Almost 12 months, throws food, wont eat 3meals?

[Eva's Mummy]

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 

[anna*]

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.

[jessmum46]

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.

[Eva's Mummy]

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?

[anna*]

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.

[jessmum46]

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

[Eva's Mummy]

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?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

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!

[Eva's Mummy]

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?

[anna*]

I'd do it together.

[Eva's Mummy]

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.

[anna*]

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.

[Eva's Mummy]

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

[anna*]

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.

[Eva's Mummy]

Brilliant thank you very much, i will try tomorrow and see how we get on