13 month old refusing lunch

[holliem91]

My 13 month old ha started to absolutely refuse lunch, it doesn't matter what it is - she won't eat it.

She eats breakfast no problem, dinner no problem but her lunch she just refuses and I have no idea why.

She'll happily eat just fruit for lunch though. But if I try to give her sandwiches (which is what she normally has for lunch) she screams the house down and I just don't understand why.

Her sandwiches change everyday, she has al sorts of things in them and used to eat them no problem but not anymore.

It's affecting her sleep too and I'm sure it's because she's skipping this meal.

Any suggestions/advice?

Thank you!

Give her something other than a sandwich?

Something on toast, boiled egg and soldiers, omelette, soup and bread, pizza, fishfingers, scrambled egg....
Followed by fruit, yoghurt etc

Does she have a snack between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner?

Does it have to be a sandwich? What about crackers and cheese and fruit and yoghurt and make a picnic out of it.

Give her something else such as snack food instead of sandwiches

Let her have fruit for lunch

Don’t make food a battle

I found this age to be one where they really began to test their independence so it could be all sorts of things.

I agree with PP who said the different lunches - chunky soup, beans and toast, houmous and veg sticks and toast, etc.

Or it could be something to do with her sleep. If my DS was overtired at that age, he just couldn’t do lunch. Does she need a different nap arrangement?

Or it could be she’s just not that fussed about lunch. DS never has been (she says, going off to heat up some more soup which will probably remain uneaten!)

Thanks all. I have tried different foods too and she won't eat that either.

Made her beans on toast with scrambled egg for lunch the other day and she refused to eat that. Then the next day I tried just beans and toast on it's own and she refused that too. I'll try the little picnic of foods with crackers and stuff and see if she prefers that but it's just become such a battle recently. She always feeds herself too apart from dinner I normally feed her that which she's ok with.

It's not that she's too tired either because she always has a nap before lunch. I'm just so stuck with what to do

My son is 3 so a bit older, but I have to call all meals a snack. Snack breakfast, snack lunch, snack dinner. Quite annoying 😂 but I give him korma food just separated on the plate and he eats it. If it's not a snack (or a picnic) he's not interested.

Think it just makes meal times more fun for him.

I'm just confused as to why it's lunch that she refuses and no other meal, very strange!

Anyway, today I tried giving her avocado sandwiches which she refused (she used to love them) she screamed the house down as if I was torturing her. So I took her out of her high chair and she carried on screaming so I figured she is hungry but doesn't want them. So, instead I offered her dairylea dunkers which she loved dipping the sticks in the cheese and sucking on them then I offered her some raisins and she went back to screaming! Now she's chucking all her food on the floor

Mine went through a phase like this and it was infuriating and worrying all at the same time. It could be a number of things but I'd check to see if she's teething, it could be particularly bad for her around that time of the day. I would have little picnics in the living room so it was a fun and different environment and that would snap her out of it and when I desperate for her to eat and all she wanted was Yoghurt - I dipped everything in Yoghurt (and I mean everything) - that also worked. It did get to the point though that I said that was all that was on offer and if she wanted food later on, her lunch was re offered until dinner time.

It's not that she's too tired either because she always has a nap before lunch. I'm just so stuck with what to do

So could the opposite be the problem? If her lunch is straight after her nap, she might have too much get up and go to sit down at the table.

Is she comfy in her highchair? Do you eat at the Same time as her?

Similar age here, lunch tends to be toast with houmous/ cream cheese, with avocado/ cheese/ veg/ fruit for him to snack on.

He does seem to prefer fruit and veg than carbs as I usually put it on his plate together and he eats that first. I’m not that bothered if he just eats the fruit and veg on occasion.

@Rainallnight yes it could be actually. I do normally wait 15/20 minutes after her nap but maybe this isn't long enough. I'll try pushing her lunch back later tomorrow and see if that helps.

@Caspianberg she's definitely comfy in her high chair. It's only the lunch time meal she'll point blank refuse, no other meal time. I do eat with her but I think that can make her worse as she gets too easily distracted and is more inclined to chuck her food on the floor as she thinks it's some sort of game.

I think I'm overthinking it too much tbh. I'm going to give her more snacky bits for lunch along with fruit as she loves her fruit. At least it's not every meal she's refusing so it could be worse I suppose. Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'll give some of them a try!

DD at that age would only eat two out of three meals a day but would change which one would be refused so I had to keep offering all of them.

Someone told me to look at what she ate over a week and it would even out. That helped to stop me worrying but didn't help when she threw the unwanted food at me or just tipped her bowl over her own head!

@Loveitifwemadeit I love your idea of calling everything a snack!! Genius! 😅

My DD refuses meals too OP, its so frustrating. I think they just like to test us! Sometimes she just eats fruit, or a yoghurt, I'm trying to not get stressed and just hope she makes a decent go of her next meal.

@Topjoe19 absolutely! They really do like to test us don't they. I think perhaps if she was like this from the beginning I'd accept it more but because shes all of a sudden just changed I'm puzzled and disheartened I've tried to be a little more laid back today but it's still got to me a little on the inside.

She had toast for breakfast (ate just under half)
Fruit & yoghurt for a morning snack
I made her homemade pizza for lunch which she ate a 1/4 of (it was very tiny) so I gave her a little bit of cheese which she didn't touch and some ella's kitchen melty sticks which she loved! I think she would live off those if she could
Went to my mums and my mum suggested giving her some scrambled egg but she had 2 spoonfuls and refused the rest but then scoffed her whole dinner a bit later on with no problem!

Main thing is, at least she is eating - even if it's a small amount.

She had her vaccines 2 weeks ago today and had a fever last Wednesday from them that lasted 3 days. I'm hoping it's just an after affect from the fever she developed but keeping an open mind incase it stays this way.