I now have a picky eater

luckygirl13

So DD (who will be 2 in 2 weeks) has decided now is the time to become a picky eater.  That girl used to eat nearly everything we put in front of her.  Now it is a struggle at almost every meal. So the foods I know she will always eat are: hot dogs, animal crackers and vanilla pudding.  She does pretty good with most fruit too.  She is good about drinking milk most of the time, water sometimes and juice occassionally.  She will sometimes eat yogurt and mac and cheese (2 things she never refused before) and veggies (was good about these too).

But seriously no chicken, ham or most red meat (sometimes she will eat some hamburger with cheese on it).  And when she does eat it is a few bites.  So what do you do with your picky eater?  And any suggestions on things I can have her try that are good for her?

I know she won't starve herself but I am getting tired of fighting this battle!  TIA

*sparky*

DS would not eat any meat for a while and he still is mostly a vegetarian.  I give him eggs and beans for protein.  He loves chick peas, black beans, kidney beans. 

I just try to give DS different things and I am prepared to offer something else if he won't eat what I give him at first.

Some of his favorites are grape tomatoes, blueberries, avocado, peas, corn, peaches, hard boiled eggs, whole wheat bagel with laughing cow cheese, mini quiches, grapes, edamame (he loves these).

goodhartedmommy

I've found that both of my kids will eat anything if I tell them it's veggie tales   They'll now ask me for "collard greens" or "sweet and sour" and I just pretend anything I want them to eat is one of those things. It doesn't hurt to try. Junk just isn't an option in our house anyway. We do have it occasionally, but they're not going to only want pudding and animal crackers if they're not readily available, you know? That's all my kids would eat if they could, so we only have them occasionally as treats.

goodhartedmommy

Oh, and I also want to say that having a picky eater isn't the biggest deal. Every toddler goes through periods of pickiness. Make sure you are offering healthy options, and let him choose what to eat. Most kids grow out of it at some point (and some never do).

luckygirl13

We don't offer/give her pudding and animal crackers every day.  Those were just two things I know she would always in eat addition to hot dogs (which she doesn't get every day either - I think they are gross).  These are some things she eats sometimes at daycare.  We do offer healthy options she just won't eat them.  She won't even eat some unhealthy options sometimes.  I hope this is just a phase and a short one.  I just hate that she went from eating almost everything to virtually nothing!