End of my tether with solids with a 20 M

[Mollymomma123]

Hi
I have a lovely20 M DD who’s been giving me a very hard time with food since she was 14 months old. Long story short I never went down the road of BLW ( always fed her myself ) and now chickens have come home to roost ☺️. She seems to be slower than other kids to enjoy food and doesn’t have a great diet . She eats everything but prefers beige food and simple carbohydrates( toast , pasta with pesto , tomato sauce , bolognese , egg fried rice with cooked vegetables, hash browns cookies or oat bar that i bake myself , burgers ) . She also tries raw vegetables like carrots , celeries and cucumbers. In terms of fruits she eats , apples , pears and yogurts. Not a fan of mashed / lumpy food or meat but loves minestroni with pasta . She seems to still be gagging with certain food like noodles but she has always had a very sensitive reflex.
Communication wise , she is on track with over 100 words , stringing two words together and using the correct gestures , identifying animals and objects correctly. My point is that she doesn’t seem overly interested in food ( still has three bottles) unless it is a biscuit or crisps . She also doesn’t seem to like touching certain foods but eats things like spinach and courgette quiche or pasta with carrots and potatoes . I know it could be related to a texture sensitivity but GP and HV said they cannot refer her because her language is very good for her age and it is just a phase . What does food sensitivity look like ? She seems to still be playing a lot with her food

I can't identify anything wrong from your post? Seems like a good diet to me! 3 bottles is unusual at that age though, can you drop down to 1 at bedtime?

hi
thank you so much for your reply . I didn’t know that 3 bottles were usual 😆 sorry FTM here . She has one nap during the day and she takes milk with it apart from bottle before bed and first thing when up in the morning (18 oz in total )

I'd also look to reduce the no of bottles of milk. The milk will be filling them up so perhaps by limiting the amount of milk, it might spike an interest in eating more?

Definitely drop a bottle. You could offer a cup of milk with breakfast if you want. Agree that 3 bottles is unusual. The guidelines are 10 floz a day at this age but that can include milk used in things like porridge, fish pie and macaroni cheese.

Don't think feeding her yourself instead of BLW is anything to do with her not feeding well now.
I fed both of mine rather than BLW initially and they are both perfectly good eaters.
It maybe that she's having too much liquid milk, so reduce this as a first approach. Sounds like she's eating a good variety of foods. Probably a case of working out how best she likes food and let her have that. If she likes things cut small for example, rather than mashed. Encourage new foods too.
One of mine definitely prefers her food separately, whereas the other happily eats a stew with everything piled in together.

Just wanted to add that if you're unsure on quantise of milk, portion sizes or the variety of food to offer there's a really good guide here from the Caroline Walker Trust on feeding 1 to 4 year olds