DD not interested in lunch

[Opinionatedloser]

My 1yr DD has never been interested in lunch since I started weaning. She’s been on 3 meals a day from prob about 9/10 months and eats a good breakfast and evening meal but just isn’t interested in lunch. I used to try mostly finger foods at lunch as she was getting ready to start nursery and I wanted her to be able to feed herself but I also give her hot meals for lunch e.g leftovers from dinner or scrambled egg etc. She always picks at it, eats a few mouthfuls then refuses the rest.
She doesn’t fill up on snacks inbetween and I don’t even offer snacks unless she’s showing signs of being hungry as I don’t want her to associate if she doesn’t eat a meal then she’ll get a snack later.
She’s breastfed but only feeds 1-2 times maximum in the day now and even with no feeds from breakfast - lunch she still doesn’t eat more.
She had dropped a centile at last weigh in but she was on the 50th so I’m not concerned (she had also been ill and always goes off her food when she’s ill so I think the weight drop was more to do with that than her food intake in general)
Does anyone have a similar child? What can I do other than just to keep offering the food?
I’ve also tried to introduce milk in a cup and she doesn’t like that (save that for another thread lol)

Firstly, she probably won’t drink milk from a cup with you around. She might drink it at Nursery or she just might wait until she sees you and want a big feed.

Is she BFing overnight at all? If she’s only feeding once or twice in the day and not at night, have you thought of adding an extra daytime feed in? That might help with your concerns about the weight.

Is she having finger food at her other meals or are you spoon feeding her?

As long as she’s eating a varied diet overall, don’t stress too much.

Some people are less hungry at certain times of the day. I have to force myself to eat breakfast (work in a very physical job and am starving by 11am if I don’t). DD2 isn’t a big dinner eater, she eats a lot at breakfast and lunch.

Are you concerned about her health? Or you just feel she should be eating more at a set meal time because it is the done thing?

@JiltedJohnsJulie you might be right there, although she never accepted breast milk in a cup/bottle and she doesn’t like cereal with milk in but will eat it with yogurt, she’s fine with porridge where you can’t see/taste it so I think she just isn’t keen on cows milk but hopefully if I keep trying she might accept it.
She still feeds overnight, can be anything from 1-3 times and I let her have it anytime she asks so I can’t really squeeze anymore feeds in lol.
I give her a mix of both really, normally something spoon fed with finger foods too, she’s very independent and doesn’t like being spoon fed so I give her a spoon to do it herself and then sneak in spoonfuls with another spoon, she’s getting good at putting the food in her mouth herself with her own spoon now though.
@TwilightPeace I’m not concerned I think she is generally small, she’s very diddy in height and my side of the family isn’t very tall. I think whats made me think about it more is seeing some of the baby weaning people I follow on Instagram feeding their babies and they just seem to eat loads at all meals. She eats a good breakfast/dinner but not as much as I see some babies eating! I know I shouldn’t compare her and maybe like you say she just isn’t massively hungry at lunch, the fact she’s always been like it makes me think it’s just the way she is.
When she’s full she will practically throw the food across the room if I keep offering it so I really can’t encourage her to eat anymore than I do lol.