Hit a brick wall - 12 months

[DeepDeepFlavours]

Need some advice please - DS is now 12 months. He used to eat quite well and would try most things although he has never been a great eater and never seems to be that bothered about food.

Now at 12 months he is becoming very fussy. He has started to only eat about half a Weetabix for breakfast, doesn't eat much for lunch and eats generally OK at tea-time. His food intake has halved in the past month but he weighs 10kg so a normal weight.

In the past 4 weeks he has started to refuse all fruit (previously he loved fruit). He won't eat pureed fruit and refuses to eat any fruit finger food (apple slices, banana slices). I've tried mixing fruit in with other things (custard etc.) but the little minx somehow knows and turns his nose up.

Refuses anything new (cherry tomatoes, strawberries etc.) he just touches them to his lips, gets a look of disgust on his face then throws them on the floor. They don't even make it into his mouth. He is OK with the HIP jars and sachets of Ella's kitchen. But now only eats half rather than the full amount. Same with our home cooked food.

I'm really at my wits end as he is only happy when eating toast, fromage frais or chunks of cheese. He would happily live off them and I'm worried about giving him too much dairy. Does anyone know if this is normal and do you have any new tactics I can try? Thank you!

Thanks JJJ, I had a look at the links and found them very reassuring, it's always great to know that there are other co-sleepers and night feeders out there! And I shall certainly try praising her when she eats or chats to us and ignore the flinging! the dogs seem to appreciate the clean-up afterwards too! She's not cottoned onto night playing yet (phew!) so I'll stick with the sleeping arrangements for a bit longer and see how we go-we've tried the cot when she's fast asleep on my breast in the evening and she wakes up so fast it's hard to believe! At the mo she will only sleep in the car, in the backpack or on boob, and heaven help you if you try to move her! I guess she'll come around-after-all we won't be worrying about it when she's 4! I hope! :o

Can completely sympathise, DH used to wrap DD up and stick her in the pushchair in the evenings and walk her along the school run. It was the only way she would settle away from me and heaven help us if he walked a different way!

Don't know if any of this will be useful but thought you might like a read.

Once again thank you JJJ, great reading material and I shall def bookmark that site. Going off-line now so thanks for all your kind words

wow, that's reassuring - ds nearly one and eating a lot less than before - but think he's a pretty good size for his age... apparently he eats loads at the childminders - stuff that we've homecooked, plus healthy snacks that she gives him so over the course of the week he does ok. (and yes, loves yoghurt and anything else sugary - eek!)

but... he's still breast feeding and waking up at nights for a feed- slept through until about 7 months- how much milk (breast/ formula/ cow) does anyone else give to a 12 mo?

I'm not too worried as he is very happy and healthy but I'd like a full night sleep again one day!

Leviathan I think the amount of bfs for a toddler varies from family to family. When mine were that age I fed them each morning, when I picked them up from childcare (lovely way to focus on your baby and forget your day), before bed and the odd feed in the night. We were co-sleeping at 12 months though so the night feeds weren't much of an issue, just me stirring while they latched on and then stirring again when they came off.

If you weren't bfing the NHS recommendation is for at least 300 ml of full fat milk per day, this includes any dairy in the diet. So, think you should be ok to bfeed how often you want to and keep offering the solids.

There is some info here on bfing toddlers, thought you might be interested

What is CC please?

This is normal. My DC are almost 3 and 5, and they still go off (some) foods from time to time. It seems that your child has figured out which foods are filling (cheese, yoghurt, toast) and provide lots of calories. So she'll eat that and then gets on with more important stuff such as playing. My younger DC isn't picky, but considers meal times a waste of time and would prefer eating a few spoons of butter/mayonnaise/hummus washed down with whole milk. Yuck, but you can't argue with the efficiency.