pasta after for example? I agree Katherine, gorgeous new avatar! I remember an episode of baby whisperer when she showed a mom the size of her toddlers stomach and it actually takes a lot less than you think to fill it up.
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Hi my LO had a similar phase at 12 months and agree with all of above! One thing I tried was giving LO a plastic fork he loves trying to stab pasta, or cheese, mini bits of pizza or cheese on toast etc and while he's occupied he's happy for a few spoonfuls to go in from me ;-)
Also I find if its something on my plate he really wants it...
I often do split lunch like today we had early WU and nap 11.15 so I gave him his lunch at 10.55 but a smaller amount and then he will have some of our lunch after his nap, normally I'd do fruit and yog and main food after but we have visitors arriving so I know he will be too occupied so swapped it today!
At 12 months mine was only having BT bottle and had swapped morning one for milk in a cup which took a week or 2 for him to like but now loves it cold from the fridge! In the night we only ever offer water and have done for months now or he wouldn't eat breaki x
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Yes that's the other thing with milk - you could just cold turkey cut out one bottle and offer cows milk in a cup at that time. If she has some fine, if she doesn't also fine. She doesn't need it so much from a nutritional point of view at this age. This is kind of what I did (although I was breastfeeding) and initially J took very little milk at all. I kind of just went with it and after a while, probably several weeks she started taking more and now will often have several oz.
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3-4 months :o, well i guess we are already 2 months in.
I think i will try the plastic fork as she is struggling to keep anything on the spoon but she is trying very hard. So today she took 1/2 formula, 1/2 cows milk so im just going to try it all cows milk again tomorrow.
When you were transitioning from the bottle to the sippy cup (i've been trying to get a straw cup with handles but cant find one anywhere), i see you said it took a couple of weeks, so did you just stop offering the bottle altogether and if he took it good and if not he went without or did you still offer the bottle at all?
So what would you offer for finger foods for a proper meal, she will eat snack things as finger foods but what would be classed and filling enough as finger foods for a full meal and if she wont eat it and just throws it should i keep trying to spoon food in or does this just defeat the purpose of giving her finger foods?
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Oops posted with you Katherine, that answers my question about the cup and bottle thanks x
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You could use pasta tubes/spirals, slices of omelette/frittata - might be worth having a look here for some ideas: BLW recipes Steamed/roast veg, strips of meat, pretty much anything that doesn't need a spoon to eat it with (like yoghurt/soup) could be an easy finger food :)
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Personally I'd get rid of daytime bottles it's less confusing then and if milks on offer in a cup then that's the only option, if it doesn't get drunk just compensate with a yoghurt etc!
All of suggested finger foods like Katherine said, we used cubes or cheese, broccoli florets, peas, sweetcorn, hard boiled eggs! Mine loves to to just grab a handful out of his bowl and smear it on his face while stuffing it in ;-)
I leave a spoon and fork on the tray with some finger foods and mine just picks and chooses...often the spoon gets launched onto the floor lol x
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We do our usual meals but of a consistency that he can pick up and shovel in! So fish pie, moroccan lamb mixed with mashed potatoe, risotto... Anything that isn't too wet. Macaroni cheese is a dead cert in this house and you can hide veg in there like carrot, parsnips, peas.
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Question what if they won't "shovel" it in. Ds is very picky about textures. At almost 15 months still refuses meat. Tried making a potato mash of sorts won't eat that. Also very light eater so its tough getting a lot into him. He feeds himself finger foods and I supplinent with puree pouches as he likes and will eat those.
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Yeah we are the same she doesn't really shovel anything in. Anything kind of mash consistency gets painted onto the high chair tray them smeared over her face and hair. I've tried strips of chicken but it gets sucked then thrown its so hard x
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Hi. I know this thread is a bit old but I just stopped by and saw this question which seem to related to op too
Ds is very picky about textures. At almost 15 months still refuses meat. Tried making a potato mash of sorts won't eat that.
The foods previously mentioned (fish pie etc) were also foods my DS would not have even contemplated eating, however I never considered him fussy because to me fussy is so limited that a balanced diet can't be achieved and mine actually eats lots of different things, but he is also sensitive to texture in foods.
He has never eaten mash potato, once he put one bit in his mouth and almost gagged. He has never eaten rice, again when he was feeling brave he tried it and gagged. cous cous - no it's grainy. spag bol - no it's got minced meat in it, ditto spag bol, ditto shepherds pie with the double no because it is topped with mash. Anything mashed is a no, anything grany is a no, anything mixed up is a no. But I don't think him fussy.
Food that are mixed up (eg spag bol or other pasta dishes, stew) I separate into little piles, yes it takes a bit of extra time, but he then eats all of one pile, all of the next, etc until it is all eaten (not the meat or fish), everything is chopped into manageable finger food size, so my stews went chunky as did pasta dishes, makes it easier for me to section it all into piles and easier for him to identify the food and pick it up (with fingers or fork), he likes to know what he is eating. Fair enough, so do I.
If our family meal involves mash I lift out a few boiled potatoes before the mashing takes place. I toss the boiled pots in butter or mint sauce. For a LONG time he would not eat potato at all, then not unless it was roasted or chips or baked wedges, but now he will eat boiled so long as there is a dressing. Not mash yet. But I am happy that I kept offering the boiled pots this way as eventually he ate them, new potatoes he likes and pot salad, so the food list grows but by bit.
If our family has something involving rice, say curry, I give him the main meal without rice, a small bowl of rice next to his plate (so it does not contaminate his plate) if he wishes to try it (he doesn't) and provide a different carb, naan bread, chapati or tortilla wrap.
Meat and fish he tried anything when he was 6 or 7 months then didn't want any for ever. I made lots of lentil or bean burgers/fritters good finger food, good for out and about lunches or snacks and he got his protein that way. I discovered he would eat shop bought fish fingers and sausages, not my preference but I wanted him to start somewhere. So if we ate fish he had fish finger and a tiny piece of real fish put on his plate which he never ate but looked at. Initially he refused my home made fish fingers but I eventually found a way to make them good enough and he then ate a variety of fish so long as they were perfect rectangles, crumbed and fried. It was a drag but it was worth it, over time he has learned the flavours and textures of real fish and he will now eat real fresh fish without any special cooking. I also learned that breakfast was a great time to try different foods. As we had low protein intake I made breakfast a protein meal (omelet or sausage) which he would eat at that time but not other time of the day, once he'd had his egg or sausage in the morning I didn't need to stress over whether or not he took fish or meat for lunch of dinner, it just didn't matter any more and made life easier.
At 2 and 2.5 I saw significant developments in what he would try to eat, esp fish, meat. So I suppose I wanted to say hang in there, keep offering and accept that they have their preferences esp for textures etc but if you keep moving forward they can still have a wide range of foods they love and a balanced diet.
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Anything mashed is a no, anything grany is a no, anything mixed up is a no. But I don't think him fussy.
Fussy I think at least for me is just a word I use to say meal times are not always enjoyable. :) He is extrememly picky in reagards to what he'll eat and he makes it known. He likes one thing one day, and then hates it the next. Hates something 15 times and the 16th time will like it but not the 17th time. This to me is fussy. He's not the type of kid who will eat what ever, whenever and shovel things in his mouth. To me that's non-fussy :)
As we had low protein intake I made breakfast a protein meal (omelet or sausage) which he would eat at that time but not other time of the day, once he'd had his egg or sausage in the morning I didn't need to stress over whether or not he took fish or meat for lunch of dinner, it just didn't matter any more and made life easier.
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This is a great idea. I learned is he much more apt to try new tings in the AM when he's not tired from a long day. So since he's low protein as well I do my egg or french toast/egg in the AM.