Not eating dinner
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Our 12 month old is the same. He used to eat everything but now will often drop it over the side. I try different foods, put some fruit (which he loves) and other food on his tray and sometimes he will get in a rhythm with eating the fruit and will start eating the other stuff on his tray too. I try different ways of feeding him (on a spoon, chunks he can grab himself, holding the spoon himself) and sometimes one will work and other times not. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the food, just the mood he is in. I try to feed him when he is not tired, a little hungry but not too hungry. I assume it’s just a phase and he’ll grow out of it. I just keep offering. My little one still has a few feeds overnight which I wouldn’t cut out yet given his limited daytime food
Dinner is always the hardest meal of the day for us (and I have a really good eater!) I just think it’s because they are tired. I try to cook a main meal for him at lunch and then if he only picks at dinner then that’s fine. You could try being dinner earlier?
Everyone parents different but to me once they turn 1 I believe their daily nutritional value should come mainly from foods not milk. So if you continue to give milk before bed or overnight they will continue to deny foods for milk. And now their milk is a supplement for their nutritional foods. I switched and both my toddler and 4 year old have their milks in the morning that way we start the day with their early milk and their sleep and dinner doesn’t depend on their late night milk. Just something to think about because at this age they do end up getting into habits which you can break now.
From 11-13 months ours was very picky!
My guy is similar. Over several months, we did teach him the sign language for all done, and if he starts to throw food, we ask him if he’s all done. If he is, we take his food away. We also offer lots of snacks during the day. If he says that he’s not all done, then I’ll remind him “no throwing please, food stays on the tray” or whatever language youwant to use. Basically giving him a choice rather than throwing food on the floor. But I do agree that it’s pretty normal behaviour for this age! And sometimes we’ll use all of these techniques and he’ll still be throwing food everywhere and rubbing it in his hair, etc 😂
Is it possible he’s teething? My boy gets really finicky when he’s teething
I think this is pretty normal toddler behavior. Around this age they are testing boundaries and control. They want to be able to be in control. Which is why the word “no” is also heavy around this time. What worked for us was being consistent offering what we all were having for dinner eating together and if he refused then allowing him to refuse BUT no milk after. Eventually he learned after the consistency that dinner will be what we all are having. We are dealing with this now again with our almost 2 year old and he just went to bed with no milk.