HELP! Getting LO to eat

Jscaggs · March 2011

So O is THE pickiest eater EVER. The only thing we can get her to eat are multigrain waffles, multigrain cheerios, apple sauce. The PA at her well-check a few weeks ago suggested that we make only one meal and if she doesn't eat to not fix her anything else and to supplement with a Pediasure. Well after over a week of trying this at dinner, we aren't anywhere closer to getting her to eat real food. She refuses protein other than the occasional bite of chicken nugget. Suggestions?

teacherjess · March 2011

I'm with you. Leah eats no vegetables and the only meat she'll eat is a McDonald's cheeseburger. Her staples are mac and cheese, boxed fettucine alfredo (ew), and things like crackers and yogurt. She eats nothing that I cook, really. We already supplement with Pediasure or Carnation Instant Breakfast, and we give her a multivitamin. I just keep offering a variety and I do require her to take a "no-thank-you" bite before she leaves the table-- basically, she has to take at least one bite of everything on her plate. I know this is probably a bad omen for obesity or whatever, but she is SO small-- still only 25 lbs. at almost 3 years. I just get what I can into her.

JLPT830 · March 2011

We started pretty early on that I was making one meal only (unless it's something real spicy). I do try to offer plenty of sides that I know DS likes if we are having something new or if he hasn't been fond of it in the past. This probably breaks every eating rule in the book, but last year we used bribes. The kid loves fruit. He would get a small serving of fruit with his dinner, gobble it and then ask for more. So we started telling him, "Eat a bite of ____ and you can have another strawberry." This worked really well for us. If it's something he truly doesn't like he's allowed to spit it out and he still gets more fruit. But he has "discovered" that he likes so many more things based on our forceful encouragement of him trying things. When he was younger I used to hide pieces of meat in baked sweet potato. And we encourage him to use things like ketchup or applesauce to dip foods in. Yes....my son will dip chicken or pork in applesauce. He has a few finicky moments, but he has gotten so much better about trying things. I think whatever you do, consistency is key. It took me forever to get my mom to understand that we shouldn't be short order cooks for him....he needs to eat what everyone else is eating.

By no means am I a doctor....but sometimes I wonder if the addition of pediasure makes kids more picky. I would gladly pass up my green beans for a yummy shake!!! But I don't know how you make sure they get the calories or nutrients they need without it. Hmmmmm........Good luck!

allobosc · March 2011

I highly recommend condiments or "dippy sauces" in our house and I tend to call things fun names like trees for broccoli, etc.

Have you tried the muffin tray? Fill a muffin tray (6 or 12) with different items like crackers, fruit, veggies, etc. and negotiate with her to eat only a certain # of the spaces at first. Letting her make the choices might help her. You can even do this with what meal you've cooked, just split up the ingredients like rice, peas, chicken chunks.

A favorite meal of my son's is meatloaf. I don't get it but whatever. Anyways, I've seen this made as muffins before too so that might be a trick.

Baby 411 or maybe it was my Toddler 411 book warned of the "beige food phase" which it seems like your LO is falling into. It just said it's a phase and make sure a vitamin is also given.

Meg41208 · March 2011

allobosc:
I highly recommend condiments or "dippy sauces" in our house and I tend to call things fun names like trees for broccoli, etc.

Yes! K usually will not eat her meats without ketchup. Ketchup gets her to clean her plate (and then she asks for more ketchup).

jerseygirl81 · March 2011

We're also in the "only one meal" camp, unless, like PP mentioned, we're having something super spicy. We've found that if we can get him to try just one bite of whatever it is, he'll eat the rest of it.

He also prefers to eat out of "big people" bowls, so we've been letting him use the same dishes as we use. Just last night he refused to eat his chicken pot pie, but as soon as I started letting him eat it out of my bowl he chowed right down.

robnnoel · March 2011

We are also doing the only one meal and using the dipping sauce approach. Ketchup has seemed to help DS get some food down. The pedi told me that he will eat when he is hungry and not to force feed him, but I have trouble believing sometimes when he only eats 5 chicken nuggets the whole day that this is enough. I have noticed though that DS will eat lite for 3 or 4 days then oneday he will eat me out of house and home, then eat lite for a few more days after that. At his last pedi apt. he was right on target for his weight and height so I guess he is getting enought of what he needs.

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