16 month not eating much

[Mummy9431]

Can people please reassure that my 16 month old is doing what she should be cause I’ve had enough of worrying!

shes always been a tiny baby even tho she was 9 pound when she was born. I’ve always spoon fed her up untill the last two weeks. She will not let me feed her at all, it ends up been a stressful situation and it’s got to point now that I’m anxious before every meal and don’t want to feed her.

I’ve tried putting food in front of her but she just plays with it rips it into pieces. The things I know she will eat are raspberries, noodles, and spaghetti hoops. I can’t keep giving her same food cause she’s not getting what her body needs but if I try anything new she will not entertain it at all.

the amount of people that come up to us and say aww she’s so petite, makes me feel worse cause I struggle to feed her. I know she could just be a petite toddler but because me and are dad arnt petite I’m worried she’s not getting enough.

honestly don’t know what to do anymore I’m so down with it, I also don’t want things to carry on the way they are because I don’t want to cause feeding issues later in life for her. ( my mum was anorexic then suffered with bulimia)
I need someone to tell me she’s ok I’m the problem and this is how toddlers are 😢

Does your DD still drink milk OP? How much? If you think she might be filling up on milk too much you could try smaller/less frequent feeds and see if that increases her interest in food.

BUT. At 16 months the amount of food she actually needs is still small, especially if she's still breastfeeding / drinking formula.

I know it's really difficult, but try to step back and at least appear relaxed.

The easiest way to do this is just sit her at the table with you at mealtimes, put a little of whatever you're having in front of her and let her decide what / how much she wants to eat. The only real no-nos at her age are choking hazards (whole nuts, whole grapes etc) and too much salt. As she sounds new to self-feeding she will take a while to work out hand-to-mouth coordination, chewing etc. but it will come.

At this age my DC loved dipping bread/toast in homemade soups (basically like pureed veg but tastier), dipping fruit in yoghurt, eating grated cheese by the handful, scrambled egg, mashed sweet potato, hummus and breadsticks...

You could get her weighed to make sure she's steadily gaining and not losing weight to put your mind at rest.

I think you're going to have to roll with it. She's moved on from being fed & it's better to encourage her rather than trying to get the spoon in her mouth. She will get the hang of it but she's learning. Supply the food, ignore the fact it's a total mess & much of the food goes to waste.

She has roughly between 15-18oz a day it’s normally 9 in morning and 9 at night ?
would you say that’s was too much?
I seem to think if I can get milk in her I know she’s had some kinda food, I don’t think mentally I can cut down on her milk, I already feel like I’m going mad worrying about the lack of food she has.
I’ve made her some tuna Mayo with wraps and she’s eating bits of that which is really good!

Remember that pureed baby food has a really high water content, so in the average jar/pouch/homemade portion there's very litter actual solid food in them. A very small portion of real food is probably roughly equivalent.

I never knew that! That’s really shocked me!

@Mummy9431 I know where you are coming from. My little girl was 8 11 when born so quite a good size but gosh we had problems with her eating. Also so many people say she's tiny however when weighed by health visitor she's actually average. When she was 15months i had to get the health visitor out because she went a month of refusing all food apart from the baby veggie stick crisps. We would put out meals in front of her but if i tried to encourage her to eat she would be distraught. I was desperate but both health visitor and doctor said that i was doing all the right things and that it would just pass. she then slowly started to eat few more things but she's still so fussy now at almost 2.

She still won't eat breakfast so I usually make her a smoothie. I just whizz up some avocado (because it doesn't taste of anything) and banana plus some kind of other fruit with milk and she always drinks that first thing. I started with just avocado and I couldn't believe it when she drank it (from a bottle but still)

she now eats meat, olives, pasta, rice, potato and after months of offering vegetables daily (with her refusing) she has recently decided she loves cucumber and broccoli. and will now try most things. She won't eat chocolate, cake etc so she genuinely is just quite particular.

Please don't worry, i literally googled for hours and was really worried but finally I am starting to see improvements and I am sure you will do soon too xx

Stargazer89 its awful that’s you’ve been through the stress I’m going through but it’s nice to hear that someone else has a child as fussy as mine and that’s she’s nice and healthy! I’m going to throw loads of new foods at her and just see how she gets on. I think she’s just going to be fussy but hopefully we’ll find something she will eat. I hate when people come up to us and say how tiny she is it makes me feel like I’m failing everyday cause I physically can’t make her way things :(

I am going to let her get on with it now cause it’s going to effect our relationship and her relationship with food if I keep been the way I am
Xx

@Stargazer89 can I ask what was your babies weight, was she in the under weight section? Xx

@Mummy9431 it is such a stress. Does your daughter still take a bottle? if so i really recommend blending some avocado in with her milk because I honestly didn't expect my daughter to drink it but she didn't really take much notice and would drink it as normal. I def think it helped her gain a bit of weight. You could try banana too.

Does your daughter go to nursery? mine doesn't and everyone would say that she would eat more when eating with other children and very recently she started to do this. I used some of those plates with the section and would put something she liked in one section then new foods on the other two. For months and months she wouldn't touch the two sections of new foods or she would chuck them on the floor but we kept offering and only now are we seeing improvements. But from 12-18 months was certainly the hardest.

She was 8 11 when born and then when weighed at by health visitor she was still a healthy weight (can't remember what it was) but she had dropped from 80th percentile to just under 50th. but she just looks small.

@Stargazer89 she does yes but does drink loads, this has just dropped this last month from 9oz in a morning and night to 3/4oz morning and night. I’ve just been and bought some avocado definitely trying this in the morning.
yes she’s goes to nursery 2 afternoons a week and they say she eats well but I don’t believe them cause she’s doesn’t eat well here. Going to get her one of them plate too so her food is all separate. She’s had some porridge for breakfast which I had to distract her with crayons she ate the lot. Wouldn’t touch noodle for dinner but had a yogurt then I’ve taken her to nursery.

I’ve spoken to the health visitor as I’ve had to buy her smaller clothes. She’s coming out next week to weigh her. I told them it needed to be sooner rather than later as my mental health is getting seriously concerning. I know if health visitor says she’s healthy all my stress and worry will go away and things can start been relaxed again.