11 month old fussy eating?

[jasper202131]

Hi

Our current schedule is
Breastfeed 0700, breakfast 0800, lunch 1200, breastfeed 1300, dinner 1700, breastfeed 1900.

Daily breakfast goes down well, it's overnight oats with chia seeds and a little finger food fruit. However, lunch and dinner seems rarely interested in food and we end up giving in and giving him banana/ peanutbutter+yogurt, or PB on rice cakes. We started doing this when he had covid at 10 months and I'm worried have developed a fussy eater.

What should I do when he refuses lunch & dinner? Shall I just let him go "hungry" (although he isn't starving, as still breastfeeding..) and stop giving fruit/peanut butter/yogurt for a while?

We try a wide variety of food, ratatoulie, peanut stew, pasta, quinoa balls, chilli, Dahl etc. He sometimes eats this but we have to alternate between "nicer" tasting foods.

Thanks for any help. He is starting nursery 2/d a week in September and I am nervous about getting this sorted before then

He’s 11 months old. He’s not a fussy eater.

It’s normal for babies to skip meals. My daughter didn’t really eat anything until 13 months. Nothing to do with fussiness.

Milk is their main source of nutrition until 1 anyway; food before then isn’t meant to fill them up but just help them to learn how to swallow, chew, take appropriate size bites, use cutlery, explore tastes and textures etc.

You should also know it’s normal for toddlers to have days where they don’t eat anything at all, skip a meal or two or have days where they eat like a house. Baby and toddler eating is erratic, but you need to trust they know their own bodies.

You don’t need to “get anything sorted”. Offer what you are having, if he doesn’t eat it he doesn’t eat it. It’s not a problem and doesn’t need to be substituted.

You need to change the way you look at food (there are no bad or good foods, all food in moderation).

Making mealtime a battle and a stress like you are will be one of the reasons baby is reluctant to eat, because there is anxiety from you even if you think you don’t show it.

What should I do when he refuses lunch & dinner? Shall I just let him go "hungry" (although he isn't starving, as still breastfeeding..) and stop giving fruit/peanut butter/yogurt for a while?

Yes, I'd stop giving substitutes and assume he's not hungry. Lots of children eat more some days than others, they're great at self regulation.

Also, they can be wary of new foods but currently there's no incentive to try them as if there's something they love being offered instead

Instead of one new food OR peanut butter on a rice cracker, offer both. You can mix pureed carrot into peanut butter for a bit of extra nutrients, apple sauce into mashed potato etc. Get him used to different textures and flavours but don't force him to eat. If he's hungry he will eat

Thanks for your comments, much appreciated. We will hold off on the banana / peanut butter "treats" if he doesn't eat what we've given him to begin with.

Banana and peanut butter isn’t “treat food”. All food is just food.

@jasper202131 My 10.5 month old is going through a fussy spell with food/milk/drinking water and due to start nursery soon. Just worried about him settling into nursery whilst he’s still off his food. How’s your LO with food now? Did he find his appetite before starting nursery or did going to nursery actually help with his eating? X

@jasper202131 how did work out for you in the end? My 11 month old is the same - will eat overnights oats and bananas but nothing else!

@Bulkypeepants could it be the amount of milk that they're having that's suppressing their appetite? If you're FFing they only need 400 mls a day at this age

Make lunch and dinner later and drop the midday breastfeed.

He's not hungry when you are feeding him.

Yeah don't make mealtimes a battle. I would just try wherever possible to sit and have meals with your son for lunch and dinner as this can help if you're all eating at the same time and he sees you eating.
Don't you worry about nursery. Theyll probably have him eating loads of stuff he wont touch at home! X

sorry but peanut stew??? just give him some mash, veg and gravy or something. this sounds too much for an 11 month old