Toddler Feeding Struggles

[*Jo*]

Wendy - we have an issue with cramming food into the mouht so we just put a small amount of food on his tray, he crams it in, we wait till hes finished and put the next lot in.
with throwing the food to the floor I say to him "if you dont want that then put it in Mummys hand" and he does, this does often result in the whole meal being in my hand but ive learnt that if it looks that way then i just take the whole plate away as i see he is done and I say "ok, I can see you dont want any of that now, Mumma will take it away and you can get down fromthe table"
If he throws it on the floor i say "No, put it in my hand, not on the floor" if he continues to throw on the floor i remove the plate out of reach and try to feed him myself, if thats a no go then its dinnertime over.
We arent getting much eating done wiht him at the moment as hes also doing the whole "I dont want a spoon but i cant use one yet either" however i was brave this morning and got three more mouthfuls of oats into him by letting him "try" and feed himself wiht the spoon, before he decided to start throwing it around, i decided he had eaten enough so i didnt bother wiht any other techniques and just tookhim down fr4om the table

[Tweakster]

Thanks gals.  Ok I got a couple of new ones:

1) Dip - so I introduced more dips as a way of getting him to eat veg, what does he do tonight, he sucks all the tzatziki off the veg and spits the veg out.  Then he starts to grab the dip off the tray and he's then just eating dip on its own lol.  DOH!  Should I even bother worrying about it? 

2)  Hunger - when we pick him up from daycare he is starving.  It's a short ride, less than 2 mins, so we don't want to bring snacks.  But the minute we are in the door he is going ballistic.  I have tried giving him a cup of milk, he throws it.  I have tried to give him snacks like rice cakes, or whatever to tide him over, tonight he just threw them and screamed at me.  I picked him up because I thought something else might be wrong, he has finally started pointing (gee did I say I wish he would start pointing lol??) and kept pointing at the table.  I need to get his dinner ready, even the quickest dinner takes some time to prepare!  Do I ignore him?  Should I put the pack n play up and sit him in that so he will stop hanging off my pant leg and I can get the food ready?  And even after all that fuss, he eats like a bird and then wants down.

[*Jo*]

can you put him in his highchair and put it in the kitchen while you make dinner and show him what you are doing? we have a chair that attaches to the bench so Caleb sits on one side of it and i prepare dinner on the other side, i give him a small bit of whatever i have (breadcrumbs, flour etc) so he feels involved in it and i rush as quickly as i can. other than that can you make extra one night and put some in the fridge/freezer and heat it up quickly for him for the next night, so that its not every night he is waiting?

[*Liz*]

1) Dips and veg - no don't wory at all - just keep doing it in the vague hope that one day he will eat the veg as well as the dip. And hey - the dip is still nutritious anyway  .

2) Personally I would give a snack in the car to stabilize his blood sugar and keep him calm enough while you get a proper tea ready. J tends to eat terribly if he is starving as behavioural nonsense takes over  but I just make sure it is not filling and very bland so as to not ruin his tea iyswim? So either a bit of fruit or a breadstick or a rice cake. If he is hungry he can eat it and if he isn't hingry enough towant it then he can wait for his tea IMO. We are having some issues with late snacks ruining tea but withholding doesn't help either so I am currently ironing this one out myself  .