All food ends up on the floor every day 😔

[BethMaddison]

Dd is 16 m
Everything I offer him with the exception of a few things I can sneakily spoon in/squeeze from a pouch are thrown on the floor. I dont think he’s eating enough at all and he already needs iron liquid

Today he was offered
Croissant
Banana
Berries
Almond yogurt
He only ate the yogurt as managed to squeeze it in whilst peppa was on ...everything else was thrown

Chicken
Cucumber
Avocado
Cup of soya milk
All went on floor and he drank the milk

Sweet potato puree (got a few mouthfuls in as he likes it)
Water

Toast
Strawberries
Few chocolate buttons
Had half a strawberry and a bite of toast

Yesterday we tried spaghetti Bolognese he hated it and threw that.
He is breastfed morning and evening and has 1 cup of soya milk a day (4-6 oz)

Is this just a phase ? I seem to spend all days picking food up from under his high chair

*Ds

He is dairy and egg free if that’s of any relevance (hence why we were advised the soya milk and 4 small meals a day)

Oh dear! DD makes a lot of mess at the moment so I sympathise.

Do you eat all your meals together? I mostly give DD food from my plate as she prefer it (probably because it feels forbidden).

If he likes sweet potato have you tried baking some in the oven for him to try?

He didn’t like it I think as the sweet potato purée is so familiar as it was the first food he had that he likes it. Still have to distract him to get some in though !
Feel like when I make something all my effort is for nothing as he throws it !!!

I’d say just keep offering what you can then. Just offer your meal or a variation so you’re not making extra. DD recently went through a phase of refusing pasta/ omelette but luckily seems to be back on track now! It’s usually when she’s teething or got a cold coming on.

Luckily we have a dog to vaccum up all the mess!

Maybe I need a dog then 🤣 all I seem to be doing is clearing up food !

Is he teething? My similar age DS has cut 3 teeth in a couple of weeks and was barely eating anything! One day he stared me in the eye as he tipped his entire dinner on the floor.

If this is a typical day, it's all quite sweet and quite soft. It might be worth mixing up textures and flavours. My boy loves crunchy bread sticks (I put hummus or cream cheese on sometimes) rice cakes etc and he also loves a spicy chilli or curry. We had great success with pizza made from wraps the other day too. I also found presenting things in different bowls or plates helped - I think it makes him feel like he's got more of a choice.

Could be teething as he only has 6

As someone has mentioned do you eat together whilst hes eating or do you sit and watch him and make a big thing about offering him food? For lunchtimes I eat at the same time as my boy , put all the food infront of him and both of us get on. I ignore any food throwing and just pick it up after (handheld hoover really helps! And a couple of work friends have mentioned having a messy mat/shower curtain!)

The only time we eat together is breakfast and dinner advice he has 4 smaller meals so for 2 of them I’m not eating. He doesn’t eat any better when we are with him but maybe I could try and have a snack at the same time ?
He has breakfast 7-730 , a snack at about 10 then lunch after his nap so anytime really 130/2 then dinner when we eat around 5/530

Hmm maybe try cutting out the snack? With my boy if he was throwing food I figured he was not hungry, if theyre hungry they'll eat whats infront of them :-)

For info my boy eats breakfast at 8/8.30, lunch at 1/1.30 and tea 5.30/6, with no snacks between x

I’ll try that and see if it works

Do you react at all to the food dropping? DD used to do this, I ignored it so she didn't think it was a funny game and eventually she stopped.

No we just ignore it and then clear it away
Today he’s had an almond yogurt, a small banana, a few tiny pieces of sausage and some cucumber, 1 strawberry and 6oz soya milk

Sandwiches and olives got thrown, vegetable casserole he wouldn’t feed himself or let us feed to him and the bowl then got thrown on the floor.

I think I’m going to have to assume it’s hopefully just a phase and keep getting his vitamins and iron supplements in and keep my fingers crossed it improves