Feeling a bit inadequate!

[teacher123]

DS (14mo) goes to a lovely childminder 2 days per week, she is very nice, I like her very much and he adores her. All good.

However he is a bit of a picky eater, could someone reassure me that it's not just me...?

Basically he doesn't really like eating finger food, things that are wet (like strawberries etc) he won't even put in his mouth to try, he just throws them immediately on the floor. He will be spoon fed quite happily and will eat a wide variety of things (cottage pie, pasta, fish pie, fish fingers, roast dinner etc) and will happily eat dry things in his fingers like toast, dry cereal, raisins, little pieces of cheese etc. however he gets really frustrated with finger food when he's hungry because he can't feed himself quickly enough, and then he gets cross.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else? She makes me feel a little bit like I'm making him fussy, because he won't really eat sandwiches or gleefully eat cherry tomatoes and I give him things I know he'll eat. (Basically anything with a spoon!)

He's not a doll, he's a unique baby.

Is totally normal to be fussy as he's still learning about foods and textures etc.

My DS is 3.5 years old and for the most part he has a good variety of foods and has always been a good eater... However, there are some days he'll loudly protest if I give him XYZ, whereas the next day he will adore XYZ. My friend has a similar aged child who survives on ice-pops and raisins for a week, then some other combination of foods for another week, then changes again.

Check out the food and weaning sections of MN, lots of other mums in similar situations.

Are you worried that your childminder is saying that because she doesn't have the time to devote to your DS eating with a spoon?

Try not to worry.

The childminder may be inconvenienced by your son not eating finger food? Perhaps if you explain that he is still getting used to finger food and that he'll get there in good time. There is no rush, all in good time.

He's my pfb and I worry with things like this that I'm just getting it wrong! Thank you for your words of reassurance. I think she would like him to eat the same as her other mindees, which I totally understand, as it must be a faff doing different things for him.