One-year-old DD suddenly refusing to eat at dinner time

[killerkitty]

Hi there,

Just in the past two weeks my 12-month-old DD has started to refuse her dinner. She still eats happily at lunchtime, but when she's tired, especially after nursery twice a week, she screams and pushes away her food.

Avoiding her flailing arms, I try to gently put the food to her lips because then she often stops yelling and gobbles it all up. Other evenings I don't bother with the fuss of spoon-feeding her and just let her have finger food, but then she's very fussy and will only eat broccoli (I know! What problem, huh?)

At lunchtime she's very happy to try and feed herself with a spoon, or have me help her, so it's very disconcerting to have her completely change in the evening.

As an aside, I realise the BLW fans among you will jump on me for trying to spoon-feed her anyway, but although I like this method, in practice it can take far too long. As a working mum, some days my time is limited and I just need to get her fed, not watch her throw food around.

Btw, DD still also has three bottles of milk a day, which she loves.

So what am I doing wrong at dinner time, and how can I change it?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Have a 3 yr old DD and she was the same she would eat lunch by her self but would need help with dinner. I think sometimes it was a way she could get my attention as she had been to nursery and had not seen me all day also she is tired. I would give her some finger food for the ride home so she was not starving then she would eat most of her dinner but still would need help with the last few bites. If she has eaten well for lunch the I find she eats less for dinner.

Aww, she sounds as though she's desperately overtired. Is there any way she could eat earlier?

Trouble is I pick her up from nursery at 6pm and she falls asleep in the car, otherwise feeding her a snack on the way home would be a good idea. By the time I wake her up and try to feed her it's already 6.30pm or so and she's shattered.

However, I think you're right - I'll start feeding her dinner earlier at about 5pm the rest of the week.

Thank you for your suggestions.

when does her nursery feed her meals as I found when I put my DD in her nursery she had her tea at 4pm and so when I picked her up at 5-6 pm she didn't want dinner just milk bath and bed.

Can she not have a bigger meal at lunchtime & just a small dinner? This is what I did with dd1 when I worked for a while, she was about 1.

Nursery feeds her at 11.30pm and again at about 3pm, so she's pretty hungry by the time I collect her. I think I'll try giving her a bit of food in the car before she drops off on way home and see if that helps.

However, today I made sure she was well topped up with snacks all afternoon before feeding her dinner at 5.30pm and she was more than happy to chomp her broccoli sticks and then have me feed her dinner - and no arm-waving and tantrums. Result!

Thanks for your feedback.