Dread meal times with 15 month old DD

[Blak]

Hi all,
I’m really struggling at the minute (have been for about a month now) DD just seems completely off any sort of food I give her, even if it’s her favs that she used to eat without a fail. I’ve always tried to get her to try new things and to make sure she has a balanced diet but at meal times at the minute she will barely touch a thing, she Throws her food over the side of her high chair, tried to stand in her high chair, screams and gets herself really worked up. I don’t think it’s teething and I have tried letting her watch a programme to distract her etc, in fact I have tried just about everything I can to get her to eat. I’m at my wits end as surely it can’t be good for her and meal times are just the worst part of the day at the minute.

Has anyone ever been through this or could anyone give me some advice on how to potentially solve this.

TIA

Have a read up on the Division of Responsibility approach to feeding. Essentially it is our job to serve a healthy range of foods including at least one thing they will normally eat and it is their job to decide how much and what to eat from that. No pleading, no pressure from us.

Unless there are other issues going on a child will not starve themselves. They are very good at self-regulating with food if we let them.

Since I embraced that approach meal times are a breeze and we are all much less stressed. Some days he eats loads, sometimes not much at all. But he could continues to grow and thrive.

@squee123

Have a read up on the Division of Responsibility approach to feeding. Essentially it is our job to serve a healthy range of foods including at least one thing they will normally eat and it is their job to decide how much and what to eat from that. No pleading, no pressure from us.

Unless there are other issues going on a child will not starve themselves. They are very good at self-regulating with food if we let them.

Since I embraced that approach meal times are a breeze and we are all much less stressed. Some days he eats loads, sometimes not much at all. But he could continues to grow and thrive.

I agree with this. I also read about the division of responsibility after a stressful first few months of weaning, during which time DD wasn’t really taking to solids at all.

We’ve maintained this philosophy since then and it works really well for us. DD is nearly two now and there is no rhyme or reason to what she will or won’t eat on any given day. We make sure she’s offered a balance but never get stressed about what she ignores, removes from her plate etc. She still throws food occasionally, which is annoying but we don’t turn it into too much of a battle... hopefully the phase will pass eventually.

Instead we try and focus on meal times being a fun, social time that everyone enjoys.

Feeding littles on Instagram is really helpful for this stage.

It is just a stage and they get through it. They won't let themselves starve so just try and let it go and not stress about it (although that's much easier said than done!)

Have you got a little table and chair (or room for one)? We moved to that at about the same age and it really helped. Different presentation helped, DS used to like every thing in little bowls rather than on the high chair tray or just one plate.

I don’t think that the watching tv as a distraction is a good idea.