12 month old and changing eating habits- anyone else had this?

[AlbertaWildRose]

DS has just turned one. He has been BLW since 6 months with great success, eating anything and everything and also feeding himself with a spoon (if we load it up for him). The past couple of weeks, though, he has become really picky, hardly eating anything and throwing his favourite foods straight onto the floor without even a bite. A few times we have managed to pursuade him to eat by putting bites of food onto a fork and then handing it to him (as opposed to him eating with his hands which is what he would normally do). This made him very happy, but it does not work consistently. I know I should not get so stressed, but it worries me that he is not eating enough (he is still BF though) and that my happy eater has become a really finicky eater! Any thoughts or advice? Thanks.

I think they quite often change their eating habits at about a year - in my experience, generally for the worse! My ds shovelled in everything he was offered til about then - hands, spoon - anything to get the food in his gob. Then, like a switch he decided he didn't like lots of things (he hasn't eaten fruit since!)
It's important th remember that they have tiny stomachs and really don't need a lot of food, particularly if he's still bf. I suggest offering calmly as usual, but not reacting at all if it's not eaten. Something cheerful like "Oh, aren't you hungry? Maybe later then. " and on to the next activity. Keep the situation as low key and calm as possible - remembering all the time that while he's cheerful and energetic, he's getting enough food from somewhere and no healthy baby ever starved himself!

Thanks, Kate. You are right, calm is the key. I think one of my worries is that he will wake more often during the night for BF if he is not eating well during the day (he still does not sleep through), resulting in less sleep for me. I am hoping that he will soon start eating well again!

Hi there - just wondering how much milk he is still having a day? I have a 13 month old DS and like you, he became really picky/off his food around 2 months ago. I cut down his daytime milk and voila, miles better now!

I remember tearing my hair out with ds1 at about this age, then being mighty relieved when I logged onto MN to find that the majority of the post-natal thread's kids were going through exactly the same thing. From that point on (now 2yo) he's alternated eating little and picking, and eating his entire body weight twice over for each meal. I think it probably reflects if he's growing/how much activity he's been doing. It stressed me out at the time, worrying if he could survive on so little, now it doesn't because I know sooner or later he'll have a spurt and eat masses again. HTH.

my 14 mth old goes through phases every month or so particularly when teething. she eats nothing but bread for approximately a week before returning to veg, fruit etc for the rest of month.

i just let her eat what she wants and when as it usually balances out.

i als find that due to her being so active at the minute, she prefers to eat little and often, usually whilst crawling, whereupon i give her dried fruit cheeses and oatcakes, rather than confining her to the highchair, where she throws everything onto the floor.

JolieGirl- he's having about 4 feeds a day- first thing in the morning, just before bed, and mid-morning and mid-afternoon, before his naps. I could probably start reducing his daytime milk, but it's a good way of getting him to have good sleeps, so I'm a bit apprehensive about doing that.
From reading all the responses, it sounds like it may well just be a phase, which is what I wanted to hear!

@AlbertaWildRose Did this end up being a short phase or did your DS turn into a fussy eater? Going through this with my 12 month old DS atm! X

He is now 17! He eats almost everything but it's not a fan of spicy. This was definitely just a brief phase he went through.

HE'S not a fan of spicy foods. Darn phone.