refusing to eat
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My son's appetite has shrunk considerably recently, I believe due to teething and growth spurt. I've taken out his snacks and he is hungry at meal times but still not eating as much as he used to.
If he won't eat off of a spoon bring given to him.... Let him hold the spoon and try it out himself. Or just offer finger foods. As long as they eat something, that's still eating something. Breakfast sausage? That's protein, bananas? That's fruit, potassium, good way to stay regular.... Toast sticks and waffles? At his age carb loading is fine! He's growing so he burns energy throughout the day with all of his movement that he does
You can't reach a child to stop refusing anything. It just won't happen Kids eat in color has some good info on their blog about picky eaters.
Totally normal, my daughter only wanted to eat snacks for about 2 weeks but we would serve a meal, not offer alternatives between meals and then offer the same meal at the next feeding. A good tip is putting 1 or 2 pieces of things they do like on the plate so they are more receptive to try what’s on the plate. Example, my daughter is obsessed with veggie sticks so when I cook something that may be questionable to her I put 2 veggie sticks on the plate, she eats them and then she tries the other food and usually eats everything. If I don’t put a little trial of what she wants then she’ll see the food and immediately throw the plate off the high chair….so those two pieces of snack are important
My pediatrician said the best thing to do is not to provide alternatives. Serve the meals you want with a variety of food and if they refuse to eat, do not offer another option. If they are hungry 30min later, offer the same food. We do this and find she will usually eat at least one thing on her plate (as in, we serve chicken, noodles, and broccoli and she will pick at least one of those three foods to eat). Easier said than done I know, good luck!