Kind of a weaning question

[Neiffer]

I'm not sure if this is in the right place but thought I'd try!

11.5 mth old ds was blw'ed at 6 months and has done fine so far. Since he started nursery and being with grandad he prefers being spoon fed some things and eating others himself. All fine. He (like other babies I hope...) has days when he won't eat anything and days when he'll eat loads. However, he will always eat yogurt, fruit or rusk with milk. So a lot if meal times, especially dinner, end up with him just eating that. I don't mind as don't want him going to bed hungry. However, at what point do I need to start encouraging him to eat the food we give him and not just the 'pudding' bit?! I really don't want him to think he can not eat anything then always get pudding but he's so little right now I don't think he'd understand. And he'd be hungry and not sleep! Any ideas?!

If he's not hungry, he's most likely not hungry, and while he may be hungry later, I would rather feed him later if that's the case. I wouldn't give him food he possibly eats for reasons other than hunger, that is why we eat excess calories as adults. However I would offer more food (or possibly the same food) later in the evening.

Personally I wouldn't encourage eating up (beyond "are you sure you don't want some more X?") at all until it's possible to start reasoning about future time - ie "You know we won't be able to eat in the car on the way to grandads?" but otherwise allow freedom to choose what and when is eaten - not continous chocolate or other inappropriate food as a single diet of course, but DD who does have freedom to choose a lot of her food rarely chooses it, choosing protein, or fruit often.

My DD started nursery around 12 mths and I found that she started to need a bit of help eating dinner just because she was so tired.
She was a spoon refuser prior to going to nursery but I think they must have done some spoon feeding because she started using cutlery pretty damn quick!

I always offer a proper meal and encourage at least a try of it. If she still refuses then I will usually offer something else but try to make it reasonably nutritious and a variety across the day. Luckily she will eat her own body weight in fruit and often my battle is to get protein or fats into her.