17 month old only wants milk

[BikeRunSki]

17 month old DD has phases of eating a bit of food, but mostly, at the moment would happily just drink milk (cow's milk). Shoves obviously hungry, wailing with hunger, but refuses to eat anything she hasn't fed herself. She refuses to be spoon fed and hates finger food (seems to hate the feel of food on her fingers, even clean stuff like breadsticks or hard cheese). So she only eats what she has spoon fed herself, or milk from a sippy cup. She 's not very good at spooning though, so very little goes in, and she wants to fill up on milk. Particularly at midnight, 3 am, 5am..... She'll sometimes feed herself one of those yoghurts in an Ella-tyke pouch, but not an Ella-type "main course", besides the stuff suitable for her age is not in those types of pouches.

Two issues really -
She either doesn't want to eat solids at all and will happily just drink milk for days.
2- When she does fancy food. she'll only eat the tiny amounts she can feed herself.

I also have a 4 yo, a job and an elderly mum 300 miles away. I am shattered.

have you tried a little fork? My 2 got on better with a fork then a spoon to start with as you can stab the food with it and made the food less likely to fall off again. I would try and cut down on the milk a bit as there is not enough iron or vitamins in cows milk compared to food and if she is full from milk she wont want food.

Yes, she uses a fork sometimes and does have slightly more success, until she gets bored of slow progress. I know I shouldn't let her fill up on milk, but I am too worn down to see out her stuborness. I am pretty sure she is just being stubborn. Oh for my children to have appetites! Every meal is a fight x 2.