Strategies/food suggestion for non-eating 1 yo please?

[iridium]

My DS has just turned 1 and he finds the whole food business boring. We have done BLW since he was 6 months. Tried purees at one point to see if it would work any better but he was a spoon refusenik.

He started eating anything at all really at about 10 months but it is still now only tiny, tiny amounts.

The only things he eats reliably are sausage, chicken, bread of most sorts, and grapes. He was previously eating babybels and yoghurt but seems to have gone off them now.

I've been doing the calm, relaxed thing but we have now reached a stage where he is spending a lot of mealtimes trying to get out of the highchair as he wants to go do something else. He has always been a very active baby, and he has also always breastfed very well. He is still having 6 milk feeds a day (4 in the day, 2 at night).

I think I've reached the point where I can't see the wood for the trees. What can anyone suggest to improve this situation?

I wonder if maybe he is getting too much milk and so is just not that hungry for his food ?

Do you think I should take the plunge and cut out some milk feeds? I've been reluctant to do it when he has been showing no interest in food.

I've tried timing milk feeds to fall at various times in relation to meals and it hasn't seemed to make a difference. He can eat one mouthful of something and then 20 minutes later has a long milk feed, so had a hole in his tummy to fill IYSWIM. But maybe it's too much over the course of the day?

I think I find it frustrating that DS doesn't seem to enjoy food. It's just a chore to endure before he can go and play.

I think jemma might have a point about milk - that does seem quite a bit for a one-year-old. DD is 14 months and has milk when she wakes up, mid-morning and at bedtime, that's all. not saying that's "right" but it does seem to be what most of my friends do. (BF as well as FF)
maybe try offering food in a more low-key way? - on your knee, little bites when playing, snack in the buggy? my DD (quite fussy, v active) often eats better when we have people over - she's busy looking at them and eats more as less keen to get down. she also eats better if I'm not standing over her - I wander about the kitchen doing chores etc -if I sit with her she wants to play.
good luck ...

Like valbona said, maybe healthy snacks out of the highchair. Does he eat alone or.are you eating with him? He's probably less likely to eat if he's the only one eating and all the attention is on him eating.

Snacking through the day might be a way to go. I've been trying to keep food to a breakfast, lunch and dinner pattern with snacks when we are out and about. But maybe little bits more often would work better.

I do eat whenever I'm giving him food. Unfortunately if there's anyone else around - friends over, out in cafes, etc - he eats even less as he is too busy people watching or trying to chat and get people to smile at him.