Extremely difficult 11 month at mealtimes

[Saffy77]

Hey everyone

Am at my wits end with my 11 month DD. She only eats toast!!! I just cant get her to eat normal meals.....i make her lots of food fresh at home..lots of variety but lately she has become increasingly difficult. she has also started refusing the ready made srtuff we give her. In the past she was better when we eat out but now that is also becoming a nightmare.

I just dont know what to do...i am the only one who feeds her at every meal time (dh works abroad).

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Saffy

Put the food in front of her, let her eat it with her fingers, if you get to the point wear nothing has gone in for 5 minutes, get her out of the chair and end the meal.

Repeat ad nauseum.

WHERE not wear.

I had the same problem around 9 months. I just do baby lead weaning now as ds refuses most things off a spoon.

I give him toast or teacakes for breakfast,

Lunch: sandwiches cut into quaters, or grilled chicken strips with home made potato wedges, cooked carrot and brocolli, or jacket potato cut into managable chunks, Birdseye fish fingers are good as they are pure fish with no junk and are easy for them to hold!

Tea: Cheese on toast or sandwiches, pasta twists with creamy tomato sauce (very messy but he eats it well!), or hommeade soup with bread (another messy one!)

Snacks: strips of steamed apple, rusks, scotch pancackes, rice cakes, rasins (although my ds doesn't seem to manage them and spits them out, most babies love them, mine is wierd!), grapes (halved), cherry tomatoes (halved, although again my ds doesn't seem to understand how to eat them and throws them around!)

Basically, just take the pressure off yourself and her. Plonk the food in front of her and let her play with it. She'll make a hell of a mess and yes, at first most of it will go on the floor but eventually she'll start to enjoy food and might enjoy the independace of feeding herself.

Thanks for all the replies and thank you ever so much for your detailed response Violetsmile....i will try what you are suggesting.

definitely try to stay calm and just offer alternatives.

ds lived off pasta for ages and we didn't make a fuss.

just back from holiday where he snaffled squid, octopus, tortilla, fresh fish, snails and other delights from our plates.

it will be ok. promise.

I had this. And really worried about it. It does get better. There's nothing wrong with toast! Does she eat lots of things if you put them on - humous (mine didn't but you never know), cheese, banana, just about anything will go on toast. Try tea cakes, pitta bread, different sorts of toasted bread. I did find that putting things down in front of my DS and really really trying not to get wound up did help! Bread sticks also worked. And she will change. Next month she will probably not eat toast and only eat fruit!

Lots of 11 months old are still only really interested in milk. That's the advantage of BLW - the child can play around with food and enjoy the tastes and textures at their own pace.

Of course, some are reaching for your chips at 4 months, so there's no single right answer.

the ideal amount of food for one yr old is 3 tablespoons one of veg one of meat and one of potatoe or rice or pasta whateevr your serving

my ds lived off porridge breakfast sandwich for lunch with pureed fruit for dessert and toast for dinner for along time until well over a yr

i always offered small amounts of dinner but maybe small pick at it then toast

as long as different foods are being offered dont worry if not wanting them yet still very young

Thanks for the responses.

I took Violetsmiles advice and made tuna sandwiches which i then made into bitesize pieces....DD had about 3-4 pieces and then went on strike!!! Urggghhh...but i think the finger food route is the one i will take for now. Just hoping its a short phase.

KW13 youre right about the flavour of the month thing, just hope next month she's into chicken as I am worried she isnt getting enough protein.

onwardandupward, thanks for mentioning that milk is still their main interest as i was told that by one they should be on 1 bottle a day but DD is 11 months and still extremely happy about 3 bottles a day.So am not going to worry too much about this.

Motherhood is so stressful!

3 or 4 bitesized pieces is plenty for a child her age - I sus[ect you are expecting her to eat too much.

Her stomach is the size of her fist - sometimes she may eat a huge amount of food but if she decides to stick to a 'normal' amount for her age (which 3 or 4 bitesized pieces is) I wouldn't push the issue.

Thatbiggermanprison are 3-4 pices enough? surely not? it just doesnt compare to how much other children her age are eating and i know she sometimes is still hungry after mealtimes but just wont eat when i give her it. As i said before i am sticking to the finger food route.

Wish me luck!

I had the same with DS when he was about the same age - he only had fruit. It did pass fairly quickly though, and don't worry, she won't starve (= she will eat when shes hungry enough). I found that letting him feed himself helped, as did giving him his own spoon to play with at mealtimes... Good luck!

Sounds like you are getting on brilliantly. I meant to add that ways I found to actually get my son to eat more included: eating with him where there were other children eating. So he's always eaten better when he's at nursery or in a restaurant or cafe where he can see other children scoffing; getting my husband to feed him (I think my stressing made the situation worse); and eating at the same time. And someone earlier posted that children this age aren't always that interested in food - and I would definitely second that. I would say that my DS only really 'got' food from about 18 months on - suddenly he worked out about mealtimes, and that he could have a variety, and that I wasn't trying to poison him!

Bloody hell, 3-4 pieces, that's more than my ds eats now and he's nealy one! They seem to need less food when doing baby lead weaning, most of the pureed food is water so although it looks like babies eat more, it's actually not got any more calories or goodness in it. Stick with it if she's happier that way. My ds will rarley eat from a spoon but will sometimes eat off our forks and nick some of our dinners, other than that I do all the things violet said. Sandwichs, fish fingers, Potato cakes are really easy to make but you can probably get frozen ones, jacket potato cut into wedges is a favourite of out ds, he also loves cheese on toast. Honestly, the amount she ate sounds ample for her age!

yes, it is plenty, and I'd advise you not to compare her appetite (or her anything else) to other children her age as that route lies misery.

If you put those 4 bite sized pieces into a bowl, added water and mashed until they were babyfood consistancy, you would have a normal portion of baby food. All finger food does is remove the water. The calories are still there. Trust her appetite, it's more accurate than your eyes.