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Attachment Parenting
Izybel18
member
Frustrated with eating habits
Izybel18
member
DD is 16 months and we're still bf'ing a lot. I prepare 3 meals a day for her and she's always been a terrible eater (we've done BLW since 6 months). She actively eats maybe once a week? Most meals she throws the entire thing onto the floor. Maybe my expectations are wrong, but shouldn't she be eating solids more often? When she throws the healthy, lovingly prepared food on the floor, should I just give her crackers or veggie straws (she likes crunchy stuff) so she's eating SOMETHING?
I love bf'ing but it annoys me when she rejects food and then climbs into my lap to nurse. She's average height/weight, active, healthy, but I'm afraid she'll waste away if she keeps up these habits.
Somebody please chime in and help me know what to expect for her age!
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Re: Frustrated with eating habits
Breastfeeding Counselor with Breastfeeding USA
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It is not too important how much solids she eats, as long as you're nursing on demand, just that you're offering her a variety of healthy foods. Try offering smaller amounts and give her more if she has eaten everything to try to reduce the waste.
But I understand. DS has days where he might have eaten a few goldfish and a bite of my dinner. He's growing fine and happy, and he gets a lot of nutrition from BM. That's what he needs now so that's what he gets!
Does she have interesting enough food options? She's getting spices and herbs, like you would prepare your own food? Besides that, just hang in there, it'll happen.
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
This book is great: My Child Won't Eat!
DS didn't really eat much at all until 18 months. He's now 25 months and I would say finally eating a "normal" amount. And I went back to work at 12 months - didn't pump, he never took a bottle, he just waited for me and went on nursing.
Know what fixed it?
Time. I didn't really do a thing but wait. I didn't give him more food than I wanted to clean up off the floor. If there was something that he seemed to like (like blueberries) I'd let him eat as much as he would. I always offered 2-3 options, and if he finished all of something I'd give him more. I definitely stopped cooking "for him" and just offered him whatever we were having anyway. Cooking for him lasted about a week when he was 6 months.
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Thanks everyone! Sounds like she's normal. Annoyingly so
I have this crazy irrational fear that at some point, she'll lose a bunch of weight and someone (pedi, DH, family) will say we should stop nursing. I have no reason to think that will happen, it's just a fear.
I do eat with her and 90% of the time she eats what I'm eating. I think I'll avoid nursing for the hour before a meal and see if that helps, and won't give her unhealthy stuff just to get her to eat (I don't want to start that bad habit!). Thanks everyone!
You may be overwhelming her with too much food and too much expectation that she'll eat an actual meal.
It's pretty normal for kids between 12 and 18 months to be sort of weird about food. They're still experimenting with self-feeding, for one thing -- still working on the motor aspects of feeding, both with fingers and utensils. Kids this age are scientists, and they're far more concerned with exploration than feeding, honestly. That kind of inattention + still liking to nurse could be just enough to keep her from really tackling a plate full of food.
My recommendation would be to develop a list of 5 to 10 go-to solid foods that she'll reliably eat. If she eats crackers, cheerios, veggie straws, cut fruit pieces, pasta, chicken, scrambled egg, yogurt, carrots, and pancakes, that's not a bad starting place for a 16 month old. Honestly, that was about it for my kids at that age.
At each meal, offer her two of the above items plus a few bites of whatever you and your H are eating that meal so that she can eat her favorites but also be exposed to new foods. So three items total. Put two bites of each item on a small plate and let her nibble. If she asks for more bites, great; give her a few more bites of what you know she'll eat. If a 16 month old eats 6 to 8 teaspoon-sized bites of food, she's probably full. If you find she likes to fill up on one type of food to the exclusion of all others, hold back on offering the bites of that favorite until she's eaten 4 bites of other food. For instance, my kids would always eat bread if offered, to the exclusion of other foods. I learned to only give bread after other stuff had been eaten.
Don't overload her plate; the temptation for a 1 year old to dump it, play with it, or just get discouraged and walk away is too much. It's much better to let her feel the success of eating a few bites and then ask for more.
If she gets into the groove of eating 6 to 8 bite sized pieces of food at each meal, gradually increase the number of bites you put on her plate.
It's normal for toddlers to go on a food fetish where they want the same item over and over for a few meals, then they refuse that item for a while. If you look at their food intake on a meal-by-meal basis, it looks bizarre, but when averaged out over a week, it may seem more normal.
GL!