How to respond when 14mo refuses meals and only takes snacks?

[KnockedUpMell]

My DS used to be good with food, and would eat 3 larger meals with 2 small snacks, but recently he is refusing both lunch and dinner. I batch freeze his meals so the food I'm offering is similar to what he is used to accepting. He will happily eat breadsticks / yogurt / fruit instead of lunch and dinner. He is not good at new foods, and will cometimes cry if i even put someing new in front of him! I do keep offering him his rgular food, as well as new things to try at each meal.

Should I not offer him an alternative if he doesn't eat his lunch? That just seems a little autocratic and reminds me of my parents approach... Or should I just accept that he is developing some independence and should be allowed to express what he does / doesnt want to eat? Provided of course his diet is fairly balanced over the course of a week?

can't you just give him breadsticks, fruit/veg, yoghurt with cheese perhaps at lunch time and small amounts of other stuff for dinner?

Rather than thing after thing until he chooses something, if he refuses to eat what you give him, perhaps offer one other thing and then if he still doesn't want it, say okay, luch is done and take him down from table. Then perhaps try putting him back in his highchair mid afternoon and retry.

My Ds, now three, has never been a good lunch eater. He loves to snack through the morning so I give him the equivalent of lunch as snacks-breadsticks, toast, cheese, grapes. He's nourished, albeit unconventionally. I seem to remember dd1 was similar at your dc's age.