Eating everywhere but home

[2020firsttimemum]

Hi,

Our little one is coming up 11 months and is great with his food. When he's at nursery or at nanny's.

I work full time so he goes to nursery two days a week and at MIL one day a week. He eats EVERYTHING nursery give him and most of what my MIL gives him.

But at home he will not eat! He'll look at a bowl of food and start throwing a tantrum. Or if you give him finger foods he just mushes them up / throws them / spits it back out again. If I have him a yoghurt / banana / something sweet he's gobble it up!

I'm getting so frustrated and I don't know what else to try?! He's fairly small for his age because both me and his dad are so I worry he's not getting enough. He can sometimes fight his bottles too 🤦🏽‍♀️

Send help and good vibes plz

Can mil share any tips? My first instinct is provably that he eats at nursery because he's copying the other kids and not getting much attention and he knows he can push your buttons at home. Can you busy yourself with something while he's eating so he's not getting your full attention? Then ignore the bad behaviour and reward the good

@kitkatsky tbh I think if he refuses something then she just makes him something else and still gives him dessert (like a yoghurt) which I really don't want to get into the habit of. Whilst I know he doesn't massively understand yet, I don't want him to think that if he refuses food he can have something else. I definitely think sitting with other children is influencing him to eat, but it's not helping here 🙈
Tried for half an hour to get him to eat tonight until OH took over and made him some toast instead.. also not helpful 🤦🏽‍♀️

Is he refusing the same foods that he happily eats at nursery?

Having had a very serious food refuser I'd say it's not a battle of wills. Give him what he will eat and don't fuss about what he doesn't eat. If that means he lives off toast for a while then so be it, especially if he's eating elsewhere. He will most likely outgrow it. 11 month olds need an astonishingly tiny amount of food to live on too, I think it's easy to get carried away with how much they haven't eaten when actually they are taking in enough.

My DD is 7mo (but weaning since 5mo as advised) she will eat at the Childminder. But at home it’s a no, no matter what I give her. I eat with her etc. but she Clamps shut, covers mouth, and will get more and more distressed. Today I was looking after my friends 4yo DS and she sat happily and ate her lunch. So no help, but understand your frustration.

Agree with PP - give him what he will eat. I have a suberb eater and he will still fuss every now and then and he will say "cookie" so here, have one. He will be happy, sit in his chair, I give him a cookie, followed by avocado followed by grapes followed by peppers ...etc. He will eat it all.

I don't "cook" million things but I give him an option to have anything we currently have at home, he can pick. Never has it happened to me that he'd not found something he will have. Also we only have what I buy hence he cannot have chips crisps salty rubbish - I don't buy that so it's not even an option. He can have anything we are eating, no matter if it's pasta, pizza, doner, or the cookies.

Food is not anything we fuss about, and if he throws it to the floor (very common) I give him a few more tries but usually means he is done, I say "done" wipe his hands and off he goes (usually to steal kibble from the cats or eat some random paper he sees on the floor...).

Mine is like this, hopefully it’s just a phase. He used to eat everything. Now it’s yogurt, fruit, breakfast food and, somewhat randomly, olives. He’s getting a balanced diet at nursery so I figure a couple of days of odd combination meals won’t do him much harm. I’ll give him porridge for supper if he he hasn’t eaten much that day to make sure he’s not hungry.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the replies. I'd completely forgotten I'd posted on here!

Little one seems to be getting better. Hopefully just that phase.

Considering their tummies are so tiny, the boy can eat!
For breakfast sometimes he'll polish off some cereal / muesli / porridge and a slice of toast and a yoghurt 🤦🏽‍♀️

He seems a lot better now we've dropped to two bottles as well

Thanks for all your help!