Mealtimes unbearable with one year old

[bobbyboo43]

As the title says really. Dd is 13 months old and has never been a great eater. She's been unwell a lot since starting nursery and each time seemed to lose her appetite which interrupted our weaning journey a lot.

Now at mealtimes she will tolerate maybe one or two spoonfuls from me, then she might feed herself one or two more but after that it's chaos and things just get thrown. I'm so sick of the mess and the food waste. Also worried that she's not getting enough in the way of nutrients because she's eating so little. She's still having 3 bottles of formula a day which she probably shouldn't be having anymore but that's all she'll take sometimes.

I'm ashamed to say lunch is quite often a bag of quavers because that's all she seems to want! Please tell me this gets easier.

Honestly, if my DS had eaten 4 spoons at that age for dinner, I'd have been delighted.

He drank lots of milk (BF) but was never a big eater.
His weight was always perfect so I tried not to force food.

He's now 3.5 and eats like a horse!

If her weight is fine, I'd just let her eat the amount she wants.

Just give her 4 spoonsful on her plate. Most one year olds won't eat if confronted with a bowl full of food, it is overwhelming.
Batch cook and just serve tiny portions.
Maybe offer small amounts of fruit or a couple of cooked carrot sticks, just to taste. She will get there.

I don't put massive portions in front of her and she does seem to do better with things she can pick at herself like a small handful of cheerio's or some sliced up fruit. But it never seems enough. Her weight is ok, she's on the small side but not worryingly so. Is it still ok for her to be having so much formula at this age?

Can you switch to cows milk instead of formula?

It's easy to get stressed over what they're eating but I just tell myself that I'm doing my job by offering food and he'll eat it if he's hungry and won't if he isn't. I wouldn't really worry once she's healthy.

My youngest is 16 months and was exactly the same until recently. There’d be days where it felt like she’d eaten almost nothing all day, but wanted to breast feed constantly. I feel your frustration, but if she’s a healthy weight and happy I’d go with it. It’s hard not to worry but I tried really hard just to relax and trust her. The last few weeks she just seems to have got it and will eat a decent portion, and the last couple of days there’s been no filling her! She was pretty picky and barely ate any fruit or veg consistently, but now is happily scoffing anything put in front of her.

Speak to yr HV see if there are any weaning courses available to help u.

Please don't worry, that's an entirely normal amount to eat. The best advice with kids is give them small portions, repeated exposure to different foods and to be completely indifferent to what they actually eat.

She just doesn't seem that interested in food. I don't want to rely solely on jars etc but when I've spent ages trying to make something nutritious just to see it get thrown on the floor it's really frustrating. Obviously she doesn't realise this but it drives me insane. We are skint and I can't stand food waste. But then I feel guilty giving her things out of a jar.

I've opted for toast today instead of the banana pancakes I lovingly made to get immediately chucked on the floor but again it feels like im always going for the not so healthy options because it's easier than making things that inevitably get wasted.

If she likes feeding herself try more finger food.

toast, cut up cheese and boiled eggs, cucumber, cut up tomatoes, grapes, berries. Whatever really. Meals don’t have to be hot.