I hate meal times !!

[TillyScoutsmum]

DD is 13 months and has always been a bit of a bugger when it comes to solids (loves her milk though - always has)...

I tried not to stress too much and thought things would get better as she got older but she goes through stages of either completely clamping her mouth shut or, her latest trick, is to take the food, but then spit it out. She does this with a big smile on her face and seems to think its a game. She's hardly eating anything and is hungry (has started waking for a bottle in the night again since this latest phase)

She's still not great with big lumps or finger food and I see all these dc's her age eating "normal food whilst I'm still having to mash/puree everything and then she just bloody spits it back out

Any words of wisdom please ?

My DD existed on air and houmous today. You're lucky yours drinks milk. I'm still b/f twice a day but little tinker will only drink small cups of anything else. However, I know she'll eat when she's hungry - reckon that the only way of seeing this dashboard is right. I'm much calmer since I've seen things that way. Have you tried houmous and breadsticks/ chunks of carrot/cucumber? She can dip it herself. Houmous has great stuff in it. Also have you tried offering her food from your plate? DD loves OUR spaghetti!
DD also does the spitting - especially in resturants, but I just ignore her.
I put this down to growing up and/or teething. She seems to clamp her mouth tight when she's in pain.
Stick with it. Everyone I know who has had this problem says it does go away eventually. MN has been fab offering me advice for this in the past too.

I agree that eating at the same time as dd much as possible is a good idea in this situation. It takes the attention off your dd and you can model eating for her and hopefully turn mealtimes into a more social time and move away from the battlfield scenario! This will hopefully also make her more interested in what is on your plate.

Even if food is in her mouth and then spat out, she is still getting some nutrition and taste fom it- albeit a small amount. Use full fat products and add butter and cream to what she does eat if you are worried about how many calories she is getting.

Try to avoid topping up with extra milk if you can. As dbc says, make sure she is hungry. Topping up with extra milk will mean she has less of an appetite for solids.

My DS is only 7 months old, but maybe what works for me will work for you.

DS's current trick is blowing raspberries. He'll blow raspberries all day long, even when I feed him his meals. Consequently we both get sprayed with whatever he has in his mouth. He used to giggle when I reacted to being sprayed with food, but now I ignore it (difficult when you can't see for porridge in your eye) and I find he stops doing it when he no longer gets a reaction.

Also, he was easily distracted while being fed. He'd turn his head away from me and look at the cat, the ceiling, the radio, anything, and mealtimes took forever. I now eat with him, and we take turns to eat. 'Ooh look Mammy is eating her yogurt, now it's your turn...', and when he eats a mouthfull I clap my hands and praise him.
Basically praise good behaviour & ignore behaviour you don't like.