Food refuser - am i doing the right thing?

[sharond101]

DS loved his food until he had a cold around 8 weeks ago and since then he has been a nightmare to feed. He will take finger foods but not fruit or veg in this way so I try and give him soup, fruit or homemade meals with a spoon as well as finger foods. He screams when i offer food from a spoon and shakes his head although if you give him something interesting he will eat until he becomes bored of the object. he will also eat well out of his highchair whilst playing but this is very messy. He still takes around 500ml milk despite turning 1 this week. Today I decided to offer breakfast in highchair and refuse to give him milk afterwards if he did not eat it. He ate a little with entertainment so I did not give him his normal 100ml milk afterwards. He got very grumpy before lunch and took a few spoons soup easily before beginning the screaming and head shaking. I gave him something else to look at and after persuasion he ate lunch so I gave him his afternoon feed. He ate some finger foods at dinner. Any feedback?

When I say entertain him it takes alot of effort singing, dancing, jumping around and the things I give him to hold need to be things he has never seen before to be interesting enough, so i am running out of new things to give him.

Honestly? Don't persuade him into eating, it's not a healthy attitude to food imo. Just put it down, eat yourself and take it away after a bit.

It's normal for lots of kids to go off fruit and veg. There is an argument we evolved to be suspicious about plants that could poison us just at the age we can get about and put things in our mouth. Ds is growing out of it now.

Give him what you know he will eat alongside things he might not. They really can survive on very little food.

This is a good book