One-year-old DD suddenly refusing to eat at dinner time

[killerkitty]

Hi there,

Just in the past two weeks my 12-month-old DD has started to refuse her dinner. She still eats happily at lunchtime, but when she's tired, especially after nursery twice a week, she screams and pushes away her food.

Avoiding her flailing arms, I try to gently put the food to her lips because then she often stops yelling and gobbles it all up. Other evenings I don't bother with the fuss of spoon-feeding her and just let her have finger food, but then she's very fussy and will only eat broccoli (I know! What problem, huh?)

At lunchtime she's very happy to try and feed herself with a spoon, or have me help her, so it's very disconcerting to have her completely change in the evening.

As an aside, I realise the BLW fans among you will jump on me for trying to spoon-feed her anyway, but although I like this method, in practice it can take far too long. As a working mum, some days my time is limited and I just need to get her fed, not watch her throw food around.

Btw, DD still also has three bottles of milk a day, which she loves.

So what am I doing wrong at dinner time, and how can I change it?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

The more attention you give her the more she will do it.
Have you tried sitting and eating with her? Put a variety of different things in front of her and both of you share them.
If she doesn't eat then calmly take the food away.
You could try cutting her milk down.

I don't know if this helps at all, but my 3-year-old son is still a nightmare at dinner time when it comes to eating - and yet he'll happily fill his little face at lunchtime with whatever you put in front of him. Maybe she just prefers to tank up earlier in the day and then just eat lightly in the evening. Would it be possible to switch things around, so that she has her big, 'main' meal at lunchtime and then just a light meal at what would otherwise be dinnertime? It seems to work quite well with my son.

I also agree with mnistooaddictive - the more attention you give her when she won't eat, the more she'll play up. Don't let her feel as if you're pleading with her to eat - even at this tender age kiddies are very aware of the power they can wield over a worried parent when it comes to refusing food.

Killerkitty, I have just been through almost 3 months of this with DS - now 12 months so I feel your frustration.

Best advice I can give you is not to make a fuss. Don't let her see it is bothering you, and if she just wants brocolli then that's what you give her. If she's like my DS, she'll be bored with that and onto something else in a few weeks. We had a phase of only sweet potato, peas, baked beans, rasberries, rice cakes and at one point yoghurt. What I also did was to give him his dessert first then put a variety of finger food on his tray and let him get on with it (watching but not so he'd notice IYSWIM).

Like your DD, my DS loved his lunch and still took his milk - 2 bottles per day, morning and before bed, in out case - so I knew he wasn't missing out on nutrients. Anyway, just this week he is now back onto his dinner but doesn't take too much. I guess he prefers a big meal at lunch. Breakfast is now a nightmare though but am adopting the same technique

Honestly, try not to worry, it will pass.

.............Apologies for the spelling, I've been up since 5.15