Fussy eater at 12 months

[Eva's Mummy]

I see people like that all the time and it does panic me, i would hate to be like that.

Ok so the plan is:

1) No more day bottle only morning (is she wants it) and BT
2) No more toddler meals, only feed her what we are eating
3) Always try to eat our meals together
4) If she doesn't eat her meal, dont give an alternative just carry on with the whatever i had planned to give her after it i.e fruit, yoghurt

Does that sound right?

I have a couple of questions.

1) If she doesn't eat lunch or dinner but seems hungry later, should i offer a small snack?
2) If she doesn't eat her meals but wakes during the night hungry should i give her a small bottle to see her through to breakfast?
3) Should i just stop the toddler meals altogether or offer occassionally until she is eating better?
4) Should we always sit at the table or is breakfast at the high chair with me ok?

Oh and i meant to ask, i always offer 2 proper hot meals a day, should i be doing this or does one not really need to be a proper hot meal?

[Khalam's Mama]

She  doesn't need 2 hot meals, a cold lunch would be fine. Or cold dinner. That sounds like a great plan. If she doesn't eat in the day I offer porridge but we eat dinner 5 ish so if she is eating and going to bed soon after I wouldn't offer something straight after. At this age it is unlikely she will wake hungry. Personally I wouldn't offer milk in the night as with mine this would become a habit. I would stop the toddler meals altogether. If you were eating breakfast with her I think it would be ok to not sit at the table.

[creations]

She  doesn't need 2 hot meals, a cold lunch would be fine. Or cold dinner.

I agree with the plan too, just wanted to add to this that not every meal needs to be fully balanced in the way we think of it for adults, for instance up to now mine would rarely eat any meat or fish at dinner, I still make it as the family meal but with full expectation that DS will only eat the vegetables and carbs.  Because I knew he was unlikely to eat the protein I would make protein for breakfast (egg or sausage or eggy bread) when I know he is far more willing to eat it, or I'd make a tuna mayo sandwich at lunch.  At your DDs age it is more helpful to look at the whole day or the week to get a balance of food groups and variety of nutrients rather than trying to include everything in every meal.

1) If she doesn't eat lunch or dinner but seems hungry later, should i offer a small snack?

I would prob serve her food on a separate dish and give her a small portion at a time so that there may be some left overs on the serving dish which can be put in the fridge. If she is hungry after lunch you could re-offer the saved portion rather than give snack foods like fruit or yoghurt, I know they are healthy but she could end up holding out for the snack if she thinks it's going to be tastier than her proper meal.  Again with dinner.  Mine actually did go through a phase of saying he was hungry just before going up for bath, I just got his saved dinner out and kindly told him if he was hungry he'd eat it, didn't allow any playing or chat whilst he ate it, just eat then up to bath, all very functional where as family meals are also sociable (and the way I ended that phase was the introduction of protein at breakfast to give him a more balanced diet).

[Eva's Mummy]

Ok so its starts today i'll let you know how it is going.AS for feeding during the night she always wakes at 5:30 and i give her the morning bottle then to try to get her back to sleep. I think that might be habit now, how did you break that habit?

[creations]

When you say 'try' to get her back to sleep, is she reliably going back to sleep?  Or do you more often end up getting up anyway?

Good luck for starting the new eating plan today.  It might take her a couple of days to get the idea of what's happening and begin to eat more solids rather than having the milk back up. Try to stay calm and relaxed about the whole thing so she doesn't pick up your anxiety.  LOs have many periods where they eat almost nothing for several days (like when teething) and then do some catch up eating, so a few days of not very much isn't going to cause harm, she won't starve herself, she'll just catch up when she's ready.  Remember we can offer a balanced diet but we can't force them to eat, they do that part.
hugs x

[Eva's Mummy]

The last 2 days she has not gone back to sleep but more often than not she will go back to sleep until around 7.

Today was a mess, she refused breakfast then went to the CM where she refused lunch so the CM gave her fruit all day. She hs just had a nice dinner with me though and is still hungry so we will see.

[anna*]

Just wanted to add that it's perfectly normal for them to only eat well at one meal. A good dinner is great, even if she's eaten nothing much else all day.

[Eva's Mummy]

Really, i stress so much about that 

[Khalam's Mama]

Neither of mine eat well for 3 meals in one day on any regular basis. One good meal is fine for us.
We do sometimes reoffer dinner if it is hardly touched later too.

[creations]

The last 2 days she has not gone back to sleep but more often than not she will go back to sleep until around 7.

Maybe wait a little while longer and see what happens. If she continues to go back to sleep until 7 I'd do a gradual wean to keep the sleep habit (just dropping an oz and offer a second bottle of water if needed then give her milk at 7am to make up for it, in effect moving the milk to proper WU time rather than a habitual night feed).

Sounds like today was a success if she enjoyed dinner!

Could you perhaps make up a batch of pancakes or bean burgers to shove in the freezer, then lift out several in the morning to take over to the CM so that there is something different to fruit being offered if she doesn't have lunch?  Little american or scotch pancakes (the small fat ones rather than english pancakes) can hold fruit and vegetables whilst giving her some carbs at the same time.  Bean and vegi burgers are even better as they are almost a whole meal in one simple finger food.

[Eva's Mummy]

Thats a great idea i will make sure snacks to give the CM. (dont suppose you have a recipe for a veggie or bean burger?) 

Today was so much better, how is this for a days food.
WU: 6oz milk
Breakfast: Weetabix and strawberries
Snack: 2 x mini breadsticks
Lunch: Big bowl of pasta with tomato and veg sauce, Yoghurt, banana
Snack: Toast, cheese cubes
Dinner: Small bowl of spaghetti, strawberries
BT: 8oz milk

[Khalam's Mama]

That looks like a good meal. Are you offering a protein in place of meat if she doesn't like that?

[Eva's Mummy]

Not really, i need to suss that out. Not really sure what to offer as she wont touch eggs either 

[Khalam's Mama]

Beans or chick peas? Lentils go down well. Did you try them?

[Eva's Mummy]

No i've just got a recipe for sausage and lentil casserole so i'll give it a go at the weekend x