Author Topic: 10mo stopped touching food.. not sure why?!?!?!?  (Read 2074 times)

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Offline SaraMamma

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10mo stopped touching food.. not sure why?!?!?!?
« on: May 27, 2017, 06:06:00 am »
Hi everyone,

my DS has just turned 10mo.
He started solids when he was 5mo and has never had a problem with it, he's currently on 3 solid meals a day + 3 milk feeds (one of only 100ml, about to be dropped).
He's a good eater, not particularly fussy, and has started eating a bit bigger finger foods a few weeks ago (pasta twists, pieces of chicken, bread sticks...).

Up until a few weeks ago he had no problems whatsoever in touching his food. Actually, he loved to grab the spoon and lead my hand to his mouth, he was curious about touching even his mashed food from the plate, and loved when we gave him pieces of food (fruit, veggies or bread) that he could feed himself...

Unfortunately, it's been a few weeks now that he just won't touch his food, no matter what!!
For lunch we've been giving him for a while only finger foods, but now he won't even attempt touching it. If we feed it to him he'll eat up almost everything we put in front of him, but if we only try to put stuff in his hands he'll just pull them back and start winging.

He has started to refuse also touching the spoon... if I try to have him hold on to his spoon like before he'll just throw a tantrum, big tears, and sometimes refuses to eat anymore!

I am not sure what happened there!  ???

My husband and I have never discouraged him touching food, quite the opposite.
I'm not sure if they do differently at childcare, but he's there only 2days a week!  :-\

We are not sure what to do... at the moment, we leave the food in front of him for 5 minutes or so, but if he doesn't touch it but shows signs to be hungry we just give up and start feeding him. We generally have lunch together when we're home, also to model his behaviour (and we have finger foods as well for that reason), but it's not helping.

I am not happy to feed him, especially because I know he can do it himself, or at least attempt to.. but he simply won't.  :-\

Any suggestions?! I'm really struggling on this one...   :(

Offline creations

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Re: 10mo stopped touching food.. not sure why?!?!?!?
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2017, 07:37:17 am »
It sounds like you're doing everything "right" (if there is a "right") to encourage and model how to eat.
It could be that he is not quite hungry enough to feed himself perhaps? If a LO is taking larger portions and eating well, and perhaps has had a great interest and a growth spurt too, it can be really quite surprising it can feel really quite surprising and a little worrying when their appetite drops.  Often after a growth spurt or during teething the drop in appetite can be quite significant but LO is still taking enough calories to do well.

I do remember a little phase mine went through where I had to "poison test" all his food. He would sit with the plate in front of him and just ignore the lot until I tested each type of food.  Mine had been quite like yours, great appetite, great interest in solids and had been self feeding from the off.  This phase though, he would have just left his food.  The things I did:
- put one bite extra of each food on his plate (this was for me to eat)
- before eating show him his plate and mine (he compared and knew if they were the same or different) and tell him each food we had
- told him his food was good, tasty and fresh and asked if I should "test" his
- ate one piece of each item on his plate in turn making a point of saying "mmm, yum, tasty, no poison there, this is good to eat"

I either read that LOs who have a developmental leap and become more mobile can become more cautious of what they eat as a kind of self preservation instinct...I suppose to stop them eating harmful things as they had the mobility to crawl/walk further away from their parents.
Mine could even be suspicious of carrots if they were chopped in a different shape.
One other thing I didn was put something he couldn't resist on his plate, usually 5 or 6 sultanas as a little appetizer, he'd eat those without much hesitation because they are so sweet and it really got his appetite going. He'd usually then go on to eat the entire plate of food (or until he was full).

No magic suggestions, sorry, just what I did with my DS during a phase.  Maybe it would work for you too?


Offline Katet

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Re: 10mo stopped touching food.. not sure why?!?!?!?
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2017, 22:06:56 pm »
Hugs, there will be many blips with food over the years & I'd say this is just a blip.

I am not happy to feed him, especially because I know he can do it himself, or at least attempt to.. but he simply won't. 

I think though just because a child "can" do something doesn't mean they will & they have to... over the years of parenting I've looked at it as my children like my assistance not because they can't but because my involvement fulfills a need. I'd not get hung up on the fact he can do it himself, but see it as a blip along the way. I'd make sure you totally engage with him at meal times, communicate loads, ask him if he wants to "feed himself" or "mummy to feed" & give him the option rather than make it about what you would like him to be doing. In parenting its a really important to have a clear idea of what the "real" goal is - ie is it to be feeding himself or is it for him to be eating regular healthy meals. When we put aside the long term worries of "I don't want to be feeding him at 6yo" kind of things & we only focus on the key goal, we relax & in time the problem disappears.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05