feeding a screaming 18 month old?

Question

My friend has an 18 month old boy. everytime she sits him down to feed him he simply screams until she walks away. He's always trying to climb out of his chair so she straps him in. she's very worried he's not getting enough food and has to suplimant it with milk. He'll eat finger food (tomatoes, cheese, biscuits etc) but refuses point blank to eat any of the meals she prepares. Now I must admit she still sort of processess meals for him so he might be fed up with that. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try him on a little table and chairs tell him that if he eats up his meal like a big boy he can sit at his new big boy table, positive reinforcement is much better than nagging and screaming - i would also think that at 18 months he should be eating the same foods that she eats, and if she sat down and ate at the same time as him he may show more interest!!

Answer 2

The most important thing is to keep calm and not force the issue, as toddlers can get great enjoyment from all the fuss a meal time row causes and will keep on doing it!
At his age he should only be having a pint of milk a day, any more than that and he won't eat, because he will fill up on the milk, leaving him plenty of room to carry on his tantrums over food.
My suggestion is to give him a little of what he likes plus whatever she has made him, and to keep foods bland and simple, my kids loved sausages and jacket potato.
He will eat when he's hungry, however stubborn he might seem,
and it must be solid food as he can't carry on eating purees all his life!
Feed the food to him and praise him when he eats something new, and when he loses interest or refuses to eat anymore just take it away, he'll soon realise that eating is necessary.
Your friend must remember she is boss, she knows best and must show him this.
Eating her own dinner with him will help as all children want to imitate their parents and watching her eating nicely will inflence him to do the same.

Some foods that would go down well are:
sausages, chips, plain roast chicken, also try cheese and tomatoes in pasta or a jacket potato, he might accidentally try some while eating his favourites and realise they are not so bad!!
Hope this helps xx

Answer 3

Supplementing him with milk might be the problem.

He's only little and milk will fill him up so that he's not so hungry to want to eat. Make sure he's a little hungry before his mealtime.

It's obviously an issue for your friend and her little boy is wiser than she imagines: he knows it upsets her when he freaks out, so he does it for a reaction.

So long as he's putting on weight properly I would suggest backing off a little.

Mealtimes should be fun, not battle grounds.

Your friend should definitely NOT be processessing food at this age (I did for too long and then it took ages to get my son to eat proper solids)

I would suggest a few things:

At 18 months he wants to be independent, so let him try and feed himself with his own spoon to hold - you can also feed him with another spoon. Choose something you know he likes.

Bribary is always a good one - allow him the tomotates, cheese, biscuits that he likes only when he's had a spoonful of the meal. He won't like this to begin with and will protest (food will probably go flying, so hold on!!) Be strong and consistent, firm, but DON'T raise your voice. Show the child by example - have a spoonful of his food, then "reward" yourself with a tomato.

Whatever happens, don't let him see that he is upsetting you. Once you've mastered the one spoonful, you could move on to a few etc.

Good luck!!

Answer 4

Mine is 15 months and has also started this to some degree (he doesn't scream). First off (and this was hard for me), stop supplementing with milk. Give him a cup at meals but don't fill him up between meals. At this age they are wanting to be more independent. I found he eats better if I give him cut up foods that he can feed himself. I put the chicken, broccoli, noodles etc. on his tray and let him eat at his own pace. Giving him a spoon or fork to hold helps too. He needs to start learning to hold them so it's a good thing. Give him time, my husband thinks if he isn't finished in 10 minutes he isn't going to eat. Not true. If she is worried, she can give him finger foods to snack on. Cheese and turkey are my son's favorite. Everybody sitting down to dinner at once is also a good thing. Alot of times, my son will want to try what we are eating.

Answer 5

Introduce the knife and fork and maybe he will do it himself. I pretended that "Postman Pat" was talking to me and held the toy to my ear and told him Pat said he had to eat a little more. Sounds stupid I know but it worked. Also I took the tray off the high chair and pushed him up against the dining table so he was in effect eating at the table with me. I do not know what sort of a high chair she has but maybe that is possible. My son is now 2 and a half and does not like the high chair at all so sits on a regular chair at the table. (generally kneels up) I think that they all go through a phase like that - he will eat when he is hungry - tell her not to give in and give sweets etc. Try some fromage frais, my son will always eat that , even if he won't eat anything else.

Answer 6

K-e-t-c-h-u-p! And other dipping foods. Also, he might be too old for a high chair, they have great booster seats available now a days. Don't think of food in on a daily basis at this age, but by the week. For instance, if you are concerned about him getting his vegetables, fruit, meats, grains; look at overall what has he eaten for the week? It takes the stress off of getting "x" amount of food into him during the day. Also, he has that thing he can control right now, your friend's job is to offer the healthy foods. Cut back on the bottles also, and you will see a marked improvement.

Answer 7

Hi,

Try foods that have a bit more flavour, Maybe you should sit with the baby when there eating so he can see you eating the same food as him and when he has eaten enough give him a treat like a yogurt for pud, that way he'll know if he eats dinner first he will get a treat after.

Answer 8

Just keep persevering. in my experience, kids of that age will eat until they're not hungry anymore, and as long as she keeps making sure what he's eating is healthy (which it looks like she is) and making sure he's getting what he needs from his food then there shouldn't be too much of a problem. If she's still having problems with proper meals in a few months, them maybe try to experiment with making the food more interesting, like using natural vegetable dyes to colour white vegetables, or maybe arranging the food on the plate to make faces or patterns.

Answer 9

you can lead a horse to water, but, you cant make them drink. Pretty much the same with kids they eat when they`re hungry, but tell your friend not 2 give in, all my kids have gone Through a stage of not eating proper dinners and just eating finger food, as long as she monitors what food she is offering not crappy sugared filled foods , this is where you find out about the child's likes and dislikes, just because they`re babies doesn't mean they don't have taste-buds. this is a fantastic time to introduce loads of variety of fruit and veg Good Luck

Answer 10

It sounds like he has an issue with his high chair. Maybe she could try getting a booster seat and sitting him at the dining table with the rest of the family. He will feel more included in the eating process and can see what everyone else is eating and is more likely to want to "join in".