Feeding issues ( table food), calling all speech paths!
My son is 14.5 months old. He is and was still breastfed but now down to only once a day. He stopped taking a bottle by 6.5 months and drinks milk out of a cup ( only about 10-12 oz) per day. Noah has NEVER been a good eater other that a ferocious breastfeeder as a NB. He was not big on solids ( purees) until about 10 months. He has always loved puffs, fruit in the mesh feeder, and yogurt). At 12 months he was still on mostly purees and maybe bread ( grilled cheese, cheese pieces, crackers, etc). My pedi said to keep giving the purees and that some kids are just slower with solids.
Fast forward 2.5 months and we are still not making much progress with the table food. He WILL eat a few more things such as pasta and pieces of veggie burger, chicken nuggets, and rice but he takes like two bites and throws the rest on the floor. I always end up giving him a huge bowl of oatmeal afterward b/c he is such a string bean and I feel bad if he doesn't eat a "meal".
Not sure if it's a true texture issue b/c he will try things, example sunday he had pieces of wonton soup. It's just he seems really uninterested and not "in to" eating
Last night I got so frustrated he wouldn't eat his dinner ( quesadilla and tater tots) that I just put him to bed.
I will be bringing this up with pedi at 15 month appointment but any suggestions in the meantime b4 I go crazy???? Should I nix the oatmeal and just keep giving the solids until he is starving enough to eat them???
Re: Feeding issues ( table food), calling all speech paths!
Honestly that sounds pretty normal. Weel, the picky end of normal, but some kids are just not great eaters.
W. is very similar except we are still BF'ng a lot, which assauges my guilt (but then I get the evil eye in pblic for nursing a 16 mo).
Some "famous" pediatrician had a quote that was along the lines of "Toddlers run on something-or-other and air".
I would start the meal with a healthy finger food choice in font of him. If he chooses not to eat it, I would offer healthy spoon-fed food (oatmeal, yogurt, applesauce, etc). If he doesn;t eat at all, offer him a snack in an hour.
Is increasing your nursing an option? Would he be into that? If you start nursing him more your supply will probably pick back up.
Also, try going to the store and buying random stuff. We did that in desperation and found that W. loves gnawing on a rice cake, which is totally not something we would normally buy, yk?
I can't speak to the nutritional element at all. Whether its behavioral/etc, I dont know either. I do agree with PP's. But I have ONE extremely PICKY eater - that's putting it nicely, and ONE extreme hog who will eat anything.
Neither are my dream for dinner dates. But a couple things we tried for Mr PickyPickington...
At dinner, serve what you WANT DC to eat, but put any other options on the table as well (i.e. the oatmeal you talked about). You can't really reason with a 15-18 mo old, but you can always OFFER the foods. Whatever is on the table is always an option. And, I try (cant say never) to not allow a game to begin where I get up from the table and get food after food to appease. Having the choices at the table allows you to remain in control. Maybe if nothing else, this will help you to see if its a power struggle, behavioral, picky, or some other issue.
Also, we tried offering a food that DC should like (would he try it) at every meal, everytime for about a week. If he STILL wouldn't try it at that point, we gave up. Like one week, we did blueberries and Strawberries all week, breakfast, lunch, dinner. That's not my best example - cause a lot of kids won't eat those.
DS (the picky one) has always gravetated toward oatmeal and yogurt as well. If he won't eat anything else, he'll eat that. He's extremely picky - and yet healthy as a horse. I know b/c I've bugged the Pedi & GI about it.
We have seen some progress since starting OT. All the OT really did about food was tell us that yes, what we were doing was a good plan & to stop stressing so much. Once we took the stress out of meals & just let DS eat, or not, things actually got a little better.
Challenge yourself to sit the food there and NOT encourage, talk, spoonfeed, push, coax, etc for 5 mins. It's hard!