Meal time has turned into a kangaroo boxing match

[pansorie]

I miss my good eater.

I mean, she still is a good eater, where she seems to like almost everything I have given her, but since last month meal time has turned into a thrashfest. I stick the spoon in her face, and she flails her arms around, knocking the food out. I have to greatly distract her or do the "here comes the airplane!" trick to get her to eat.

There are some foods that she is not so bad with (she will always take her avocados with no complaints) but just about everything else has turned into a struggle.

She does seems to like to pick up foods, but I feel like she is not getting enough food when she is just feeding herself. She has also gotten into chugging the water in her sippy cup, so I take it away while she is eating.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[MindUtopia]

I would just let her feed herself. You really don't need to worry about the amount of food she's eating right now. It's all about trying new things and learning to pick up and handle food and enjoying the social aspect of mealtimes. Honestly, I don't even worry about how much my 3 year old eats. Even if they don't eat much at any one meal, they will make up for it later in the day or the next day. Much better to have it like that then to make mealtimes stressful because that can cascade into all sorts of other eating issues in the years to come. I'd just sit back, enjoy your meal, let her play and keep it stress-free. If she eats lots, she eats lots, if not, next time and offer her milk still on demand. I think it's quite normal for many babies to go through a fussy stage around 9-10 months. Mine didn't eat anything except fruit or yogurt for a month. But it was fine, after a month, she started to eat all sorts of new things and be much more adventurous. It's all a process and it sounds like she's been doing really well so far, so I wouldn't worry.