Picky Eater - Bountiful,UT

You might be able to take her shopping and help pick out foods to eat. i try to let my son eat what we eat, he's 7mnths.

Hi B.,
Are there any high protein and fat drinks the Dr. could recommend while trying to get her to eat?
Good luck,
SarahMM

Books that may help: If You Love Me Don't Feed Me Junk by Gooch, The Allergy Self Help cookbook by Majorie Hurt Jones, The UnCook Book by Elizabeth and Dr Elton Baker. You need to educate yourself on allergy free eating. It will help if you are eating much of the same foods. My son had no eggs, wheat, corn or dairy for his first three years. We were vegetarian and because of his reactions the first year I nursed him, I had no corn,wheat,eggs,dairy, chocolate or sugar. Think of it as a challenge and an adventure. You can try new things, experiement. CHeck out Vegetarian Times mag even if you aren'ta veggie their recipes often have variations for people with sensitivites.

My son had severe food allergies as a little one--your little one is probably refusing to eat because her tummy hurts. I have an amazing natural doctor than can help you get her system back in balance and get her eating--I swear he saved my son's health!! If you're interested in going the "natural" route let me know and I'll get you his number.
Good luck!!
J.

The only thing I haven't seen suggested is checking her frenulum, aka lingual frenulum, under the tongue (the little flap of skin that holds the tongue down). I know it causes speech problems but have heard it being so tight that it causes chewing and swallowing problems, which could be a reason for your daughter gagging and just generally not eating well. It's easy to see - as long as you can get her to cooperate!

I understand it is a fairly simple procedure to have it clipped if that's what the problem is - I'll have to have my daughter's labial frenulum on her upper lip clipped at some point. Good luck!

I'm so sorry to hear your frustration. Does she gag on just certain types of food or is it the taste? Those have very different causes and treatments. That said, we had a little guy with tones of allergies. We did a lot of alternatives. Goat milk and buffalo milk products. Also, acidophilus to help. Have you tried Pirate's Booty. Read the label on that. We used it with our one with no allergies. Also, just going to the health food store and saying you need a high fat diet without the allergens, they should be glad to help out. That's where I learned a lot. Another thought, since I'm not familiar with the resources in your area, is getting in contact with a nutritionist to set a diet, or a feeding specialist for ideas on how to implement the diet. Insurance should pay for both. We did a lot of yogurt and cheese (not cow's) for both our kids for fat and they both liked it. There are a lot of alternatives in the peanut butter area for protein and fat. I just heard of sunflower butter. Our Super Target carries it. If she can have butter, depending on her allergy, you can add that to everything. We used to make mac and cheese with spelt noodles and any non-cow cheese. Just use a normal recipe and substitute. You can get whole goat's milk in some grocery stores although most only carry low-fat. Any health food store would have it (for roughly $14-15 a gallon. Yikes!!!) GL! I hope your little gal outgrows her allergies soon.

Hi B.

Are you sure it's not acid reflux. Something you might want to discuss if you haven't. My little one was what I thought was picky and under weight, but she vomited a lot too. My Ped put her on Prevacid and it was magic. She may be turning her head b/c it's painful to eat. Prevacid is a fairly benign medication and it takes about a week to work, but worth a try. If it a few weeks there is no improvement you can stop the med and try something else.

Has to doctor run any tests to rule out any medical reasons (beyond allergies) for the low weight? When my son was three (he had Renal Tubular Acidosis -- which causes failure to thrive)after a year of being on meds he still was not gaining enough weight (or getting taller).. he was but he was still below the 3rd percentile in weight. We went to the Feeding Clinic at Children's in Denver. We met with an OT, Dietician, Pediatrician and Speech Therapist... we spent most of our time with the OT and dietician. It might be worth some time to at least either go down there or find an OT and dietician to help you work through these challenges. I am purposely not going into our recommendations because our son was much older than your daughter and we didn't have allergies... so it's hard to say what the best solutions to try would be.

Best of luck

Hi B.,

I feel for you! How frustrating!

I would call my dr and request/nicely demand a referral to a pediatric gastroentoroligist and a nutritionist (so you can get new ideas without too much stress). The gastroenterolist can help you rule out other causes than allergies. Make sure she also has not been operantly conditioned to refuse food (psych 101-do you remember Pavlov's dogs). Make food fun, play tea party with treats in her tea party dishes. Eat frequently and on her terms more often. I know she is only 1 but the tea party thing she might understand!.

You need help, kids not eating is stressful. My son dropped from the 85th to the 5th percentile from 7 months to 11 months. I understand...He would only eat breast milk, applesauce and mashed pears and super soft carrots....Turned out he had reflux (heart burn).

Hang in there, my son is now 4...at the 50th percentile and now wants to eat almost everything! You'll make it!

R.

I titally recommend the book "My Child Won't Eat." It's pretty new, and published by La Leche League. You could get it online, or for free from your local LLL group's library, or even at the LLL booth at the "What a Woman Wants" Fair/Expo this weekend at the Davis Conference Center, since I know they'll be there with some of their best books.
I found that book helpful and reassuring. You might also like Dr. William Sears' "The Family Nutrition Book." It has lots of ideas for toddler-friendly meals. Hang in there!

This is such a frustrating experience for you to be told you need to do something, but not know what. I always feel that the dr. doesn't take my son's food allergies (dairy and egg) into consideration when he/she discusses weight. Has your daughter always been low on the growth chart, or was there a MAJOR dropoff? My son grew consistently on the chart until 15 months. Between 12 and 15 months, lost 35 percentile points. Dr. wasn't worried, just said we'd watch and make sure didn't lose any more. 18 month appt., different dr., son stayed at same low percentile, but hadn't lost ground, dr. freaked out. I finally had to apply some mommy sense and go with the first doc's advice. My son had maintained and not lost more percentile-wise, so things are okay. I finally had to put away the second doctor's worry, because my son continues to grow, meet developmental milestones, etc.

The book Help! My Child Won't Eat published by LLL mentioned earlier was a big help for me. Also, kids with food allergies frequently wait longer and are more reluctant to eat "like other kids". My son didn't really develop an interest and eat consistent meals until around 14 months - probably the reason for the drop. It is nerve-racking as a parent, especially if you have lots of other friends with "good eaters".

You can try the OT/feeding clinic thing if you want to. My son eventually grew out of spitting everything out. But, if it makes you feel better, it might be worthwhile. Make sure you're keeping food fun and normal and that your daughter isn't learning to associate it with stress. I still find (at 22 months) I have to have about 5-10 food choices for the day available at all times and allow him to graze. He will sit down and eat a somewhat normal meal about twice a day, but grazes the rest of the day. A lot of times he wants meat for breakfast instead of cereal, and cereal is eaten later in the day for a snack or even as a meal later in the day. Sometimes he wants only fruit. I'm still having difficulty with vegetables, but frozen peas and corn he likes, in addition to pasta with marinara sauce.

You may want to ask your allergist if you can challenge some sheep milk cheese - Manchego or Romano are good sheep milk cheeses, just make sure they don't have egg in them, since cheese has great protein and calories. Also, according to the numerous allergists, drs, and naturopaths I've taken my son to, sheep's milk is not allergen producing like cow's milk. I've found both those cheeses at Whole Foods and Costco.

You probably already know this, but since someone else recommended it as good protein, want to caution you that since your daughter is already food intolerant, be very careful of introducing peanut butter at this age. It is good protein, just not usually for our highly allergic kiddos.

I just recently found buckwheat cereal, kind of like oatmeal or rice cereal, but has 5 grams of protein/ serving. It is gluten, dairy, and egg free.

If you're still breastfeeding, you can be sure your daughter is getting any nutritional gaps filled in adequately with breastmilk, as it has lots of protein, fat, and calories at this age.

Check out Food Allergy/Asthma Network (FAAN) for more tips and online communities.

Good luck and trust your instincts. Email if you want more support or ideas.

H.

What DOES your baby like to eat? make sure she gets a lot of what she likes and offer her a little taste of something new. It takes something like 15 times of tasting something new before a child develops a taste for it. Something to try...take a small muffin pan and put different things in each compartment, include dipping sauce in some and show her how to dip. A good dipping sauce...take 2 cups of cottage cheese and blend in a blender or food processor with a packet of Ranch dressing mix. Healthy and kids LOVE it! Make a sweet dip with fruit flavored yogurt.

Is your daughter healthy? If she is, don't worry so much about her weight. The doctor does not know EVERYTHING! I have learned this over my 18 years of being a mom. Parents can really get stressed out over things the doctor says, but really listen to your gut feelings. Use common sense, too. Are you and baby's daddy petite? This too factors into baby's size.

Don't worry too much!

A.

I agree with the suggestions to check out medical reasons. My daughter fell off the weight charts at about 6 months, going from 25% to below the bottom of the chart. She had severe reflux in addition to food allergies (ALL variations of dairy and soy). We had to put her on medicine for the reflux, and she got a little better - but didn't gain weight, just maintained. None of the blood tests for allergies showed anything, so it took us until she was 18 months to isolate the foods. We thought she had celiac disease and tested for that but she was ok. At 2 she finally started growing again - I think it took that long to get over the food avoidance from feeling bad due to the reflux and the food allergies.

We tested my 2 1/2 year old boy for swallowing after he started avoiding foods and gagging, coughing, and losing weight. He swallows ok, but turned out to have reflux as well and large tonsils. He started Prevacid for the reflux and started eating better, but we are moving towards a surgery to remove the tonsils for him to see if the sore throat, breathing, etc. improves and he gets back on track.

Best wishes.

It might be worth a visit to a specialist... I think it's an SLP (speech language pathologist) who can do a swallow study and evuluate your daughter's issues with gagging. Could be add'l allergies, could be a food aversion. (Maybe she associates eating with feeling yucky?)

I'm a member of a great Yahoo group of food allergy moms... I highly recommend it and I know they've had threads about this very issue. Go to Yahoo groups and look up TerrificKidsWFA.

I know other people have suggested smoothies. If that's a texture your daughter tolerates, you could try green smoothies. There are a ton of great recipes at goneraw.com. My DS1 sucks down veggies happily if they're in a smoothie, and I usually add some rice protein powder as well. You also might try serving a food in several different forms. Like for carrots: raw julienned, cooked disks, cooked sticks, grated, etc. so she can pick & choose the way she likes them. A lot of work for you, but it might help you learn more about which shapes/textures/flavors she likes best.

If you're really worried about weight gain, you could try an elemental formula (Neocate, Elecare, etc.) to see if you can get some extra calories in her that way. I've heard they taste horrible, but I know of several young kids who drink them regularly.

Best of luck! I hope you find some solutions soon.

First of all, I'm sorry you're having so much trouble feeding your toddler. It can be so darn frustrating. How did she do with baby food? There are soy yogurts available if she does alright with soy and they usually have a good amount of protein, but not a ton of fat (about the same as a lower fat yogurt I think). But they're nice because they're sweet, a little more watery than real yogurt, and all they have to do is swallow. My toddler hates anything pasty (like mac and cheese or oatmeal). Its really a texture thing a lot of the time. Do you see a consistent distaste for certain textures. If its gloppy stuff, try thinning it out with soy milk or water or formula or even juice (whatever she's drinking) to make things a little more runny, like baby food (sometimes I think they just have a rough transition because babyfood is so strained and has no lumps), then slowly work on thickening it up.

Also, my toddler loves anything crunchy. So, freeze dried fruits are great for her (Gerber makes some, there's lots of store brand ones too, and Costco has awesome ones that are a little bigger when she's ready). You might want to try going to health food stores like Wild Oats/Whole Foods, Good Earth, etc. They often have special diet types of things - cereals, pastas, breads and crackers made with corn or oats or rice, soy cheese, soybutter (like peanut butter, but with soy)etc. Its suprising how much protein is in whole grains! I don't know how she is with butter, but I used that a lot to put some LBs on my little one - slathering it on toast or putting it in rice cereal.

If you're really at the end of your rope, try a smoothie! You can make it with her formula/soy milk, fruits, juices (V8 fusion has veggies in it!) or maybe look for a protein powder (maybe ask your doc) that you can add to the smoothie. My toddler hates meat, so lots of times I'll mix in meat babyfood into her meals - spread it on pizza, mix it in with noodles, etc.

I've spent hours trying to get creative and make my little one eat more. Hang in there, it can be so frustrating. But just keep at it. I'm sure with a little creativity and persistence you'll find something that works.

Best of luck!
J.

Have you tried smoothies? Or pediasure? At least that way, she could drink some calories. It must be hard with the diet restrictions...you need to be creative. My daughter is picky, but all the foods she likes contain the things your daughter can't have. Have you checked at a health food store? Maybe there are some vegan alternatives that you could try. Good luck.

I'll just re-iterate a few things I saw that worked for us and for our sister-in-law whose son had similar problems.

A trip to the pediatric gastroenterologist and a nutritionist really eased her mind. We also saw a nutritionist. She suggested that we add a protein drink to our daughter's regular eating schedule. It's called Ultra Meal--the one we got is free of dairy, eggs, and gluten, so it might be an option for your son. We put a scoop in her soy milk regularly to boost the calories she eats. We never use it as a meal substitute. We always give it to her with other foods.

Though she can't drink dairy, she can drink whole goat's milk. It has more fat than soy milk. It can be constipating, so we alternate days with goat's milk and soy milk. The protein can sometimes be a problem for kids with dairy allergies, so you'll just have to try it out. One particular brand they sell here in Utah makes her sick though (Meyenberg Farms). I know there are debates about pasteurization with goats milk, but we always get our pasteurized.

Our daughter loves avocado and she loves a soy alternative sour cream made by Toffuti (that works instead of mayo since mayo has eggs).

The process has been slow, but she is now gaining weight and eating more foods. Best wishes to you!

Hi B.- sorry to hear your little one has so many allergies. The fact that she gags and turns her head from certain foods makes me wonder if she has some sensory difficulties in her mouth (aversion to certain textures) or perhaps she has a weaker tongue making it more difficult for her to chew some foods. If you think this may be the case I strongly recommend you call Catherine Dardis. She's an occupational therapist at the mapleton center and she specializes in infants and feeding. The # there is ###-###-####.
best of luck,
A.

that's a tough one. . . you obviously can't MAKE a child eat, and an avoidance of foods can often be a signal of other allergies that you don't yet realize she has. Maybe just offering food and having snacks handy throughout the day. Not sure if you're only trying to get her to eat at mealtimes, or if you're allowing grazing too. Grazing is a great way to get kids to eat snacks and more calories throughout the day. and really the way we should all eat. i'd suggest something like "ensure" i guess if they have a non-dairy equivalent, or if she's on formula, they have formulas that are age specific even up to age 4.

My son recently over came an intolerance to dairy products. It is extremely difficult to find things for children to eat. I would look into shopping at Whole Foods and Vitamin Cottage.

A few suggestions, I tried to find fatty foods that my son would eat. Avocado with olive oil and peanut butter on waffles or bananas are some foods he loves. Amy's, an organic brand, makes dairy free burritos. Ian's make gluten free, wheat free, dairy free chicken nuggets and fish sticks. I would simply look for foods high in fat, but that are still heart healthy.

Hope this helps a little.
Elisabeth

I have no specific advice other than to say I was the same way as a child... my mother says I lived off of hot dogs and bananas for nearly 2 years. Yuck huh?
I go the stomach flu at a very early age and I associated food with getting sick. I was small for my age and not of great weight, but our doc just told my mom to feed me as much of those two things, as I could eat. He told my mom that kids are strong and able to bounce back and hold their own easier than we think.
Eventually I grew out of it and now eat everything! And I am pretty healthy, so I can't say it harmed me for the long haul.

So I guess try and be patient and just give her as much of what she does like to keep her weight up. Perhaps even try giving her those pediasure (sp) drinks that is flavored with all those yummy things and has fats and calories to help her out. Not sure what they are made of however... so perhaps a health food store has an similar option those!?

I don't know about the allergy thing but my daughter on her first birthday was just shy of 16lbs. If your daughter is active, progressing up the charts and healthy, I wouldn't worry about the weight!
If she is not eating try figuring out what you can supplement liquid wise for her. I am sure if you go to Whole Foods and see if they have drinks without milk, made from soy or something that are high in calories and nutrients. Like soy milkshakes or something. Is she allergic to all dairy?
Consult with a nutritionist about fun healthy yummy dinners you can fix for her.
With the allergies that has to be hard, just keep offering things to her. See if you can find fun kids snacks that are allergy free at a Whole foods too.
Good luck

Hi B.,,
I was in your situation last winter with my son, luckily I have a product called Reliv that my son loves and gives him complete and total nutrition. He is doing awesome, gaining weight, staying healthy, and our whole family has had results including migraine headaches, athsma and allergies. He is actually no longer allergic to milk!!! We feel incredible lucky that this product actually works!
I would love to tell you more, if you are interested just respond.
Best to you,
J.

If the doctor is not happy but has not recommended anything to help, don't worry about it. Really if they thought it was "that" bad, they would have some suggestions or run tests or something. I was born with FTT (failure to thrive). I was the 6th child and the doctors told my mom that they were concerned about my weight. I only gained 6 pounds the first year. My mom just did what she could and followed her "motherly" instincts. I am as healthy as I could be now and have two going on three kids of my own. I have talked with my mom about his quite often (being concerned for my own kids) and she tells me that once she found a few things that I really liked, she just made sure that I got as much of it as I liked. By the time I was 3, I was back in the 50th percentile of my weight. The doctor was shocked and didn't understand how my mom did it. So, just trust your instincts and give your kid what she wants. Don't worry about the balanced diet as much as the strength of your kid. You can always try to introduce foods every couple weeks or so and get them into her diet. I now have the best variety of foods in my diet out of all of my siblings. So, this could be a blessing for your daughter in the long run.

Hope everything works out.

Hi B.
Have you tried Avocado? It seems like most babies love them and they have a good amount of "good" fat in them. You can try mashing it and give to her or just pieces that she can chew up if she likes that. Hope this helps!

You will have to deduct the food items that your child is allergic to but hopefully this can give you some new food ideas. I also like this list that when they get older they can adjust the foods they eat to being lower calorie without having to cut out the food items all together.

HIGH CALORIE FOOD IDEAS FOR TODDLERS
PROTEIN RICH FOODS
Cheese : strips/squares of soft cheese (American, Gouda, Jack, Cheddar, etc.)
ricotta or cottage cheese (mix with fruit)
string cheese, cream cheese & jelly

Yogurt: custard style, whole milk (4% fat), yogurt, frozen - add cream

Meat: salami, turkey
ham strips (wrap around cheese/cream cheese),
liverwurst (on crackers, in a sandwich, on veggies), sausage
chicken pieces (wrap in crisp bacon, moisten with gravy or broth), small
meatballs, ravioli
macaroni & cheese- add cream

Fish: tuna (packed in oil) mixed with mayo
fish sticks &. tartar sauce.

Eggs: deviled (mix mayo into yoke of hard-boiled egg)
scrambled with cheese or cream cheese

Misc.: tofu (stir fry cubes in peanut oil), peanut sauce or
tahini (sesame seed paste) for dipping
refried beans mashed with sour cream and cheese
grilled cheese sandwich with mayo on inside and
margarine/butter on outside of bread, cut into small triangles

FRUIT & VEGETABLES
Banana- slices, mix with peanut butter or non-dairy whipped cream
Avocado- slices, mix with mayo and lemon
Papaya- mashed, whipped cream
Fruit- canned, chunks, roll in Graham cracker crumbs!
Squash- pumpkin or squash squares, bake with butter & brown sugar, season
with nutmeg
Vegetables: any vegetable cooked with sour cream, gravy or added cheese, cheese sauce

STARCH
Potato : French fries, tator tots, mashed potatoes with butter, gravy or sour cream

Noodles: Ramen type soups - - add scrambled egg, meat chunks, or vegetables
pasta with butter and parmesan cheese
macaroni & cheese

Crackers: Graham, saltines, Waverly -- top with cream cheese & jelly or thinned
peanut butter & jelly, cheese