Fussy Eating

[RAYH25]

I'm really struggling to stay calm at meal times, my DD is 17 months and she just constantly refuses food. I'm worried she isn't eating enough she's a skinny lean thing and everything gets met with 'no' unless its fruit or tomatoes 😤😭 today for example:

Milk: she usually has about 10oz split between morning and bedtime bottle.

B: Offered 5 banana slices and 1 slice of toast cut up. She ate: One bitesize square bit of toast and 1 slice of banana.
S: Had half a pear
L: Offered Chicken Mayo sandwich bites (12 bites in total), 2 tomatoes, cucumber and some wotsits. She ate: 2 small plum tomatoes, 2 slices of cucumber, 1 bitesize bit of sandwich and the wotsits
D: Offered Sausage casserole and mash (1 sausage cut into circle slices then halved), She ate 3 bits of sausage (so 1.5 slices in total) and a tsp of mash. Refused her desert.

The only thing she will religiously eat is fruit, cheese or mince & tatties 🙄I'm struggling with what to feed her as most of what we eat she does not enjoy.

I know it's frustrating, but she is eating some of what you give her which is great. Is she complaining of being hungry between meals? If not she might just be eating enough for her.

What I mean is, if she absolutely refuses everything you give her and will only eat a few specific things that you have to then make for her after giving her the planned meal then that's not good. She's picking at what you do offer, so I dont think it's fussy eating, it's just 17mo old eating!

Id recommend following solid starts on Instagram if you have it and checking out their website. Really great resource for confidence with infant feeding.

Thank you @Spottypineapple, when she started weaning she was great ate/tried pretty much everything but overtime its slowly decreased. I will have a look at that page to see if I can get some tips, thank you.

I don't offer/cook another meal for her if she refuses the planned meal as I worried this would make the situation worse. So if for example she refuses her dinner I still offer her usual yogurt afterwards as I normally would.

Hopefully it's just a phase, I just worry we have very few things we can rely on giving her 🙈

Sorry forgot to mention yes she does seem to look for snacks in between. She is more or a grazer than a full meal eater

@RAYH25 I'm no expert so not sure I can advise really. My DD also started out well and has got consistently fussier over time. Now 4.5.

my friend recommended to me to use snacks as healthy meals. So offer cucumber or carrot sticks and hummus as snacks or anything else that would be part of a meal ideally. Her kids are slightly older - they moan cos they want crisps etc but they're hungry so they eat it. She does her 5 a day that way.

I do also adapt meals for DD. So if we're having salmon and veg she will have fish fingers with the same veg or plain pasta when we have sauce. Not ideal but better than her not eating and gives the illusion of a family meal.

She is only 17 months so still pretty young.

It's frustrating but sounds like you are doing great.

She is eating... and doesn't sound fussy?

she's not eating very much, but she is eating pretty much everything you're offering, just not in the amount you think is correct...

Ditch the crap like wotsits.

Maybe drop the morning milk too.

Maybe she doesn’t like bread?
Have you tried something like this:

B - a small bowl of porridge or Greek yogurt (with honey/banana/raisins/blueberries etc to sweeten, change them up to see if there is interest in variety)

L - picnic type, e.g. boiled egg, olives, canned tuna, cold chicken drumstick (or any cold cut/leftover), slices of cheddar/cubes of feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrot sticks

D - mine used to eat so little at dinner at that age, it was worrying me too. I just kept re offering the dinner or fruit/snack until bedtime.

Mine could be like this on and off in particular in the summer

I sort of stopped thinking too much on quantities etc, he is a slim one but I think you have to figure if they're hungry they'll eat..

I do tend to veer towards a 'buffet' style so he has some options to pick between at breakfast snacks and lunch and I either eat what's left (generally that's my breakfast daily lol) or it just goes back in the fridge. Things like fruit, salad (avocado cucumber tomato pepper etc) cold boiled eggs sliced up, meat - they're all fine if you have one who doesn't 'try' the stuff just looks at it and thinks 'nope', as it comes out for a few mins, isn't touched, goes back in, and sometimes he does fancy that item and goes for it.

Dinner I just do what we are having but do find that I don't think on that at all if he's tried a few things for brekkie morning snack, lunch and a pm snack. It has meant I eat more fruit and salad too as there's just always a mixed pot of them both in the fridge to eat before it goes off!

Oh and sometimes letting them cut their own food/get involved increases interest and trying of new things. So I've heard. Mine generally cuts/mixes them badly, gets really into that, and then still rejects them

Hi OP, I have three DC and IME it is completely normal for them to wean well and eat anything, and then go through a fussy stage around 14-18 months. It's like they suddenly learn how to say NO! Your DD sounds fine. Keep offering a range of food, and most importantly don't get stressed and beg / bribe / insist on her eating more. Act as if you don't care whether she eats or not! My DC are really good eaters but they all went through this at around this age.

I would say she didn’t do too badly, remember to look at what she eats over a week. Also, I often give a bowl of sweetcorn or something whilst making dinner when they are hungriest.

Thank you everyone these replies have been super helpful to me. I've started switching to porridge and weetabix again the last 2 days and she seems to be enjoying that. So maybe she's just going through a phase where she doesn't want bread. I think, the morning milk thing is an issue too as fills her then when I offer breakfast (maybe too soon) she isn't keen.

She gets up anywhere between 4.50-5.30 everyday though so I usually offer milk first usually about 20ish minutes after waking because it seems ridiculous to give her breakfast at that time...is it? I dunno 😆

She doesn't get things like crisps everyday tbf she hardly eats many crap things, so sometimes I do like to offer these with her lunch as I said she is good with fruits and some veg.

So think I'll try:
Offering food and not morning milk regardless of time
Offering fruit and veg as snack instead
To not STRESS about quantities. I don't think it helps that me and my husband don't eat a huge variety of food because he is also incredibly fussy 😵‍💫