1 year old deliberately pushing food back out of his mouth

[Ceebee74]

Has anyone else's lo done this? DS has just started this week to take a mouthful of food and then giggle and push it back out.

How do I deal with this? At the moment I let him do it a couple of times then stop feeding him - all without any fuss.

He seems to do it more at breakfast which is a meal that he used to wolf down - now he takes a few mouthfuls normally and then starts pushing it out.

Is this just a phase?

[Ceebee74]

Bump

[RubySlippers]

yes - my DS did this for a while
he alternated with blowing raspberries at me whilst eating (nice)

basically i would ignore him (if i reacted he would giggle even more)

letting him feed himself seemed to help, rather than trying to spoon feed him

[ruddynorah]

i'd say he's just learning what he can do. ignore it or whatever, it won't go on forever, especially if he's hungry. is he maybe not hungry? can he be left to feed himself?

[Ceebee74]

He is nowhere near capable of feeding himself yet so that is not really an option - although I think it might be the answer as if you put small bits of finger food in his mouth he tends to pull them out and put them in himself.

BTW he finger feeds very well so I am guessing finger food breakfast may be good but don't really have the time for that in the mornings

[bamamama]

Hey! I have almost exactly the same problem and was just trawling messages to see if anyone else was...
My 13mo has just decided that he doesn't really like food at all. We had a period of 3-4 spoonfulls then pushing it out with his tongue and as of yesterday he just pushes the spoon away before we even start. He's also no where near being able to effectively self feed and the yummy selection of finger foods I provided for tea all ended up on the floor (with a miniscule nibble from the corner of each piece). This is normal right?? Perhaps we can start an 'inadvertantly starving our children' support thread Let's hope there is some good advice in MN-land but at least you're not alone!

[Ceebee74]

Isn't it so frustrating - and so hard to try and ignore it - particularly as he looks so cute when he is doing it with his little giggle!

My DS also tended to throw all his finger food on the floor - so my solution is to feed him 'off the floor' so to speak. I usually give him sarnies for his tea and I put them on a plastic plate on the floor and let him help himself whilst crawling round - he eats far more this way than he ever did in his highchair - maybe this is an option for you? (Downside is that you have to hoover every night and find bits of food everywhere )

[KittenKat]

DD 1 yr and 1 day, started this too, this week. Sorry have no idea to deal with it. She hardly eats a thing now apart from to spit it out!

[KittenKat]

You got to take some pictures ceebee and post em!

[Ceebee74]

Hey Kitten - it must be their age I am afraid that if I take a photo, it will just encourage him to do it more!!

[KittenKat]

LOL! DD is not eaing v much at all actually, just done another thread about it. I am a touch concerned, not overly I think but a anxious I guess. She loves playing with food in all manners, dropping in over edge of table to see what happens, flicking spoon of it across room, putting whole fist into yoghurt pot while pretending not to be interested, spitting it out with a cheeky grin, slowly and deliberately. I have some great photos...I shall post some on July thread!

[lemonaid]

Yes, and agree with others that IME it happens when they want to self-feed (even though they can't do it very efficiently yet). We moved on to more easily self-fed foods for a while.

[Ceebee74]

Lemon - what do you class as easier self-fed foods? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[KittenKat]

Ceebee - mash is great for self feeding, also fish (haddock) in flakes.

[Twinklemegan]

Pasta goes down a treat here. He puts a piece of fusilli to his mouth and next thing you know he's downed it in one.

[Ceebee74]

Hi Twinkle - DS did exactly that at lunch today with pasta from the eat all you can buffet at Pizza Hut - am thinking of food easy to eat off a spoon. Mash does sound good.

[Twinklemegan]

Ah - we've not got to that stage yet. We do mash with fingers, hence my misunderstanding.

[lemonaid]

Umm (trying to remember) pasta, vegetable chunks, fruit, toast fingers, slices of sausage or other meat, that kind of thing.

[KittenKat]

Ceebee- this evening DD had cottage pie in a pot rather than in a bowl, so she could get spoon in and fish around and manage to pull some out, she got about 3 spoonfulls in her mouth, around her mouth, and down her top! Its great spoon food for them practicing to eat on their own, and you can plonk a bit of potato on the table too for them to try to pick up.

I have given her a spoon of her own for a while now, and over the last week or so she has managed to get the odd spoonful into her mouth, often upside down, often after the food has slid off, but she is getting better, and while she practices I feed her spoonfulls too,
I usually give her some finger food and a spoon to occupy her, and then she is mostly ok with eating what I feed her, as long as it does not interfere with what she is doing!

She did not spit her tea out this evening, which is good, but she was at nursery so I am always suspicious of how much she actually does eat there, think she was quite hungry! She spat out her breakfast tho!

[Ceebee74]

Kitten - cottage pie sounds good. I also might try the 'distraction' technique of a spare spoon and finger food. I don't feed him when he is at nursery as they give him all his meals so I have a respite until Friday - did mean to ask them if he was doing it but forgot today!