13mo advice re type of food, he's not eating much...

[NumptyMum]

OK, I know he won't let himself starve, but I can't figure out what to do.

We started out BLW at 6mo but he's not great with finger foods, he'll eat fruit (and sometimes bread) happily but all veggies go the way of the floor, and anything with sauce once on his hand he just tries to shake off.

So we've been using spoon - and because the food I cooked was often rejected, to save on stress we've given mixture of home-cooked & mashed foods, and jars. When he's in the mood he can take a loaded spoon and feed himself.

But at the mo, most things are getting shoved away. He's not v well, which is probably the reason why.

So my question is, do we let him NOT eat, in the assumption that when he is hungry he'll either accept spoon or feed himself; do we use distraction (which DH tends to do) as he accepts spoon when not thinking about it (ie he will open his mouth for it, we're not ramming it in!); do I try him with BLW and if so, will he ever get beyond the 'yuk I've got sauce on my hands - fling' stage... I've got a very small flat and am heartily sick of cleaning the floor/walls!

Any suggestions?

I use Cbeebies as distraction sometimes.....once DD gets going, she stuffs it

and when teething / not well I try little and often and a jam sandwich usually does the trick

Hopefully you'll get some good advice soon....

DS doesn't seem to be that into telly - we don't watch it much, but have lots of old skool kids tv DVDs (Bagpuss etc)! Could try watching these to distract ME from the frustration of DS not eating and spreading food over the floor/walls yet again...

I'll also try jam sandwich; at least I can eat his rejects! He doesn't seem to mind though, I hoped that if I ate his rejected food he might think it worth trying. He does often want what we eat, but when we give him some to try he usually throws that on the floor too (unless it's a chip ).

DS started doing this around the same age, think it is a mix of independence, teeth, not needing as much food, etc.

He won't pick up anything messy with his hands and complains if you drop a bit of food on him! So aside from dry stuff like sarnies, cereal etc it has to be by spoon or fork.

It drove me mad at the time but there is little point stressing. Offer the food, if refused then clear away without showing your frustration and move on to the next course. (I never refuse pudding because I don't want sweet food to be seen as a reward or withdrawn as punishment -- it's just another part of his meal.)

As for distraction... when on holiday in a caravan we had Cbeebies on and it did distract him but I felt bad shovelling in food while he was glued zombie-like to the telly! But at home I do sometimes read a book to him while he's eating, or let him play with a shape-sorting puzzle -- it seems to slow down the time before he gets bored of being in the high chair, and he often will eat a little more food.

I remember using a kind of distraction technique when my dd was this age. It's at this age where they love to throw things on the floor getting a great sense of delight out of hearing the bang as it hits the ground. Although you might need to laminate your floor/expose your floorboards if you have carpet for this particular distraction technique For some reason when we put somthing on her tray, (plastic toys you can wash food off are best) to throw she would open her mouth, (the lil terror) This technique also helps get rid of post pregnancy jelly belly as all the bending to pick up the toys and replace them tones your stomach muscles

Same thing here numpty, my ds is also 13 months and does feed himself small amounts but most of it ends up on the floor. He can use a spoon but lately has just thrown the spoon or smeared the contents of the spoon al over his highchair. I have to have lots of plastic toys on his tray that he can grab instead of grabbing the spoon for me while I shovel as many spoonfulls in while he's paying. It is hard and very messy!!! He isn't a fussy eter, will eat anything when distracted enough!

i was going thru the same thing as u are. i used distraction as well. but with toys. he used to play with toys and i used to feed him. but my baby is v difficult. he never plays with 1 toy for mpore than 2 mins so i had a wide selection available which inc pots and pans and spoons....anything i could think of. and he did eat. at first it was hard but then he got the idea. and he was not as good as ur baby to wean himself. so i guess u are luckier than me. and now tell u wot. after we returned from our hols 2 days back, in the morning i prepared his food and thought to myself ...oh god have to go thru the same torture again and take 30 mins to feed him , i was surprised at wot he did, he ran towards me and setteled himself next to me and started looking eagerly at the food and ate all of it and other stuff as well.
so u know they wont starve themself but i think and thats wot i did , that i did try feeding every day and he ate, by distracting him but it requires patience which im sure u have alot!
keep trying and he will eat eventually as i have learnt now.