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Austin Babies
advice for toddler eating probs?
What do you do when your toddler will not eat anything you cook? DS only likes to eat macaroni and saltines and pretzels and not all the time. I keep trying to feed him other things and I'm torn between refusing to give him the things he wants and just giving up on cooking healthy things for him. Right now I'm feeding him crackers while the meal I made for dinner just sits there.
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Re: advice for toddler eating probs?
Best advice ever on all things children related - "This too shall pass".
I know, easier said than done when it comes to kids eating!! Are you feeding him the same things you eat? It kind of sounds like you're making a different meal. If you eat the same hing there's no waste then. You just make dinner (small modifications as needed for their palate) and sit down to eat. They eat or they don't. Their leftovers are your leftovers. There are times when I'm making something I don't expect them to eat, like salmon and I'll make them good ol' fish sticks or chicken nuggets. Otherwise, I've no issue with Abby wanting a cheese sandwhich everyday for lunch. She'll live.
One of my solutions for the macaroni issue is to use Quinoa noodles. They're high in protein so at least you know they're getting something out of it!
Yeah I guess my problem is I'm torn between making separate meals or giving him what we eat and then him not eating. And the stuff I'm giving that we eat is designed to be kid friendly so I'm hoping he'll eat it. Part of me just wants to stop even trying to do this. So, some days I do one and other days I do make him something specifically for him.
Like now when he asks for crackers, do I give him the crackers or just say "eat your dinner".
I have been making the quinoa noodles. Trying to do what I can for his pretty much all carb diet (plus milk).
Kate's actually a really good eater so I don't know if this will help you or not, but we've had good luck with bribery. I don't bribe her with sweets, but with other preference foods. So- eat 2 bits of the zucchini and you can have another spoonful of mac-n-cheese. Or eat these 3 carrots and you can have another strawberry.
Personally, I don't make special meals for Kate, but I do try to include things that I know she will eat. If she doesn't want anything we are having for dinner (really rare) I will sometimes get her some yogurt or something so she doesn't go to bed hungry. Generally speaking though, our philosophy is that you never have to eat anything you don't want, but I'm not making you anything special either.
My boys eat a ton so I'm not sure if this will be helpful, but I've noticed that the more complex or the more ingredients in a dish, the less likely they are to eat it. They love black beans and avocado but wouldn't touch either when I mixed it up in a bean salad. Separately? It's devoured.
When they ask for something that I think they've had enough of or whatever, I just tell them "all done" with that or "no more". They've thrown a few fits over that in the past, but now they accept it so I'd say just be consistent as you can.
If they're not eating what's on their plates but we know they like it, we'll steal a piece and eat it, saying "thank you!" They don't like this one little bit, but it gets them to try that food. Am I scarring them with that tactic?
Layna is the pickiest eater. It drives me crazy but I don't fight her on things, I just let her eat what she wants, when she wants it. Its not worth fighting over. She's healthy and growing and I give her a daily vitamin. That's all I can do, and hope she outgrows it.
There's many nights when its just DH, Jakob and I at the dinner table and she's off somewhere because she won't eat. That's fine, I don't care. Then she'll scarf down a yogurt before bedtime and that's pretty much her dinner.
Jakob was always so good about eating whatever and trying anything, I got cocky. I used to think that parents were doing something wrong to make their kids picky. I think that Layna is God's way of putting me in my place
This. I gave up the food battle about 6 months ago. When it comes to his will to not eat a food vs. my will to make him eat it, he always wins. And we both just end up pissed off. So I make my dinner (because DH won't touch what I eat), DH makes his dinner and if it's something Will won't eat, one of us makes something he will eat. When he's 5 (or is at an age where we can reason with him), I'll put more effort into fighting it. But right now, I always offer a very small portion of what we're eating, and make sure he has at least one food from each food group on his plate. If he chooses to eat only crackers for dinner, then that's that. I don't make him go to bed hungry anymore because then I get to deal with a hungry kid at 3am or have meltdown after meltdown the next day.
It's the battle we've chosen not to fight.
We kind of do what Kiara does--bribery. He really likes meat, so when he finishes what is on his plate and asks for more, we tell him he can have more once he has some veggies.
L also likes fruit, but not veggies as much as he used to, so I've started to give him those fruit/veggie squeezable pouches. I think Little Tots makes them. They are organic, and if it gets him to eat some veggies--yay!
If you are worried about him getting what he needs, talk to your pedi about adding a daily vitamin for him.