My 1 year old will only eat puffs!

[Bethmxox]

I’m honestly at a loss with my little boy, he will turn 1 on Saturday and for last month the only thing he will eat is puffs , dry cereal or crackers.

ive tried just not offering them but he screams and cry’s for hours hungry unless he gets them, I’ve offered him eveything I can think off but he won’t touch a thing. He won’t let us anywhere near him with a spoon and cry’s and cry’s if he’s in his highchair now.

he was an amazing eater when we first weaned him and would eat any flavour at all ( pouches or blended food ) when he was 10 months we switched him to ‘ proper solids ‘ and he was doing really well but then one day woke up and just completely refused anything ever since. He won’t even look or touch anything but his preferred foods.

I’ve tried talking to our HV who just advised me to not offer them. He was sleeping through the night but now he’s up nearly every hour wanting a bottle and has also become very clingy and will now only sleep if I’m holding him. He won’t even go to his dad 😩

I’m just so worried about my baby and so tired I end up in tears most days. ( I also have pnd and am 6 months pregnant with baby no2 )

Just stop buying them. Offer fruit, cheese, yoghurt and crackers with pate spread on them and proper nutritional food. He's 1 year old he will soon forget the puffs. I'm assuming cheesy puffs like crisps. They have no nutritional value and I can't understand why you'd ever have offered them to him in the first place. If he's hungry he will eat what you offer him. Make sure he has milk. You might just have to tolerate a couple of days of crying when he does not get his own way.

I like how u can say stop buying them I've been in the same place she is and trust me when u have child that is crying u end up giving it it's not as simple as u think my 3 year old is the same will only eat certain foods and it's very limited

I've been in ur place and it's hard work just keeps giving small plates of different foods and it will get better it took me ages to get my dd to eat certain foods the more u think about the worse it seems good luck op

Thankyou everyone for the replies!
just to clarify a few things

puffs are the Ella’s kitchen ones or organix sticks , we aren’t giving him wotsits ect , I’m aware there is no nutritional value of them previously before this bout of things he would only have them once a week if that as an easy snack if we was away from home

we offer him 3 meals a day still + snacks. They are always healthy and filled with fruit and veg ect. Though in all honesty at this point I’d be happy if he would even eat a McDonald’s happy meal ( I’m obviously not going to offer him one )

we have tried highchair and picnic style meal times I’ve even tried just leaving his plate of food on the sofa whilst he plays so he can just come and help himself when he fancies it but it’s not worked.

we always sit and eat together at meals and he isn’t interested in taking anything from my plate unfortunately , but he always has the option open to him

for everybody saying just ‘ stop buying them’ this is all well and good but It’s difficult when your baby is crying for hours on end and that’s the only thing that will help them. Though we have tried the just not offering them and eventually broke after a week of tantrums and tears but we are considering trying this again

we have a gp appointment booked for Friday

his milk is expressed breast milk in a bottle and we will obviously continue to keep him on this untill we manage to find a way to get more food into him. And then hopefully this comes quick as my freezer stash is getting low and my supply has drastically dropped since getting pregnant 😩

he is already on daily multi vits 😊

he won’t eat pouches anymore even let us anywhere near him with a spoon , let alone feed himself them

for extra information , this all started around the same time as he started to walk independently
( not sure if that makes any difference)

it really worries us as he was born premature at a tiny 4lbs and we really needed to battle to get his weight up and come close to needing a feeding tube!! He now weighs 24lbs which is amazing but the thought of his weight dropping again terrifies me!

Thankyou again for reading!! And for all of the advice!

Though we have tried the just not offering them and eventually broke after a week of tantrums and tears but we are considering trying this again
Did he really keep asking for them for a whole week, or did it just seem like it?

Surely he would forget about them after a day? A week seems a bit long for a baby of that age to remember.

He’s only 1 years old poor baby at this stage I would expect him to be having most of his calories from breast milk while being gently introduced to little bits of home cooked food. Wanting to sleep with you at this stage is natural and normal. You’re trying to make him fit your life and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Poor baby.

My son is generally a good eater but at 9 months old he went through a phase for 3-4 weeks of only eating dry breadsticks and very little else. He'd been sick with Covid and it was possibly due to having his taste buds affected. Hopefully this will be just a passing phase, try not to stress too much because these things usually work themselves out in my experience.

Snap with our daughter, but its bread, she has eaten nothing but bread for at least four weeks now.

My DS was exactly like this. Ate anything at first, then only wanted dry cereal and sandwiches.
He is an adult now and has been diagnosed with ARFID and ASD.
I'm not saying this is what's going on with your son but it might be worth googling ARFID.

What a judgemental and unhelpful person you are.

Just to add I’m not Not sure what constituted such a rude reply.

we have infact weaned properly, and as stated in orginal post he was doing amazing and eating a multitude of different foods before this phase started. My husband is actually a a fully qualified chef so I can assure you proper healthy food is not missing in our home.

puffs was introduced as an occasional easy on the go snack when we wasn’t home, which was once a week if that. It’s easy to question why they was ever introduced but when they are marketed to babies as ‘ ideal first finger foods ‘ as a first time mum it’s hard to navigate exactly what to offer. Especially when you’re in a rush , away from home and just trying to get basic errands done.

they was actually first given to us as a sample at a weaning group run by our Health Vistor. So whilst they are clearly not anybody’s idea of ‘ healthy ‘ I really don’t think they are as bad as some reply’s are making out. Honestly it feels like you all think I’m feeding my son poison reading some of these reply’s.

I will never understand how other mums can come on to an online forum designed to help mums and be so rude and judgemental. We are all doing our best, it’s about time we all started being more kind.

I’m actually just trying to make sure he is getting healthy food and is happy. I can assure this has absolutely nothing to do with ‘ fitting my life’

I honestly hope your the worlds most perfect mum, otherwise please keep your judgment to yourself and take your extremely unhelpful comment else where.

OP please ignore the post from @Lovepeaceunderstanding You're trying your best!

Some people are very insecure, so to make themselves feel better and to make up for their own shortcomings they bully others, it really isn’t any different to children who bully other children.

@kirsty2023, I'd not be giving in to feed non nutritional food to a 1 year old. Buying these cheese puffs is not good for the child. I think it's lazy to just give them non nutritional food for a quiet life. Better to break the poor diet whilst the child is 1 or she will end up like you and have a 3 year old that won't eat properly.

Just wanted to say thankyou again to everybody who has replied with kind words and advice. It is honestly hugely appreciated. I will be trying out everybody’s suggestions over the next few days untill our gp appointment where hopefully they can give us some insight aswell.

as I stated in original post, I have post natal depression and I am finding motherhood extremely difficult to navigate at times , unfortunately I lost my own mum in traumatic circumstances a few days after our son was born so I don’t really have anybody to go for advice as I’m younger ( 23 ) none of my friends are mums yet and I’ve not had much luck making new mum friends ,which is what makes the hurtful and rude replies on this thread so much harder to stomach. For my own mental health I’m going to be logging off and most probably not returning again as in all honesty I’ve gone to bed in tears feeling like the worlds worst mum this evening and it’s brought on some of my more harmful thoughts and suicidal feelings ( whilst I’m sure not the intended purpose unfortunately it’s my biggest trigger , my husband has called the out of hours team and I have somebody coming round to see me soon )

To all the judgemental replies we all joined this site for a reason and that was either to get advice or to give it. So how you can act like you’ve never made a mistake or got stuck in abit of a rut before is beyond me. So for all those who wasn’t so helpful with your comments Next time you see a mum reaching out for help, do try and be kinder with your words. You never know what they have going on in their life.

There is absolutely no need for this reply. How disgusting.

Hope you're okay and I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. I hope my comment reaches you in time. But don't stress and give him the puffs. It might be because he's teething and likes the texture. My daughter was like this for a couple of months and like you I couldn't understand what was happening and I had pnd. I let her have what she wanted and the milk she asked for. Some kids just drink more milk. Quickly realised she was teething hence why clingy and more milk and fussy about specific food. It will pass soon please don't worry. Think mines was like this was for a few months.

She's now a happy soon to be 6 year old and eats everything!

@caringcarer are you kidding? 1 year olds are still learning to chew food. Half of it ends up on the floor. Kids learn when they're a bit older on what to eat and what not to eat.

I’m judging no one. Babies aren’t designed to fit around us. If that is a difficult truth to swallow I’m sorry.

@Lovepeaceunderstanding every kids different. No point judging others or pointing fingers.

Some of these replies op are offensive yet so hilarious. When did others become such experts regarding OTHER PEOPLEs children? So judgemental and entitled to give their opinion on an online forum. Kids are still learning what to eat until they're 2. Please don't worry OP. It's a stage and it will pass. Just do what you're doing and if he likes puffs give it to him. Eat things in front of him. He'll soon come to you when he's ready. Like I said my daughter was teething a few teeth badly and was like for a few months. I was worried but it passed.

Babies don’t need a chef though. A chef is not the expert on infant nutrition. Truly I’m not trying to judge. I was not able to breastfeed my very prem babies I understand that breastfeeding doesn’t always happen. There isn’t a race to solids. If we look to our past babies would be milk fed for a long while. Some people do try to push the baby to solids for their convenience that’s a sorry fact.