Food Fight

Critter and I have been having a Food fight for months.
I'm not sure what happened but I went from having a child that ate (almost) everything to one that eats almost nothing....especially VEGETABLES.

When I was pureeing food he gobbled it all up; carrots, pears, apples, spinach, beets, he reluctantly ate peas, but he ate them.
Now, I'm lucky if he'll eat a carrot piece I've hidden under layers and layers of bread.

We're at the stage where he wants to do everything himself so I can't spoon feed him anymore. YEAH! for him being independent. When I was feeding him he'd inspect what I gave him. He'll look at the spoonful of food and if it's something he recognized and was in the mood to eat, he'd open his mouth. Many times he turned his head away, leaving me frustrated. BOOO! for him being picky.

I've searched for ways to get him to eat. I googled, I asked, I cooked (a variety of things).

Many recommend offering a variety of food on a plate, with something you know they will eat and let them feed themselves and hopefully one day they'll surprise you and eat the veggies.Weeeeeeeell, I hate to burst bubbles of the super moms that have claimed this works. It's not working for me! Critter takes the food and piece by piece throws it over the side of the table, creating a nice sea of food on the floor. He has grabbed chunks of food and flung it across the room. I've gotten hit in the line of fire. It's a nightly ritual. We all sit at the dinner table, Critter in his high chair, and hubby and I watch as he pokes his food, pushes it around the plate, and then picks  up a piece of food and as he raises his arm higher and higher my hopes of it going in his mouth are shattered when I see the morsel of food I lovingly cooked torpedo to the floor. Sometimes, he's in a hurry and will  pick up the entire plate and fling it on the floor.

I 've gotten really frustrated BUT after much research, I'm realizing that lots of kids go thru this and hopefully it's just a phase he'll outgrow AND all I can do is put the food on his plate and watch him throw it on the floor.

 If he wasn't so cute I'd get really angry but he really is adorable when flinging food.