Picky Eater!!!!!!!!

I've got four great kids (14, 8, 3 and 19 months) I always thought picky eaters where that way because they where allowed to be.. NOT.. my 3 year old.. OMG.. I've never seen anything like this kid! All my others are great eaters. About a year a ago he pretty much stopped eating anything but chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, apples and gummies! eeek! I'm BIG on the nutrition thing, and this killed me. He even lost weight.. so off to the doc we went. I LOVE her, she is so amazing! She gave us some suggestions.. fun foods, things you can make silly shapes or colors with. I started making sandwiches cut with cookie cutters in shapes, added food coloring all that stuff. He'd eat it as a novelty for a day or two. I worried about the protiens and calicum and just calories in general.. here is what the doc said.. his little body knows what it needs, make sure you get a vitamin in him daily (which was great because you can get them in GUMMY form!), try to get a milk product of some sort in (we figured out he liked yogurt.. or o-gurt as he calls it), and see if he'll eat a protien bar or shake. Somedays he will some he won't.

I feel yuor pain sweetie but as I look at that list of foods your darling will eat WOW that is some good stuff! maybe you just keep plugging away.. add a new food to the tray for 10 days at a time.. and ignore it. Sometimes the 'encouraging' (or in my case pleading!) translates to a fun game or great attention for them. GOOD LUCK!

Well for a picky eater, she sure is picking some very good foods. Since she seems to be a child that can get fixated on a single food, I'd avoid things like mac-n-cheese, hotdogs, chicken nuggets and fast food at all costs.

I know some kids like to dip foods. Have you tried offering sauces to dip the pasta in? or maybe a yogurt sauce to dip the fruit in? I like to take yogurt and add some type of juice to it to thin it out. You can also add a little honey to sweeten it up at bit.

As for the pasta, you might try switching to the Barilla Plus is has protein and Omega 3s in it. Or try some of the colored/flavored pastas; carrot, spinach, beet. The colors are interesting and they may help getting her to try some colorful veggie.

Lastly, the finally getting to an age where she can help make her meals. It's very messy and very very time consuming, but kids really do take more interest in what they eat when they help prepare it.

Anyway, good luck. And if she's gaining weight and the doctors are okay with her diet don't stress about it too much.

-D.

Don't make a big deal about it. She's still young and she's getting nutrition from milk and juice, right? Give her what you eat and let her see you enjoying the same food - you can cook her portion a bit more tender or cut it up small to help make it easier for her to handle. Think about changing your own diet a little bit to be more in tune with what she can eat. I fed my kids any fruit, vegetable, cheese, bread, rice, etc. that I ate and I encouraged them to taste it, but tried not to make a big deal. If they ate little at one meal they'd be hungrier at the next one. Good luck!

- J.
Mother of 2, step-grandmother, award-winning child care provider, religious educator, & local civic activist
http://www.joycedowling.com/

don't stress, they're all picky at some point. check out some baby cook books with fun toddler food recipes etc. don't get sucked into the sugar/salt trap because it's a slippery slope!

not sure if this will help or not, but I have a son with severe food allergies who is ALSO very picky so I know how you feel

I assume you've tried all the normal stuff like putting melted cheese on everything, or letting her dip things in ranch dressing, etc.

one thing my mom does with my son is to put something in front of him that he's never seen, then tell him that it's not for him to eat, just to sit on his plate. she jokes around with him and tells him "don't touch it, don't even look at it!". and of course, he wants to touch it to see what she'll do when he does. so she warns him again and again not to touch it (all in a joking voice), and after he does, she says "well don't even think about eating it" and so on. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't ... but it's worth a try!

- H.

There is a book by Anabel Karmel, First Meals(ISBN-13: 9780756603656). It really is a great book filled with recipes, pictures, and creative ways to introduce new foods to kids. We found it to be very helpful and still use it often. Hope this helps.

I would say that is a pretty good array of food choices for an 18 month old. She will get better as she gets older. I do daycare in my home and have had a few kids with similar issues and all they will eat are things like hotdogs and mac n cheese. Just hang in there, don't worry and keep offering. She will eventually get a better spread of food choices.