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Mealtimes aaaaaaaargh!
Just wondering if anyone is still having problems and if so whether anyone has any bright ideas for me.
I can't believe actually that I'm still posting about this as I should know from experience that it's probably just a short phase and I'll be worrying about something else in a few weeks. Anyway here goes.
Elysia, now 15 months, is a good weight and does eat well generally after a long journey of ups and downs solid food wise, but lunch and dinner times are becoming really frustrating again. She won't sit in her high chair any more and screams and tried to climb out if I put her in it. I found out they were sitting her at a small chair by a low table at nursery so I tried the same at home but no better and she gets bored and wanders off. And she won't eat anything I give her except steamed broccoli and baby corn, cheese on toast, yoghurt, and her porridge which she has huge amounts of for breakfast (invariably sitting on Mummy's knee infront of CBeebies).
So every evening, and lunchtime on my days off and at weekends, I end up cooking her something, which gets thrown about a bit then binned, then resorting to cheese on toast which I end up chasing her round the floor with trying to post bits in her mouth while she plays.
Really not sure what to do. I can't force her to sit at the table and her highchair just makes her scream. I've even tried putting the highchair infront of the tv but doesn't work. And she just doesn't seem to want to be spoon fed any more. But then she's not great with finger foods either. I made her some little pizzas tonight which she could eat herself. She ate the veg on the side but nothing else nd I ended up just giving her a yoghurt. (She doesn't drink milk - she was exclusively breast fed and I finally gsver up a few weeks ago but she's not a fan of cows milk so I tend to get as much yoghurt down her neck as possible.
In an ideal world I'd sit with her and eat in the dining room but my husband doesn't get back until late and I don't want him to eat alone, plus it's just not physically possible to cook myself a meal and feed Elysia at the same time as I am pushed for time after work.
Help?! I've been looking for a book about feeding issues but can't seem to find anything. Any recommendations or advice gratefully received!
Hope you and your little ones are all well.
Rx
I can't believe actually that I'm still posting about this as I should know from experience that it's probably just a short phase and I'll be worrying about something else in a few weeks. Anyway here goes.
Elysia, now 15 months, is a good weight and does eat well generally after a long journey of ups and downs solid food wise, but lunch and dinner times are becoming really frustrating again. She won't sit in her high chair any more and screams and tried to climb out if I put her in it. I found out they were sitting her at a small chair by a low table at nursery so I tried the same at home but no better and she gets bored and wanders off. And she won't eat anything I give her except steamed broccoli and baby corn, cheese on toast, yoghurt, and her porridge which she has huge amounts of for breakfast (invariably sitting on Mummy's knee infront of CBeebies).
So every evening, and lunchtime on my days off and at weekends, I end up cooking her something, which gets thrown about a bit then binned, then resorting to cheese on toast which I end up chasing her round the floor with trying to post bits in her mouth while she plays.
Really not sure what to do. I can't force her to sit at the table and her highchair just makes her scream. I've even tried putting the highchair infront of the tv but doesn't work. And she just doesn't seem to want to be spoon fed any more. But then she's not great with finger foods either. I made her some little pizzas tonight which she could eat herself. She ate the veg on the side but nothing else nd I ended up just giving her a yoghurt. (She doesn't drink milk - she was exclusively breast fed and I finally gsver up a few weeks ago but she's not a fan of cows milk so I tend to get as much yoghurt down her neck as possible.
In an ideal world I'd sit with her and eat in the dining room but my husband doesn't get back until late and I don't want him to eat alone, plus it's just not physically possible to cook myself a meal and feed Elysia at the same time as I am pushed for time after work.
Help?! I've been looking for a book about feeding issues but can't seem to find anything. Any recommendations or advice gratefully received!
Hope you and your little ones are all well.
Rx
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Replies
i dont think your alone in these "phases" we havent been able to spoon feed for ages so yogurts etc have been a no go! he is really good with finger food but as its not mushed he picks and chooses what he wants, we are the oppersite to you as he will trough down meat and leave veg! little monkey, i have resorted to offering a full meal and if he doesnt want it (he will push it away when finished) i offer pudding, i stoped making an alternative as i figured if he was that hungry he would eat it, you might find shes just not that hungry of shes eating well at nursery? he'll have days whers he'll do really well and days where he will still pick and throw on the floor, i know hes not hungry as he goes to the biscuit tin if he is!
he is in a booster seat at the big table now but wont have breakfast in it so thats on the coffee table standing up, thankgod for laminte!
i dont think i can offer any advise as such, but if you have a good idea to get him to eat veg i'd be greatful!!
I'm so excited for you and your pink bump - not long to go now!
I love the thought of Jacob standing on the coffee table to eat his breakfast! I always feel like I have failed somehow when I'm crawling round chasing Elysia with food or alternatively hypnotising her into submission with CBeebies (both things I would have sworn I'd never do if you'd asked me pre the reality of having a small toddler running rings around me). But it's reassuring to know there are others doing equally amusing things to get their children to eat!
Re the veg I have no idea how this happened. Except that right from the off I gave her some veg to eat as finger food with every meal and these days sometimes it's the only bit she'll have. (Although in the beginning she threw it on the floor and for a very long time I'd cook it, serve it, pick it up and bin it, then one day she put it in her mouth and hey presto). I totally love veg so maybe it's just inherited. I too could eat broccoli with every meal!
Loads of love to you. Can't wait to hear news about pink baby.
Rx
cant belive its 8 weeks to go, its gone so quick this time, doesnt seem lonf ago that we were waiting for jan to come around!
I would say like most things don't stress it too much and don't over think it. Put some multi vitamin drops in her porridge if she still happy eating that then at least you know she getting all the nutrients.
With regards to the high chair i'm not really sure, do you sit at the table with her? Is it a high chair that has its own table or one that sits her up to the dinner table? Maybe if she has her own table, she wants to be up to the table with you?
With the food itself, just offer her whatever you've made and don't worry about how much or how little she eats, let her have what she wants and then clear it away. Don't make a fuss and don't try and sneak things into her mouth. Babies, or toddlers now as they are, are able to work out their own appetite. Would you like it if you weren't hungry and someone was trying to pop things into your mouth as you were going about your business.
As you say she is a good weight so it sounds like she is doing just fine. She'll eat when she wants to. We did blw, with Sasha, but traditional weaning with dd1, and it has been so much less stressful doing the blw and letting Sasha just eat what she wants, infact I would go so far to say she is already less fussy and has a more varied diet than her sister.
We have meal times when Sasha scoffs everything on her plate and then will try to grab things from other peoples plate, but then there are other meal times when more food is in her hair than in her belly.
Good luck
So I threw her highchair out and bought one of those cheap IKEA highchairs that goes right up to the table. Her plate now sits on the table, I cannot tell you the improvement we have had! 10 quid very well spent!
To be honest, like Liz, if Emilia messes around with her food or throws it about I just clean her up and get her down, and try not to react. She caught on quite quick...
If she doesn't eat her meal then she doesn't get her snack. But I will bring her next meal forward a bit. I haven't had to do this in a while as at the moment I am struggling to fill her up!
I def found that once I stopped worrying about her eating and just relaxed, she did.
Hope it improves soon for you xx
I am coming to the conclusion she might be bored with the food we're giving her as well as bored with the high chair. (I too have the IKEA one, I refused to buy anthing else having test driven it once at a friend's house). OH barbecued a big joint of lamb at the weekend and we gave her some chopped up stirred through a spicey cous cous salad I had made to go on the side, and she WOLFED it down!!! I fed her leftovers of the same thing again yesterday sitting on the back doorstep in the sunshine. You're right about trying to relax.