Dinnertime becoming a nightmare

[SarahD73]

Hi all - my 16mo son has, for several months now, refused to eat dinner unless it's snacks/a yoghurt. He eats a good breakfast (muesli/porridge which is fed to him off a spoon, and toast), has different fruit/raisins/rice cakes etc. as snacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon (although I have wondered if he's eating too much during the day, so I have tried cutting them out altogether - makes no difference) and a sandwich & fruit for lunch. He used to eat dinners really well - I'd do batches of various Annabelle Karmel recipes etc. and freeze them, all sorts of pasta dishes, meat, fish etc. which I'd feed him off a spoon. He started refusing to eat anything except for risotto or fish pie, but now he won't eat those either. I wondered if it was something to do with wanting to feed himself - nope, tried giving him a plate and spoon or fork and leaving him to it; still just wails and cries. (Oh and now that he's just learned to say 'no' that's adding a whole extra joy to the process!)

I know I shouldn't be stressing about this because it's only making it worse, but I keep hearing essentially two conflicting solutions and I don't know what to do. One of them is to just give him what he wants to eat so that he's at least eating something; the other is that I should offer the meal every night, and if he doesn't eat it then don't give him anything else. Does anyone have any definitive answers to this please? I know that in the grand scheme of things I shouldn't stress too much because there are so many children who won't eat anything, but I'm getting really hung up on the fact he won't touch any vegetables, meat or fish - he also doesn't have any milk anymore, as he was bf then refused any formula or cow's milk once we cut out the bf-ing. So it's essentially a worry that he's missing out on all those vitamins, protein and calcium, and setting himself up for very fussy eating as he gets older. I'd be so grateful of any advice, thanks.

[TwelveLeggedWalk]

[tory79]

No advice, but I am having exactly the same dilemma at the moment - to keep giving ds yoghurt and fruit because he will eat it, or to stop and watch with despair as he eats naff all and screams at me