1yo refusing food, still drinking loads of milk

[cobaltblue27]

Hi,
I am feeling like I am a failure with this mothering thing! DD (DC3), who has just turned one, started off brilliantly with weaning. She was very fixed on feeding herself, so we did an almost entirely baby-led approach, and she continues to this day to be very strong-minded about doing things for herself. She now barely eats anything at all, and if she will eat anything it is favourites like cheerios/Shreddies, yoghurt, cucumber, berries, apple, snacks. She will have tiny nibbles of cheese, ham and bread too, but really tiny amounts. She starts off well at mealtimes but quickly bursts into tears, throws stuff on the floor, and tries to climb out of the high chair. She only wants milk! Plus, I can't get her to drink anything from a cup. Currently she drinks no water, as the only thing she will drink is milk, and that has to be from a bottle. She is still having about 500-600mls of milk in a day, morning, noon and night. I am trying to cut down breastfeeding, but each time I try to cut down, she gets ill and then I feel guilty about it. DS1 is autistic and has been really awful with food from day 1, and so I am anxious about whether DD is also autistic. I am not sure if I can cope if so...

Hi, how long has this been happening for?

Oh and by the way try not to feel a failure we are all fumbling our way through parenting, when we r grandparents we can make out we know everything then 😀

It's possible that her cow's milk intake combined with breastfeeding is giving too many calories in the form of milk, so your dd is not that hungry for solid food. It is not clear whether you are ready to stop the breast feeding. If not, stop the bottles of milk and her appetite for solids will grow. As long as you don't increase the breast feeding to compensate. Or if you want to stop breast feeding, put her cow's milk in a cup and she will naturally reduce her intake because she is not fond of cups. She is likely to be cranky as she makes the transition to 3 meals a day, so try and enlist more support before you start. Vitamin drops would be useful at this point if she is not already having them. Get her weight checked to ensure her growth us satisfactory. You can look for autism indicators from age 18 months with the MCHAT assessment.

So at this age you need to be offering soilds before milk also make sure milk consumption is not above 40oz a day as this can cause milk anaemia. Id offer snacky foods so that babe can pick at it when they want to for now. You also have to remember that at one there is a food strike which is completely normal and part of the learning process but also completely frustrating 😤. Further have you tired pincic style instead of a highchair sy that age my DS started to hate the highchair Hey there so throwing is a common phases that will pass even though it is very frustrating 😤 find some tips above. With throwing foods i done a warning system for my son. One i said no. Two i said no and took food away for 1 minutes. Last throw i took food items away. This ia my own personal wau od dealing with it and you do not have to do this

I’d probably start by cutting down on the milk. Maybe half the amount in the morning and lunch time bottles, or just stop one of them straight away. Yes she’ll probably complain, but she’ll get over it. Aim to have her weaned off the daytime ones in a week or 2 and then tackle the bedtime one.

My DD is 2 and usually a great eater, but she loves milk. She’d happily fill up it and not eat real food. So I make sure she doesn’t have too much.