14mth old eating limited foods

[Purple Lady]

DD3 is refusing to be fed anything and she will only accept food that she can feed herself, nothing messy. She will only accept raspberries, blueberries, those goodies bars, goodies crisps. She wont accept bananas or yogurt anymore. Today at club she ate a few bits of cheese, few raisins and a tiny cheese biccie.

I don't mind her feeding herself, but i am running out of ideas of what to give her and how do i get her to eat more variety? If i give her something new, she will just push it around her tray.

Thanks PL x

[LME]

Both mine were like this, I've no idea what I did to deserve it!

Anyway I'd suggest things like Yorkshire puds, potato wedges, hotdog sausages, fish fingers. Will she eat toast? If so I used to spread all sorts on toast - but cheesy lentil spread was a favourite. Whole fruit also went down well, but they wouldn't eat it if I cut it up - so peaches, nectarines, plums etc. Slices of melon, cut in fan shapes were also eaten because they could hold it without getting too messy. I also made a lot of savoury scones - carrot and cheese (Lucypede's recipe on here actually), cheese straws.

I can't think what else I used to give them, if I do I'll come back to you.

My two are now both really good eaters (hope I haven't jinxed it) and will try anything I give to them now, so it does seem to have passed.

[LME]

Oh and I found if I just left it in front of them and stopped stressing that was the best strategy - actually in front of the TV, they seemed to concentrate on that and sort of forget they were eating.

I did try everything else as well though - included them in the making of the food, grew food with them, made pics out of the food, letting them load up their plates from food in the middle, putting weird food combos together - bananas and pasta (penne can be picked up quite easily as can filled pasta), providing a dip that I knew they liked, putting things in muffin trays/other fancy plates, having a picnic (indoor and outdoor), calling things by a name of something I knew they like (cream cheese is still known as white jam in our house). Arrgghhh, this is bringing back all the frustration actually.

In the end I just decided that we'd all eat the same, or they could just wait till the next meal, but they were quite a bit older by then though.

[Faith]

how do i get her to eat more variety? If i give her something new, she will just push it around her tray.

Thanks PL x

This isn't a bad thing, let her push it round her tray. Don't stop giving it to her though, next time it will be familiar to her, and the time after that she might try it because it won't be new anymore. It's all part of food experimentation.

I used to always include one new thing, or something they didn't readily eat, with every meal. Keep presenting it- don't they say a baby needs to see something 6 times before they're confident it is food?

[donna-j]

Clara pretty much always fed herself. I just stuck it on her tray. The mess was horrendous though. There is a picture on here somewhere with her covered in Ready Brek.

She loved those crisps too and would dip them in her mushed up dinner.