Mealtimes are such a struggle...
I'm at a point where I kind of dread mealtimes... LO used to eat everything before 12 mo, then suddenly it was like the flip of a switch and she is SO PICKY. I had done BLW and tried the "100 foods before 1" but none of it seemed to make any difference.
I have a part time nanny who comes 3 times a week and she does spoon feed her because it is easier. Since around 15 months (she's 18 months now) she stopped even trying to use a spoon and just expects us to spoon feed her. If I had her the spoon, she will push it towards me basically telling me "you're supposed to feed me!"
At this point she only consistently accepts string cheese, strawberries, banana, oranges, banana oat pancakes I make her, pasta, and snacks like Amara (I limit these). She used to LOVE spinach and chicken, now she won't touch spinach on its own and chicken is love/hate. I have to chop everything up in tiny pieces and mix it up in some rice (basically fried rice) for her to eat any veggies. I've noticed that she will likely accept something if she gets at least one bite in her mouth to verify that it tastes good, but it's getting her to even taste it once is the struggle. She's now seemingly getting tired of the pancakes so I try to make her new food but she won't even try, and it is really discouraging.
Another really odd thing is she will only sit and eat if she is distracted by a book. She loves flipping through her books and if she just sits in the high chair alone she will fuss until we give her a book. Sometimes she won't even eat the "safe food" until she has a book or if we start reading to her. A part of me feels like the nanny contributed to this bad habit because she was the one who started giving her a "distraction" at meal times whenever she would be fussy. I tried to tell her not to do that but she doesn't always listen and I'm obviously not there to correct it.
I guess I'm just asking if anyone has had similar experiences? Does it get better on its own?