Trouble Feeding 16 Month Old

my son is 17 months and every once in a while he gets in phase where he doesn't want to eat but when he gets hungry he will eat. My son eats everything I eat. some favs are grilled cheese, pb&J sandwhiches(cut in quarters) vegetables that are cooked really soft, bananas, strawberries, chicken, beef, for breakfast he eats cereal with milk(cheerios usually) he still throws food on the floor but only when he's finished eating. I hope this doesn't seem like i dragged on and on.

my daughter was 14 or 15 months when she was eating all by herself with a fork. She is going to be 3 tomorrow and still throws food on the floor sometimes. We started her with Mac n Cheese every kids favorite, mashed potatos, things that were soft cut up hotdogs things like that. Just give her the spoon and fork and let her play with them to try to learn how to us them it will take a bit but she will get it

She may be doing this because she is seeing the reaction she gets. She is also too old to be eating stage 3 baby food and being spoon fed. Take what you cook for you and your husband each night and dice it up small for her, place it on her tray, and let her feed herself. At this age she will use her fingers but always place a spoon on her tray anyways. She will end up a mess and ready for bath time, but she will learn valuable skills. And don't worry, if she's hungry, she'll eat. I have 3 children of my own and have a Child Development Associates Degree and have been a director of Day Cares. She should start eating with a spoon around 2 yrs old. Good Luck!

Sounds like a control issue as well as texture. My daughter was the same way. At that age I gave her whatever tablefoods she would eat, within reason and healthy of course, rather than limit her to "breakfast food" for breaksfast, etc. I also got the OK from my pediatrician to give her 1/2 a chewable vitamin which made me feel better. I also gave her things like Carnation Instant Breakfast for the added nutrition and as a treat.
Your daughter will outgrow a lot of the behaviors you described. My daughter is a huge eater but to this day, at 2 1/2, it is nearly impossible to get her to eat her veggies, no matter how they are prepared! I keep offering them and slowly we are making progress. Gotta love the control factor:(
I would eliminate the baby foods and find ways of "sneaking" things into foods she will eat. I grate zucchini and yellow squash into scrambled eggs. I add grated veggies and wheat germ into pasta sauces, etc. My girls always devoured yogurt (add wheat germ), fruit, waffles, pancakes (make your own with wheat flour and added grated fruits), veggie patties, veggie dogs, mac and cheese, thin slice of say turkey rolled up with cheese.... Hope that helps:)

Hi T., I'm a licensed child care provider and have been in this profession for over 16 years. If you have been able to get your daughter to eat any of the stage Infant Foods for this long, consider yourself lucky. They are very healthy but most babies give those up by a year and some even a lot sooner. Many babies will use a spoon to self feed between the ages of 14 and 18 months. But you need to show her how. Try a small divided dish on her tray and in one of the sections you could put applesauce or yogurt (big favorite) - just a little bit - then help her with your hand over hers. She can eat almost everything you eat, just cut it up into small bites. In addition to the fruits and veggies cut up, try pizza, different sandwiches - grilled cheese is a favorite, macaroni & cheese, spaghetti, chicken. Here is a page with some more ideas: http://stepbystepcc.com/menu.html Good luck.

I've seen you've gotten lots of responses. The only thing I could think of to say different is that all kids are different. My son never ate with his hands! We joke around that he is a "neat freak" but he didn't. All the finger foods...down to hot dogs and even now with raw carrots (at 4!) he will eat with a fork or spoon. But if she will eat with her fingers...go for it! My younger cousins (under 2 years) all eat with their fingers and eat everything we eat. We just make sure it's cut up small (as said before) so that they don't choke on it!

I have a 17 month old son, we feed him only table foods. Does your daughter have teeth? Our son only has 4 on top and 4 on the bottom. So he's unable to eat foods you have to chew for a long period of time, like steak. But other then that I feed him anything that he wants. Chicken, hot dogs, pork chops, hamburgers. He doesn't use his spoon or fork either but I let him hold it in his hand while he eats with the other. I figure since we eat together at the table he will eventually realize we use our forks to eat with. If I give him mashed potatoes or cottage cheese I have him hold the fork while I guide him to get his food on the fork and then feed it to him. It does get messy, but I figure he will get better or time and practice.

I'm sure you've gotten several responses that have told you "don't worry about it". But seriously, don't worry about it!! ;) It is perfectly normal for your daughter to be doing this at feeding time. All children are different and all of them eat differently. My 19 month old ONLY eats grilled cheese and Kroger's Private Selection Mesquite Smoked Turkey Breast - not ANY other turkey breast [and don't EVEN let anyone try to slide a different brand in!]for her dinner meals [she won't touch mac and cheese,hamburger/cheeseburger,chicken nuggets,etc] And has been eatting this way for a long time. I, like you, also shared the same concerns and went from asking the pros to the real moms and dads that I know if this is normal and everyone told me yes. Now, my daughter thankfully never threw food on the floor, only her sippy cup - but it's never too late for her to start! From your question it sounds like you are doing it all right at meals when you stated that you just take the food away from her when she starts to fuss. That is what you should do..you can't fight a child this age, they are their own masters of their own worlds right now. Like I've been told -- she'll eat when she's hungry. They do go thru stages of picky eatting at this age - mine always has, but she's a 28 pound 19 month old and is definately getting her nutrition some how some way. Todays foods are loaded w/ added nutrients so they are getting it. I still get impatient with mine when she doesn't want to eat, but I have learned that I can't "make" her, it's a useless battle! wink wink So I hope that this helps and please know that this too shall pass! Happy Easter to you too! T.

When my daughter was 16 mths (she is now 17) she was the same way. One day I put the gerber graduates green beans in front of her along w/ regular green beans that I had cooked. She wanted nothing to do w/ the graduates green beans. I've come to the conclusion that the graduates are mushy and really have no taste. My suggestion is to just start feeding her whatever you are eating. My daughter does that, and she even likes spicy food (like pepper jack cheese). I think its all about that taste. Now that your daughter's taste buds are matured she wants something that has a little bit more taste. I hope this helps you out a little bit.

my daughter is 19 months old now she has been eating table food since about 9 months she started using a spoon and fork because i made sure she had one in her hand even when i was still feeding her i would give her a spoon. as for the issues with her eating habbits it might be the food honestly baby food is really really bland..... Amber {my daughter} won't eat it at all she won't even eat the gerber graduates stuff in the tubs i've tried them all. as for recipes that are great for fingers everything can be! as long as its cool enough to hold. as long as she's eating it shouldn't matter how she eats! hope this helps and if you have any question other questions i would be happy to answer them for you email me at ____@____.com

It may be an issue with the texture of the baby food. My daughter never took baby food, so I used my steamer to steam vegetables until they were really soft. I cut up apples and pears and put them in the oven to soften them up. Sometimes they're just ready to move on to another stage before we are. =)

She's perfectly normal T.! She may just not want the baby food and want to eat like you. My daughter is 13 months and she eats almost all regular foods. Hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fries, grapes, strawberries, eggs, sausage, chicken, steak,mack and cheese, fish, fish sticks, canned veggies and fruits (or frozen). I just make sure I cut everything up small for her.

As for feeding herself,I let mine hold a spoon while eating. You may want to let her eat when you eat so she can see what you're doing w/your utensils, then she'll hopefully mimick you. Keep trying to show her how to use them too. I don't put my daughters on a plate or bowl yet, she'll just throw them on the floor. I put it on her high chair tray. She's younger than yours tho. She'll eventually figure it out so don't worry about it!

S.

Hi T.,

I know this may sound bad, but I used baby food only for a short time will both of my little ones (3 yrs and 19 mo). I feed them baby food long enough to see if they had a reaction to any foods. By the time they were switching from formula to milk they were eating what we eat... they seemed to eat better if mom and dad were eating the samething. We do eat a few more potatoes, rice, noodles and veggies then before we had the kids - but that isn't all bad, we are eating a more balanced diet ourself now. We also give the little ones meats too, (chicken, hamburger, hot dogs, pork chops... they eat want we eat - just everything has to be cut up really small - there bites are smallet then ours... even stage 3 food have some meat chunks in them.

My 3 yr old little girl picked up on the fork/spoon thing a little quicker them my 19 mo old boy is, we still have to help him out from time to time... but he seems to manage to get enough to eat with or without the fork. We just have a little more to clean up somedays, but that's little ones.

We have a little one on the way now... and he will be eating potatoes by the time he is about 6-8 mo old and working his way into the normal dinner by 1 yr too. I do hope this has been helpful - good luck with your little one.

I learned quickly after trying to get my daughter to eat quietly and with her utensils that none of that was gonna happen! lol When my son was born I just made sure his tray was clean and put his food directly on there. He ate everything with his hands, and I was able to actually eat hot food for once. Your daughter could just be refusing the food because she wants to do it herself. I let my kids eat what we eat, they can eat anything with their hands, my 13 month old will eat plenty if he is left to feed himself, even the mashed potatoes. She will learn to use her spoon and fork soon enough. I think my kids started using them pretty good around 2 or so.

Hi T.,
my son never really was much into baby food. (even when he was small, I made almost all of it myself). But oddly, around the age of your daughter he did like the little gerber toddler meals. I got one to try and he really did well with them - especially the ravioli. He also really liked grilled cheese cut up into "sticks"
Most of his food was what we were eating however. Kitchen shears can come in handy to cut things up into small enough pieces easily. Also - about this age we transitioned to having him to the table with us while we ate. (his high chair pulled up under the table and then we switched to a booster seat) this seemed to help make mealtimes somewhat less chaotic. We just didn't make what he was eating a big deal. We gave him his plate - with the same foods as ours - and just let him go with it. That way we were modeling good eating habits. We encouraged him to use his fork and spoon but ignored most of the negative behavior (with the exception of purposely making a big mess)and he started having better behavior.

Hello! It's completely normal for kids to go through this phase at this time in their life. Babies only need a little bit of food to get by on. You can try and figure out what they truly want and stick to that but I promise they will change ina few weeks if that. Babies and toddlers are basically programmed to eat more during the morning or afternoon and just a bit at night ....

My daughter is the same age. And as a mother of two ( my oldest is 8 years old ) I can tell you that they go through phases with things. My baby isn't eating much food these days either. I just make sure that she gets plenty of whole milk. And the doctor told me that as long as she's gaining weight and healthy there's no cause for concern.

:-) It's frustrating, I know.

T.,
Welcome to pulling your hair out 101. Don't stress out over this really. This is the age where the picky eater starts. See when they were babies they were going all the time. Now thay are older the growth is slowing down some.
There taste are changing and the whole world is open to them. They don't want to miss a thing by wasting it eating.
The baby food thing is ok, but hse has had a taste of real food and they flat stuff is well, boring to her now. I tried the same thing.
I asked my daugher's doctor about this eating problem I thought my daugher had. The doctor said just put her plate out there for her to eat. If she don't eat it offer it to her again later. Wrap it up and put in fridge. Don't leave things out to spoil of course, but just let her pick at what she wants.
As far as what she likes it won't always be the smae from week to week. Some things will, but most won't.
My daughter started this at 14 months old and is still going strong with the not eating really good one meal and not the next. Some nights she eats every bite, Then some nights I put more in the trash then I care to thing about.
My daughter will be 3 on the 17th of this month. She likes to drink lots of milk and water and juice. Eat breads. She will fill up on that stuff frist too, if you don't watch it.
The thing to remember is that thier stomach is only as big as thier fist. That raelly doesn't make room for much food when you fill it with liquid first then food.
Don't worry T. she is doing better than you are. She won't starve herself.
Just remember the worries you had the day she came home. Did you ever thing eating would be one of them? Well wait till the potty issues start.
Your not alone out there.
You are going to be a big help to some new mom. You can help them, because of what you have already be thorough
Good luck and hang in there.

Hi T.,
I talked with my daughters pediatrician about her eating habits that were similar to your situation and he told me as long as she was drinking her milk and taking a few bites of her food that there is nothing to worry about. Babies know when they have had enough. There have been times when I would feed her she would take a bite here and there but when I leave her to herself she would eat a little more by herself. I learned early on that she is going to be very independent (she is 20 months now)person. She started eating by herself with her fingers I believe somewhere around 9 months or so. With eating utensils maybe around a year old (not completely sure).
Throwing food on the floor, well lets just say my daughter still does it at times, mostly when she's had enough. I am sure she is healthy, babies just know when they have had enough.