Does your 14 MO eat? What do they eat?

Question

I am having such a hard time with my little boy right now. He has always been a great eater but now that we are on to regular foods, things have gotten really difficult. He wants to feed himself but he just ends up making a huge mess and not getting much food in. He refuses to let me feed him for the most part. I am also very worried because he used to get plenty of veggies from the baby food but it is much harder to feed him veggies now. The only ones gerber sells diced are carrots, which he does love, but doesnt he need more than that?

Ugh.... Sometimes I am worried because it seems like he has eaten nothing but bananas all day.

So what do you feed your kids this age? Are they clean? The mess stresses me so much!!

Answer 1

Mess and babies wanting to be independant by feeding themselves, are all ONE package, sorry.

But to help, try putting something under high chair to catch any thrown food, that way when hes done eating it will be all in one spot easy to tidy up. Bibs are good. Have a wet face washer on the ready for when he has finished so you can clean him up straight away.

He is eating enuff. More gets in the mouth than we think. He will play with it, but its a learning experiece, - textures, shapes etc of the food.

My kids love mashed potato and gravy, even more so when theres peas and corn mixed in as well. Other things i feed then are sandwiches, macarroni cheese, savory mince. Simple things really. Simple for you to cook and simple for him to eat.

Untill he masters getting most of it in his mouth and less playing, you will have to deal with the mess. try and have his high chair in same place every meal time. That way he will learn that that is HIS spot, and that its food time.

Answer 2

14 months was a hard age for my son and I.  I went through the same feelings except my son wouldn't eat any fruits or vegis because he didn't like anything that was slimmy.  

First off, after many talks with our doctor about it, don't worry too much about the amount of food or what they eat.  They will eat when they are hungry.  

The reason it's a hard age is because they are learning indepence, which of course is good but also means you can just make them eat what you tell them to.  

Keep trying different foods and yes!  It will be messy!  For a long time.  Try to be have patience with it though.  I would get the plastic mats to go under my sons high chair or table, and I also would either put him in a messy outfit or just down to his diaper.  

The one thing that calmed my nerves though about him being healthy was giving him a pedia drink a day.  With my son though he didn't like the vanilla ones so I get the chocolate ones for him.  He just turned two and still isn't the greatest eater because he's picky so he still gets one.  He is very smart and active though so the doctor isn't worried about it.  

Try to relax and just enjoy watching him grouw up.  One thing that started helping my son eat more, is putting different food on his table and not mentioning it so he could find it on his own.  When eating a new food was his idea and not mine, he did better.

Good luck, and remember if you are very concerned you can ask your doctor for advice.  The one advice that my doctor gave me was to not make him mad and try to force him to eat, otherwise it could make him not want to eat all together.  Also, try having him dring plenty of whole milk.

Answer 3

My son is 18 months old at the end of this month and i never had this problem with him but i think that you should take him off of gerber and start to cook for him and dice the stuff up yourself instead of just giving him the diced carrots.You should be happy that you have an independent child but i knoe it can be frustrating..When he starts to make a mes just take him out his highchair even is he isnt finished so this way h**l know that he cant make a mess and he needs to eat and you have to tell him that..Then tell him to eat his food and put him back in.Good luck.

Answer 4

Self-feeding veggies to try:

10 frozen peas, microwaved 40 seconds with a little water

chunks of frozen sweet potato (available at Whole Foods) - 8 chunks, microwaved 30 seconds (no water)

5 frozen green beans, microwaved 25 seconds with a little water

zucchini and other veggie burgers/pancakes cut into pieces (sold frozen, need to be baked or broiled 10 minutes on each side)

canned kidney and pinto beans (o.k. out of the can)

I haven't tried frozen corn yet because my son eats plenty of corn cereal, but you might want to.

My son eats hummus (which is mostly chick peas) spread on crackers and corn thins, and he gets a lot of soy from Boca Burgers.

As for the mess--you can buy long-sleeved, thin plastic bibs from Ikea and Babies R Us (the boy one from our Babies R Us is blue with baseballs: it's a little hard to tell it's long-sleeved in the package, but you can find it if you know they exist.  Ikea's are cheaper and come in a two pack).

Answer 5

You can get any veggies you want and steam them to make them soft.  I would always cut my daughter's food up into little bite size pieces.  I would get little single servings of veggies in the can and heat those up for her.  You could also do any soft fruit but just be sure to cut it up.  At 14 mos my daughter was eating pretty much what I fixed for myself and my husband.  But one thing I loved to do (because there was little mess) was cheese toast or grilled cheese with green beans and cut up grapes.  You could also look into the gerber toddler foods.  I know they make a ravioli that is not in a sauce so there's little mess.  I would recommend finger foods.  Be very careful with weenies and grapes as they are VERY easy to get choked on.

My daughter is now almost 2 and she still tries to throw her food on the ground when she is done eating.  She gets a time-out for it but I'm hoping she'll soon grow out of it.  Kids are MESSY especially toddlers.  And no, my child is NEVER clean after a meal.  I have to get a wet rag and wipe her off (she sometimes even has food in her hair!), pick the food off the floor and wipe the floor down, and take her tray to the sink and wash it off.  It's such a production but I know it's just par for the course.  Good luck!