Babble

Our 14mo. old has the self-feeding thing (when it comes to finger foods) relatively down-pat and normally LOVES to eat. Lately though, she's been more interested in seeing how far she can throw her food rather than eating it. When she realizes that she's thrown everything overboard she then throws, what else, a tantrum. After letting her cry for a few minutes, we usually spoon feed her (and have been allowing her to spoon feed herself.. sometimes) something. Lately, though, she's even been refusing that. This also includes any and all vegetables. They may go in but they come right back out, and at high speed, too.

 

My question is, is this just a phase that she's going through? We DO feed her, by the way, but it's now on her schedule rather than ours, and it isn't in her highchair, its usually with her standing and pacing back and forth with her finger-food, much to our chagrin.  What do we do about this? What CAN we do? Its beginning to drive us nuts!

The big thing I've always read about food is not to stress it or push hard.  (Also, FYI, I'm an occupational therapist who works with children with autism--who often have lots of food and behavioral issues.)  She's asserting her growing independence, perhaps, and her new mobility is too exciting to pause to eat.  Believe it or not, she somehow will eat enough to keep growing and being healthy.  Remember to look at nutrition from a weeks worth of intake rather than just a day or two. 

While I admit that the eating on the run thing would drive me crazy, try lots of healthy finger foods set out on a plate that she can grab while on the go.  If she throws this food, silently remove the plate for awhile and put it back out later.  Reprimanding her for throwing may just make that behavior more exciting for her.  ("Hey, Mom's yelling!  How fun!  I should try throwing even more!")

You might also try putting her in her high chair and spoon feeding her several bites before letting her feed herself or alternating spoon feeding with self-feeding.  Try giving her a small amount of finger food at a time.  Give her just a couple options (not the whole fridge!) and a couple chances to eat instead of throw, and let her go if she's not interested.  Keep offering her various foods each meal, but don't worry if she eats a limited selection for now like eating cheese and fruit instead of veggies. 

Overall, try being playful and casual about meal time and see if she warms back up to eating.  I'd say it's definitely just a phase.

I don't have any sage advice, just here to offer support.  My son was he same way and he still eats on the run, but throws food less now.  He just turned two.  He does join us at the table also, but he if finished with that in 5 minutes, and off to the next activity.  I let him eat on the run because I worry he wouldn't get enough food down otherwise.  We do the same thing as Babycakies suggested, look at it from the week long perspective.

Is she teething? Our little girl goes through stages when she doesn't eat so much & it's usually because her teeth are coming up. This passes though & she returns to being the ravenous 2 1/2 year old that we know & love. Don't worry too much...