Sorry I actually disagree about distraction being a bad thing as does our OT. We have found with our LO he is just so darn interested in his surroundings and has been since day one that if he isn't literally starving for food he will only eat about 2 to 3 bites and then will start dropping food off the tray etc. he's not food he just wants to get down and go back to playing. He knows it's annoying and for a while I'd get frustrated but then I went to an OT. I think it honestly just depends on your lo's age etc. Distracting a 5yr old who is completely capable of eating on their own with or without distraction is just plain silly you give them a meal if they don't eat it then so be it. (obviously that's simplified for a completely healthy kid who eats normally most of the time but is being a pain). But I took my lo to an OT because he would barely eat anything even though he seemed hungry all the time. It turned out I was offering too much variety and too much quantity. What we do now is offer 3 different finger foods he gets a little on his tray and the rest stays on my plate. One I know he'll eat one he likes but may not eat and then something new or something he hasn't liked in the past or just another safer food. He'll eat the one he likes most then get bored. So then I'll give him a spoon and bowl to play with and I'll use my fingers to feed him or a spoon myself and give him the other 2 things. After a bit he'll get tired of that and I'll give him a cup to play with or some other utensil or plate.
The key is according to our OT to not get shiny, lighted sounding toys/tv to distract him but things he'll use later on, cups, bowls, spoons, paper plates things like that. We do sing silly songs and try to make dinner fun, but we're all seated at the table. No one is dancing around etc. We don't do airplane etc because it didn't work anyway.
He'll tell me he's done by clamping his mouth shut and shaking his head or pushing the spoon away. When that happens I know he's full and we never force him. But before that the rest is just him wanting to do what he can to get down and go back to playing.
As other people have stated their appetites change from day to day due to no reason at all, or teething, being OT etc. Also you are in prime spoon refusal stage. From about month 8 to 9 we had a heck of a time he refused all spoons, all puree and with a texture issue wouldn't take finger foods. It was quite the trial and error, one of the reasons we went to the OT.
Just by 2 cents. HTH
