What/how does your 15 month old eat?

[croquet]

My toddler was a very fussy baby (due to always teething) and, despite a good start on baby-led weaning, tended to spit food out or show little interest. We now feed her safe-ish foods in her high chair, letting her pick up some of it but mostly spoon/finger feeding. We did this to get her to start having three meals a day and now she is, I think we should branch back out again. Does anyone have any tips on how to do this? Should we 'start again' and let her have spoon and finger food and put the splash proof mat under the high chair again?

What are other people's 15 month olds eating? Do they sit still/use a spoon/make a lot of mess?

DD is not overly keen on mealtimes and does not eat unless coerced (lots of distraction with books, music etc).

We never did baby led weaning, partly as DD was premature (and so the recommended time for weaning her came before she had the motor skills for BLW).

She's now 15 months (13.5 months corrected) and still mostly spoon fed (lumpy wet food eg spag bol) with some finger food. She is starting to feed herself spoonfuls or forkfuls if you help her load the spoon or fork first, though she won't do this if she's too hungry and also not if she's not hungry enough! So generally the middle third of the bowl of food is when I try to get her to feed herself. Or something she loves like yoghurt.

I think she is a bit behind other children her age who would probably be more independent about eating by now. I suspect it's partly because we never did BLW, and partly because she is too impatient for the food to rely on her own inefficient feeding skills . However I'm not overly worried, she'll get there in her own time.

Honestly at this age I think it's more important that they get a good range of healthy food and less important how exactly it goes in. So if you have a difficult eater and you have found something that works to get decent nutrition into her, I wouldn't mess around with it too much. You could try upping the finger food but having some spoon food on standby, that's a soft way back to BLW.

Dd2 is 15mo and her meals go something like this:

Breakfast: toast fingers, a bit of banana or nectarine (all finger foods) and then I spoon-feed her weetabix or cheerios. I put a blob on cheerios on her tray which she can eat with her hands too.

Lunch: (main meal) spoon-fed dinner such as irish stew, mild curry, lentils, moussaka. Breadsticks and soft cheese on her tray - she won't eat from the spoon unless she has finger food to pick at. Pieces of fruit (sometimes get eaten) and sometimes a yeo valley yoghurt tube.

Supper: either pasta and sauce - she eats with her hands off her tray - with grated cheese (her favourite food), or else an omelette or scrambled egg, which I spoon-feed her. With cucumber pieces and toast fingers. Fruit and yoghurt.

She likes to use the spoon herself to eat the yoghurt - I hold the pot for her.

Dd2 is a far better eater than ds1 ever was / is still. He wouldn't voluntarily pick up any food and pretty much would only eat chicken nuggets and yoghurt. My experience with him is not to stress about what they eat (or don't eat) but to just offer a variety of foods and don't fuss if they won't have it. It doesn't really matter what they eat right now - it matters more that they don't get stressed about food and have eating issues that are long-lasting. I would personally put a few different foods on her tray that she can play with or taste if she likes. And keep on with spoon feeds if she will eat that way, although try a few different things, so she doesn't just get used to the fact that she can have her 3 favourite meals in rotation and never has to try anything else. If she refuses to touch finger foods, keep putting them on her tray so she at least gets used to the appearance of them, and may change her mind and poke at them one day. I'll admit it seems a waste of food and time during the mealtime itself, but in the long run it will pay off. It's still early days, so don't get stressed if she seems behind with her eating at this stage. Don't pressure her and let her go at her own pace. My mum said she was still having to puree my db's meals at 3yo, but he turned into a 'normal' eater! Just don't go comparing your lo to others - that is only ever demoralising! She will get there in the end if you go at her pace and don't push her. All the best.

Ds is 15mo (nearly 16mo) and has his meals as follows:

breakfast- banana whilst I prepare breakfast, he holds it in his hand and eats it himself. Then Weetabix or porridge, and its probably about 50/50 between me loading the spoon, putting it on his tray and him feeding himself, and me just spoon feeding him. Depends on how hungry he is

Lunch- a sandwich, or cheese/hummous/crackers/crudités/ cheese on toast that he feeds himself. Yoghurt which he dips the spoon in the pot himself 9with help!) and feeds himself

Dinner- a proper meal, eg, pasta, fish pie, lasagne, risotto, fishcakes, potato wedges, chilli and rice, curry and rice, stir fry. Again a mixture of us loading the spoon and passing it to him or us feeding him. Rice pudding or yogurt or fruit for dessert which he feeds himself until he starts messing about and smearing it everywhere

To answer your original question though, DS is definitely not as patient at sitting for long periods in the high chair as he used to be, and Christ almighty the mess...

My twins are 15 months and were weaned at 6 months with purées, introducing finger foods at around 8 months.

For breakfast they have weetabix/ ready brek or toast and banana. Dtd will spoon feed herself confidently but dts won't entertain it! He just sits there and opens his mouth for me to feed him .

We do a main meal at lunch as they're tired. It's usually pasta, fish, casserole, risotto etc. They have a few grapes/half a satsuma and a yoghurt for pudding. Again, dtd feeds herself. Dts chews but spits most of the fruit out .

Tea is something finger fed/beans or spaghetti on toast. They like eggy bread, cheese on toast, fruit bread and cubes of cheese. More fruit like banana/pear for pudding.

Very messy and they don't sit for long!