7 month old only eat yoghurts or else feed himself

[Bawnie]

So long time reader first time poster. I have a now 7 month old that has always been a very good grubber. Started weaning around 4 months as he was drinking so much he was making himself sick. By 6 months he was having wheatabix for breakfast, fruit and a yoghurt for lunch, nap and an Ella's kitchen pouch for dinner after the nap. Throughout the day he would have 4 210ml bottles and another one around 3am.
He was very good loved his food, went to bed at 8pm, bottle around 3am (which would take 15 mins including nappy to be back asleep) and wake around 7:30 am.
Now my issue: the past three weeks he is refusing the spoon unless it's a yoghurt he will feed himself snacks including fruit, ligas, biscuits, chips bits of meat and a small bit of pasta, but is starting to not take the bottles by day which is leading to him now waking every 2 hours at night again and needing two feeds at night again.
This is causing an endless cycle of not sleeping by night, so sleeps more by day, so misses food by day and so on and so forth.
Now he is extremely active, crawling all over the place and pulling himself up on every piece of furniture he can find.
If anyone has an suggestions for an extremely sleep deprived mom that would be great. Thanks

Will he eat his dinner if you let him do it with his hands? Can he hold the spoon himself? He’s very young so it’s very normal to not be eating and having a lot of milk - the old saying goes ‘food before one is just for fun’

Can you give him a small bottle just before/after food?

I can see it’s frustrating as it’s different to how it was but it’s very normal.

Sorry, dunno if that helps!

Will he eat a pouch if you let him feed himself? Will he eat from a spoon if you load it but let him put it in?

You can increase the amount of finger food you're giving him, add some protein and veg in there.

You could try milk in a cup/beaker. You can also add formula to his food where appropriate.

Prioritise the milk before the food, so make sure he's hungry when the milk is offered and then do food as a second option.

@nuffsaidsam thank you unfortunately he will play with the spoon and put it into his mouth but as soon as I put food on it he refuses it, he has also stopped taking the dinner pouches when sucking from them himself but will take the fruit and breakfast ones that way.
So I should try to prioritize his formula ?
I try to give him the bottles but he doesn't want to stay still to have it , too many new skills in a short period of time. It's the night time that's getting to me because if he got sleep then I think he would eat better by day rather than filling up at night.

Definitely prioritise the milk. As pp says the food is 'fun till one'. It's about trying new textures and flavours, learning to chew and swallow and not choke etc., but for nutrition milk is the priority.

If staying still is the problem you can try when he is sleepy, before a nap is always a good time for milk. You can try doing it in a room with few distractions. Or you can go the other way and try and feed him while he has something to look at/play with. You could try busy beads/feeding necklace, which is just a string of different beads/small toys for them to play with while you're feeding them.

@nuffsaidsam ok gonna try both varieties now tomorrow, see can I distract him with something to drink the bottle first and if not try a quiet place. Have the problem is he fights his sleep so much