Worried about how much 1year old is eating

[Pickleypickles]

My dd is 14 months old, up until about a week ago she fed herself but i helped a lot because shes not very good at it yet.

This past week she has decided i am allowed no where near her food, if i try and feed her she screams and kicks and refuses it, if i even just try and help her get it on the fork i get the same and then she removes everything from the fork to put it back on herself.

It means this morning she ate about 5 cornflakes and threw them so i tried cocopops and they got thrown without eating any i then gave her a piece of toast and she licked the jam off and then wpuldnt eat anymore. She had half a banana about half 9 and now im trying to give her ravioli but its everywhere, she wont let me help and there is now more in the high chair than in the bowl but she creams if i go near to help!

Do i need to worry? Is this just a phase they all go through or am i doing something wrong? Will she be getting enough to eat and if shes not what do i do about it?

I dont think me getting stressed about it is helping either its just making it worse.

For the time being, I'd suggest to sticking to things that are less messy. So maybe pasta and cheese rather than ravioli, toast and jam for breakfast, fruit etc.
It's hard because she needs to learn how to use cutlery so needs practice, but also needs to eat (rather than food being everywhere but her mouth) so needs some finger foods. I'd go for half and half, maybe a small bowl of cereal (something easy to get on a spoon like porridge rather than cornflakes) and a slice of toast on the side. Similar with lunch and tea, main meal and veg sticks, chunks of cheese, bread, whatever on the side.

I don't suppose she's still breastfed or on any formula? Was going to say you could try top her up a bit with those if she is, and some extra snacky finger foods.

My DD(3) has always been a crap eater. Occasionally she will sit and eat a meal, but mainly she just picks at food all day and is more of a Frazer- little and often, just like her dad. I used to get extremely worried that she wasn't eating enough, but she's got more energy than most and leaps around like a baby goat all day so I know now that she's fine! Your DD will eat, try not to get stressed.

Grazer not Frazer. Stupid phone

Try two bowls.. One for her one for you... Let her mess about, do it herself and just sit quietly next to her maybe with a book you could read to her as distraction and then stealthily slide spoon from your bowl of food up to her mouth...
This worked for me when Dd1 was in the 'I DO IT MYSELF' phase

I also would not top up with extra formula.. It may dampen her appetite for next meal

My DD started the same behaviour around this age and it hasn't abated.
I let her get on with it and if she doesn't eat, that's fine.
I also tried giving her cutlery to use, regardless of her skill but I also had a teaspoon to feed her with so I could get some bits in. This was hit and miss!

Try a bowl which fixes to the high chair so she can't throw the food everywhere, then leave her to it. I found DD would play then after a few minutes eat.

She's much better now she's 18m, but still likes to put the food on the tray or better yet, uses the spoon to put in in her hand, which she then eats from!
Cutlery is often thrown and hand preferred, especially porridge!

Don’t get stressed about it. Children around her age will try and do things independently
which is great. Maybe give some more finger foods on the side so she can pick them up easily and feed herself, so toast strips and maybe cucumber sticks or cheese by the side of the ravioli, not so many things that require a spoon if you think she isn’t getting enough that way. Put the food down, hand her a spoon or baby fork, stay in the room but do something else while she messes about. She’s learning to physically eat at this age more than anything else and she will get there. And she won’t starve herself.

Thanks everyone, i will try more finger foods with her meals and see how we get on with that. Glad to know its not just my dd though!

She'll be fine. It feels like DD survives on fresh air some times and other days there's no stopping her. It's what she eats in a week that counts not day to day. Give her lots of things she can pick up and don't worry.

Had one like that, I took away all utensils and put the food on the high chair tray. It would take hours (well it seemed like hours ) but she would pick her food, move it about, get some in her mouth, some in her hair, some in her diaper, some on the dog, some in the dog and I believe once she shared her wobbly macaroni bits with the bird, but she was happy that way.