a surprising problem with food...

[OhWhatAPalaver]

as i'm well aware a lot of people have problems getting their children to eat. however, i have the opposite problem! DD, who is 13 months, i think would eat until she was sick, which is somewhat worrying. she screams and cries when the food runs out and it really bothers me. i know i'm not under-feeding her and she can not be hungry, she is just annoyed because there is no food left! she is so impatient between her dinner and pudding, she screams until there is more food in front of her or until she is taken out of her chair.
i started encouraging her to use the spoon herself recently, which was going well until she realised i always did it near the end of the meal/pot of yoghurt or something. now whenever i say 'you do the spoon, be a big girl' she screams and cries cos she think the food is nearly gone!!
she is better if she is feeding herself with her hands, which she does most nights for her evening meal, but if i am feeding her with a spoon all hell breaks loose when i stop.
how can i put a stop to this? its becoming somewhat embarrassing in public!

don't think you can "put a stop to it"

ignore, ignore, ignore, and she will eventually stop doing it

its just a phase

Yes now is a good time to examine her portion sizes. If she is a child who eats way more than she needs to grow and develop you know what the outcome will be.

As far as the screming goes. You will just hace to ignore it. She's expressing a feeling she has no words for but its not acceptable behaviour to you.

Just let her feed herself with her hands then. If you're out and about take sandwiches etc so she can feed herself. Mine is the same age and I very rarely spoon feed her.

Are the portions you are giving her enough? Mine on a hungry day will eat a whole half portion (same as I'd give my 3 year old). She's phenomenal (and 50th centile!) I seem to remember dd 1 being the same and she's a tiny skinny little thing. Some people on here talk nonsense about their tiny tummies (which easily hold 8oz of formula at 4 months! [Hmm])

All this supernanny one spoon for each year is nonsense. At the risk of being rude I'm much slimmer than her so will go with what I think is right. The stuff to be careful with imo is anything artificially sweet.

Omg could have written your post OP. Mine has just turned 12mo. Was happy to hold her own spoon from 6mo but now has a total shit fit if I offer it to her- because I can feed her faster! She eats a mountain of food during the day but is probably still only somewhere around the 25th centile for weight (or less -hasn't been weighed in months). I dunno. Agree that it's better when she feeds herself but this isn't always practical. She is spoonfed at the CM and eats two or three helpings of everything as a result.
brett, your post is reassuring...

My DD (19 months) went through a phase of this - we did BLW but the childminder spoonfed her so she then insisted on being spoon fed so she could get the food faster.

She also ate HUGE amounts of food at about 12 months - almost adult portions. She didn't even get chubby as she was walking by then.

It settled down by 15 months when she then got really picky for a bit

Now at 19 months she eats what you'd expect of a small child - but averaged out over several days - so some days she eats LOADS, others barely anything.

I think it's just what they're like!

Oh and she's a lean little thing - can see her ribs under a layer and when she breathes, and I've had to tighten the leg elastic in her cloth nappies so they don't leak. She is VERY active though.

My 13 mo DS has been like this since he was weaned he's a human dustbin and on 99th centile (from 91st at birth and is off chart for height). When we are out he begs for food like a dog by shouting and pointing at other peoples tables it's mortifying.

He's never not finished a bottle or a meal ive never found anything he won't eat I do worry about him in the future.

Our problem is he cries around food even if he's just eaten and we do eat meals together I've started trying to distract him if he's finished and still in his chair with a book or bubbles but it is very wearing

thanks all for the replies, very reassuring! i do think the portions i'm giving her are ok, sometimes i think i've given her too much but she still eats the whole lot! i've not had her weighed in a while so might go and get that sorted.
Figgy, your DS sounds v similar to my DD, we try to eat meals together all the time but sometimes if DP does a curry or something different to what she is having and we end up eating at different times she steals food of our plates when she's finished eating her meal! cheeky bugger she is!
i am hoping its just a phase, i had never thought about the spoon thing being because we can feed them faster, but clearly that's what it is, i think i might try giving her a spoon as well as me feeding her with one. see if that makes any difference :)

You could try more nutrient dense food eg more fats - coconut oil is good for cooking with, avocados, nut butter. My 3 y.o. ate incredible quantities but I've been giving him more fats lately and he is eating a lot less. I realised loads of his snacky things especially were low-fat, low calorie eg crackers, rice cakes, corn cakes etc.

DD1 was like this at 20 months and now at 4 she is still a good eater. She's 99.8th centile for weight but I'm off the chart for her height. She's 4 next week and is in 5-6 year clothing as 4-5 are too short. Guess she needs the fuel as she's muscular built but ribs are showing.

DD2 will eat her good sized portion and then sometimes go and finish anything DD1 has left. Her body is slimming down from the baby legs-rolls so I don't suppose it's doing her any harm.

As long as the food is healthy and balanced and you are happy with your child's height/weight ratio and shape then keep going with good-eater-child!

yeah she seems to be quite a tall toddler, she's the same height as my 19 month old niece and she's only just 13 months! so i think she will poss need a bit extra. she is lean and losing all her baby podge quite rapidly now she is becoming more mobile, she is trying really hard to walk at the moment, just suddenly become a lot more active so i'm hoping this is part of the reason for her behaviour!

i'm just glad to hear she normal as we were getting a bit worried that she was some kind of food obsessive! DP and his family are not exactly what you could call slim (DP's weight goes up and down all the time) so we are very aware of what we feed her. thankfully myself and all my family are skinny buggers so i'm hoping she takes after me in that department!! :)