16mo I think I may have messed up weaning...

[YourDaughterHasaTattoo]

Hi

I think I may have messed up weaning my 16mo. He was EBF until 6 months, then weaned really well. No problems at all; he took to it like a duck to water. He was a little piggy until around 12 months when all of a sudden he got really picky about what he would and wouldn't eat - we put it down to him becoming more independent and didn't worry. But he's now about to turn 16 months and he still will only have well mushed up food spoon fed. He will eat some finger foods - pasta, fruit, ham, cheese, toast, crisps, raisins, bits of gammon, peas and sweetcorn. Most of time though he will eat a few spoonful equivalents of this stuff then throw the rest on the floor. He won't eat lumps if they are spooned in (even rice pudding!)and he doesn't like sticky foods (they need to be quite liquid). About the only food I can feed him without pureeing it first (he won't eat mashed) is spaghetti hoops.

He has weetabix or porridge for breakfast and eats rice krispies from his tray. Generally what I can get down him at lunch and then whatever we have pureed for dinner (he eats all his meals with us). He still drinks a fair amount of milk during the day and I wonder should I cut this down? He is very fussy at the childminder (he goes 3 days a week) and will only eat spag hoops there. He will sit and eat a whole peeled apple however and gnaw chunks out of it.
He has 8 front incisors and his molars are cutting now so chewing should be getting easier?!
I just worry that I have moved too slowly with weaning and have missed the window to move him onto lumpy foods and that he has developed bad habits. I'm just not sure how to move him forward and get him to eat more lumps. Any advice would be greatly received!

Our HV told us horror stories about toddlers who won't eat anything but 4mo jars and that we must have our babies eating lumpy foods, ie no purees, by 9mo.

But I think it's just them being over dramatic. Have you met an adult who won't eat anything but puréed food? Mine is just 9mo so I don't know what toddlers are like. But they are well known to be difficult.

Just remember you couldn't have messed up!

And the list you have of foods he will eat isn't half bad. Will he eat different types of meat? There are a number of pasta combination in there! Also you don't need to spoonfeed sticky food like rice pudding. My DD can pick them up since 8mo (risotto but it's similar to rice pudding). Have you tried letting him pick these things up from the tray himself?

Youngest was BLW so ate everything right away. But my PFB was similar, was still eating some babyfood at that age, plus dairylea sandwich and the odd fishfinger

She is 4 now and still pretty fussy but loads loads better. I don't worry about eating out, for example. I would say, offer a mixture at each meal - some soft stuff but keep giving him real food each time too. I wouldn't mash it, give a bit purred and a bit of whole carrot sticks or whatever.

Start at the beginning, have the same food on your plate and make a big deal of enjoying it, ask if you can have his too because you are really hungry...he may try it out of curiosity in the end. Both mine always preferred smooth stuff or proper food, not smooth stuff with lumps in, IYKWIM. I am the same, maybe its a sensory thing about the wrong texture.

My DS has weeks where I can't get him to eat anything and every mealtime is a battle and then weeks where he eats like a dream. Maybe it's a phase with your DS. He's 21 months and his current phase is that I have to feed him (like a baby) and he has to sit on the floor (his high chair is currently a no go area as far as he's concerned).

My 19mo is the same - v fussy these days. I think it normal tbh. Try not to stress and it will right itself.

My little boy is 18months and relatively picky....however he no longer wants mummy to feed him, he is a big boy and can feed himself, result food all over the floor! I wouldnt worry too much. He can chew, but is choosing not to, y little one went through that stage when i was trying to get him from 4month old food to 7plus months....it was choke choke, i cant chew, a couple of months later someone says to me can he have a jaffa cake, i reply, well you can try...but he wont eat anything chewy! And what does he do, sits there and eats it..little terror..always tries to prove me a liar.

Ellen they so can chew . I think that's the point my HV is trying to tell us. They can chew anything from a very young age. (BLW says 6mo). They just get lazy and want to drink the stuff in. Unless its a Jaffa cake

He eats a range of food, and finger foods, so no problem with chewing or lumpy foods as far as I can see

I'd stop fretting, give him a spoon to feed himself and let him get on with it. He won't starve.

Oh, so similar to mine- except mine will eat lumps. Occasionally if it suits her... Hours I spent pureeing Annabel karmel recipes that had taken ages to do... For a 16 month old who won't eat veg (bar peas) and rarely accepts a 'proper' meal I give her. The other day I managed to give her cereal for breakfast, some ambrosia rice pudding, a banana, a petit filous (sp?) and a jammy dodger (I did offer a decent lunch and tea, both refsed without trying, multiple offers, food on spoon for her to do etc etc). So maybe i messed up somewhere too, but I wouldn't worry- he'll be eating by the time he goes to school, like someone else said, whoever heard of an adult only eating puree?!

He does at least eat properly now, fish fingers, potatoes, peas, sweetcorn, oranges, apples, blueberries the list goes on, but he has to feed himself with his fingers...oh well. When he is done, it bowl off, on the floor and contents everywhere and of course i always do too much so he doesnt go hungry and then get told he could do with eating a bit more...it wouldnt hurt. He eats as much or as little as he chooses, what am i supposed to do, force feed him? kids have you running in circles, and whoever said they arent manipulative is soooooooooooooo wrong! Or they wouldnt do such things!

Sounds like you're doing a great job and he has a nice balanced diet. I wouldn't worry.

Thank you all for the advice and support - you made me feel much better :)
Well over the last two days we seem to have had a bit of a breakthrough where he has been eating loads of food just cut up into bite size chunks - maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel?!
Long may it continue....