Hi moms,
My little one used to eat everything in sight, but lately he has become a master at closing his mouth when I try to feed him solids. He loves his milk and is down to 3 bottles per day (bottle-fed breastmilk). When he wakes up he has celeral with fruit (usually a banana) and he eats that fine, actually opening his mouth for the next spoonful. Lunch and dinner are a completely different issue... he starts complaining as soon as he sees the food (has not even tried it yet) and getting him to eat is very hard! I distract him with toys and this works sometimes, sometimes not. I know he likes the food because he has eaten it well before this "stage". I know he is hungry because if I put a cheerio or a puff in front of him he will gobble it up! I thought maybe it was about feeding himself, so I cut really small pieces of carrot for him, so he could pick it up and eat himself but nothing. I am starting to get worried and not really sure what I can do? He is currently eating every 3 hours. Maybe I should try every 4 hs to see if that works?
Any suggestions or advice on how I can get my little one to eat would be much appreciated!
PS: I make all his food and make sure to give him good variety (although I haven't started meats yet, which perhaps I should). It is not that he only like sweets either as if I try to give him just fruit for dinner he does the same thing...
It is time to let him feed himself. Give him finger foods and I think you will see him eat. Also toddlers
are notorious for eating small amounts. Sounds like
he is doing fine and just wants a bit of independence.
Good luck.
You say you work full time.. what is the babysitter giving him? is he eating for her or him? see what they are doing while you are at work? good luck
The only thing I can think of is let him have a spoon to feed himself with. Hope that helps.
O.K. I know that you said you are making all of his food and giving him a good variety. When my son was that age, I used the jars of baby food. When he was old enough, we started with the stage 1 jars, then moved up to the stage 2 jars. Right about the time we started finger foods and trying "Mommy's" food, we also tried stage 3. That was a big leap, and we got a lot of resistance. So, I mixed some stage 2 with the chunky stage 3 and that went over a little better. It's the texture that he's having a hard time with.
My son went back and forth between eating small people food to jar food for a couple of months. We had to keep trying things over and over. It was very frustrating! I know exactly what you are going through! We finally got to the point of telling our son that he had to sit and watch us eat even if he didn't want to eat. The food would be in front of him (finger food) and we would ignor him until he took a bite. Then we would praise him and comment about how yummy it is.
(When your son tries to take the spoon out of your hand, then it is time to start teaching him how to feed himself. FYI)
You and he will get through this, and, yes, he will eat when he is hungry enough, so don't worry about starvation. LOL
I am going through the same with my 11 month old son. I was giving him about an 8 oz bottle of formula about 1-2 hours before his meals, which apparently became an issue a few weeks ago. So I switched to giving him his bottle about 1-2 hours after his meals, which seemed to dramatically improve his eating. If they are really hungry they will eat what are giving them for the most part. I still have to distract him to get him to eat spoon-fed meals. I do give him finger foods during mealtime to try to get him to used to different textures and flavors. Some meals my son eats more than others. Once he starts to throw the food off the tray and starts to wave his arms, I know we are through trying.
Unless your son is under-weight or is showing signs of illness, you don't have to worry. Try to find healthy finger foods that you know he likes, so that you can give him that to eat while you are spoon-feeding him. I give my son soy chips that are salt-free & protein-rich.
All children eventually catch on! Don't worry!
I think at that age he'd want finger foods. You mention he likes cheerios and puffs, try scaterring some of those on his tray along with some other finger food, like little bits of soft vegetables or pasta. That may interest him. I'd try putting the finger foods on his tray first- eventually he'll most likely get curious and try a few. If he doesnt eat much of them you can give him the oatmeal w/ banana or whatever it is he likes at lunch + dinner too. You could also try giving him a roll or a bagel to pick up and chew on, he might like that. And of course make sure he is not already full (from his bottle) when you put him in the highchair.
It may take 10 -20 attempts to get him to eat a certain food, so keep at it. Good luck!
Hi Adriana,
I went through the same thing with my son when he was that age. My pediatrician told me that if he is hungry, he will eat. Since he was not losing weight, I listened to her. I also realized that if I did not keep him in the high chair when he wanted to get out that he would come to me on his own and ask for a spoonful. I did not force him to eat mainly because many ppl including my pediatrician advised me to keep away from making eating a battle due to the fact that this is how he will associate meal times as he grew up. I would praise him when he did eat and tell him "UM delicious." Fast forward to now, he is 27 months and weekend mornings I wait for him to request breakfast and he will sit down and eat with no problems, same goes for lunch, snacks and dinner. Needless to say eating is no longer an issue for him.
So I think you are right to wait an hour later than usual to try and feed him. If he eats any of what you give him, praise him by telling him how happy you are to see that he likes the food. If he continues to reject food and is starting to lose weight ask your pediatrician what you may be able to add as a supplement so that the weight lose doesn't continue. Also, you may want to write down the foods that he is turning away and take it to his next appointment. Maybe the pediatrician can give you substitutes for the foods that he is turning away.
Best of luck.
D.
He's definitely ready to start feeding himself. I would start doing all kinds of finger foods for him. If he's hungry, he'll grab at it and eat it. Also, this is about the age where babies are so curious and just "too busy" to eat. They don't like to be stuck in the highchair for too long, therefore I used to just feed my son "on the go." Stick a spoonful of yogurt in his mouth as he crawled by. Atleast I knew he was getting something in his belly then.
Lynsey
