14 month old refusing to take food from spoon/fork!

MILF

It is so frustrating. My 14 month old son is point blank refusing to eat anything from a fork or spoon. He will only eat if he can pick it up off his highchair table himself. Breakfast used to be easy but now the only thing he will eat is sausages. Lunch is just as disasterous and dont even start me on dinner.

I dont have any problem giving him stuff to eat off the table but I'm running out of ideas of what to give him and dont want to be giving him the same stuff every day. Also am worried about whether this will lead to longterm stubbornness at mealtimes. He's starting to refuse veg and all things healthy.

Bloody kids!!!:D

di11on

MILF wrote: »

It is so frustrating. My 14 month old son is point blank refusing to eat anything from a fork or spoon. He will only eat if he can pick it up off his highchair table himself. Breakfast used to be easy but now the only thing he will eat is sausages. Lunch is just as disasterous and dont even start me on dinner.

I dont have any problem giving him stuff to eat off the table but I'm running out of ideas of what to give him and dont want to be giving him the same stuff every day. Also am worried about whether this will lead to longterm stubbornness at mealtimes. He's starting to refuse veg and all things healthy.

Bloody kids!!!:D

We had EXACTLY the same problem with our, now 2 year old when she was younger. As soon as she realised that she didn't have to be fed and that she could do it herself, from that point on she wouldn't let us feed her.

To be honest, it's a really great sign of independence. They want to do it themselves and if they can do it themselves, why should they be fed like a baby! :-)

My advice... roll with it... leave them too it. It might be messy, but hey... just leave the mop and brush permanently in the vacinity of junior's chair :-)

I suppose there are practical things you can do. Give them things like nuggets, fish fingers.. etc. and chop them up... then junior can pcik them up. ALso, you might want to let him at it with a spoon. Sure, it will end up ALL over the place, but some will find the target. :-)

Welcome to 14 months :-)

beth-lou

Yep, just let him feed himself. They love it.
Mine hated me feeding her at that stage and loved nothing more than getting her hands dirty and making a mess, while at the same time getting some of the food in her mouth.

Just cook it and cut it up small and let him explore food himself. Try small carrots and peas and his favourite meat. Mine hates mashed potatoe and she spits it out any time I tried to sneak it in. The best thing to do is to be relaxed yourself about it and he will actually eat more when left to his own devices. The same with breakfast, as goey as it gets, they tend to just want to explore food themselves and will protest less and be more curious if they are testing them on their own terms.

I know it can be hard, but persevere. It goes in cycles. This will be the first of many.

MILF

Okay, sounds good but what do I give him at breakfast time? He refuses reddy-brek, porridge, rusks with milk.... I thought that the likes of cornflakes, cheerios, rice krispies etc werent suitable for him so I'm stumped for ideas. I could be wrong on this but I'm so not clued in!!

silja

Sweet cereals aren't suitable, but stuff like cheerios are. My two also love mini shredded wheats (which I soak in milk for a bit first so they are not rough and dry). When you have time, offer things like ready break and a spoon, and let your child feed himself. It'll be a mess at first (at leats it is in this house!), but he'll get used to using a spoon that way.

Ickle Magoo

Yep, that lovely finger food stage!

Carrot sticks, home made oven chips, sweet potato slices, cucumber discs, toast soldiers & egg to dip it into, sliced fruit, roll to dip into soup, you can make nuggets or fish or veg fingers in two secs with a blender!

I found some of the healthier mini-cereals like mini-shredded wheat went down well, my wee man used to eat special K red berry dry for brekkie too!

Ludo

Exact same problem here. Our 2 17 month olds have been refusing the spoon for weeks now. Breakfast consists of Cheerios, shredded wheat, pancakes and toast, etc. They took sausages once but have refused them since...how bad...more for me. Lunch gernerally is cheese on toast and dinner varies...all kinds of chopped up veg, fish, chicken, home made oven chips, etc, etc doled out to them while we eat our own dinner. They will take a dinner from the spoon every few days but completely hit and miss as to when they will. Stew is pretty much the only thing we can be sure of them eating from the spoon. They aren't getting much red meat at the moment as a result but that isn't a problem. It's not like they were getting much of it anyway.

We figured it was an independence thing also.

Yesterday morning they also decided would be a great time for both of them to start walking. They had taken a few steps a few weeks ago but nothing since. Yesterday they spent the WHOLE day strolling/running around the house laughing and screaming non-stop with us chasing after them as they thought it was the best thing ever. I'm knackered...I miss the time when they couldn't walk already