1 year old will only eat toast and fishfingers

[senorita81]

My son is 20 months old and he used to be a great eater but for the last month he now wont let me spoon feed him anything, even his favourite cottage pie. He will only eat food himself that he can pick up.
I have tried to put carrots, bananas, other fruit and veg on his high chair but he just flicks them off , don't think he likes the texture of them.
He's living on milk , toast , sausages, crumpets, chips , fish fingers and nuggets! All unhealthy stuff.

I feel bad that he is getting no nutrients and guilty like it's my fault that he only likes this sort of food. He is a good weight and looks healthy. He obviously loves biscuits, cake as well.

He is teething a lot at the minute as he has been drooling constantly for a few weeks. Do you have any tips on what I could do to get him to eat better? Is your child like this? Are there any nice things I could buy that he would eat that have veg or fruit in them? I would be grateful for any help.

If you search in the MN archive there's lots of old threads on fussy eating, some might have even been started by me when our DD was 2!

Have a look for a book called My Child Won't Eat by Carlos Gonzalez too

Are you using a teething gel like Dentinox and some calpol too if he's teething?

Don't worry about spoon feeding either, he sound be well over that stage by now

Have you tried allowing him to feed himself? My son began feeding himself at 6 months as son as he began solids. And started using a spoon and for at 9 months. Now he's 17 months and can properly use a spoon without making a mess. He will not allow me to feed him. If I try he won't eat. He will only eat if he feeds himself. Maybe allow him to start feeding himself? Kids love to be independent.

In the short term, you could always give him vegetable fingers/nuggets. The fussy toddler app has a recipe or asda sell their own. If he likes nuggets and fish fingers he may be up for eating them since they look the same! There are various cakes and biscuits you can make with hidden veg and fruit as well.

From your post it sounds like he'll happily eat finger food. Could it just be simply that he wants to feed himself. Give him a really small portion of cottage pie 3/4 spoonfuls in a plastic bowl and a spoon and see how he gets on.