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Northern California Babies
jsugrin
member
If you have picky eaters?
jsugrin
member
How do you, or I guess are you able to reconcile working hard on dinner when you know they won't eat. Not only they won't eat it but you'll hear all about it, how gross it is, how they don't eat X when they eat it all the time but not tonight it seems.
We're not a you have to eat what's on your plate family, I'm fine with it but doesn't work in our dynamic. So if the boys don't want to eat what I've made (and it's usually both boys because as soon as Andrew says "ewww" then it can be Cooper favorite and he'll still say "ewww", we do one of two things 1. if they've been eating well during the day then we say " ok fine don't eat it but that's what there is" and 2. If they didn't eat much at lunch, didn't do snack ec then they get one other option, don't want soup then you can have oatmeal or cereal and that's the end of it.
I just find that I'm getting into a major meal rut because I want to encorporate things they like and are excited to eat and they don't love a ton of things. I just get frustrated that dinner to them means mashed potatoes and ........yeah just mashed potatos.
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Re: If you have picky eaters?
Alex was never picky but since he started Kinder we've had MAJOR problems with this.... mostly surrounding the lunchbox but it's overflowing in to dinner too. He goes through phases where he likes what Ipack, then he deems it "gross" and won't eat. Seriously, the kid has eaten only crackers and fruit for lunch for the past 2 weeks. everything else comes home. He doesn't eat sandwiches so that's the issue. But anyway.
As far as dinner, he's been pulling the "I don't like that!" "That's gross" he must be learning it from kids in his class... he even does it to things he likes. I figure he has to be hungry bc he's not eating any lunch... We have just started telling him that we do not to dinner "to order"- he needs to eat what we make. He doesn't HAVE to eat it, but that's what there is. It has made dinner time pretty miserable for us all bc sometimes he throws a fit about it, but he's old enough we just dismiss him from the table and he usually comes right back and begrudgingly eats. It sucks but a) I'm not a short order cook and b) our schedule just doesn't allow for that.
It sucks it's hard, just know you're not alone!
Oh and I totally have to have the talk of "Mommy works hard to make you healthy dinners and get everything prepped for the week and when you say it's yucky it's really mean and hurts my feelings". Which is SO true. But he doesn't really seems to get that part at all.
Maybe when he has to cook for his own kids he will! Ugh!
It's the same here. It doesn't help that I'm not cooking every night so now he thinks that if I'm cooking and he doesn't want it, he can substitute a sandwich, cereal or breakfast for our dinner. (The nights I work out, the family is on their own unless I've done a crockpot meal).
We also do the "you have to eat what I make - without whining or you're done" routine. Our dinner time is HORRIBLE. Last night he decided he didn't like pot roast but it's one of his favs. So frustrating. And I'm mean - he had to eat all of his meat to get dessert. And he did - after about 15 minutes of tears and being sent to his room for screaming at me. ("I'M NOT EATING IT AND YOU CAN"T MAKE ME!" Um -you're right son - I can't make you but I can send you to your room for screaming at me. Buh bye!)
Both my boys have recently become picky dinner eaters. Jasper starts screaming when he sees the food and Cam's comes with " i never ever want to eat this food ever again. " blah blah blah.
For us its eat dinner or go to bed. We don't do the alternate dinner thing which sometimes sucks cause then they wake up earlier I think cause they are hungry.
So in our house we have been doing HUGE breakfasts and trying to not focus so much on dinner. Which is frustrating cause we are all tired at the end of the day and just want a nice meal [;(]
Yep its totally happened many times that he goes to bed hungry and it is so hard. Alot of the times though he ( Cam ) is throwing a fit and then like Alex starts to eat it begrudgingly and then eats either a few bites or the whole thing. I feel as though its really bad right now, like its a major control thing. Argh !
The emulation is a very real concern, it's crazy how much they behave as one right now. Cooper is a total parrot and repeats everything, literally everything Andrew says, doesn't matter what it is. When Cooper was younger we were hoping his openness with food would help Andrew and instead we got it the other way around.
I say if you think he needs feeding therapy then I'd do everything I could to get it for him. I'm a firm believer in mom knows best and it's easy for other people to say "oh yeah my kids picky too" or for your pedi to say it's normal ect, but mom's know better.
Is he consistent in his willing to eat foods? Have you made a list so you can really see exactly what it is that he is willing to eat to have a clear picture, see if you can find any patterns or whatever? I know with Andrew he really just likes carbs and of course sweets, so that says to me it's a choice and not something larger. I can always count on him to eat apples, sometimes bananas but forget any other fruits,kid won't even eat strawberries. He won't eat any kind of meat which it probably my biggest worry. I have faith that as he gets older and expands all of his horizons that food will come too, I was seriously picky but as I got older I got a lot better and more adventuresome.
How is Ryan's weight/height proportions? I'd guess that has a big impact on being able to get him feeding therapy right? My kids are a true testament to genetics, Cooper eats a ton yet is tall and skinny (39" and 33 pounds) and Andrew is very thick, chunky looking (44" and 40 pounds) Andrew also is the one that goes non-stop while Cooper is happy to lay around all day long. Based on their weights and activity levels you would expect their body types to be the opposite.
Why is it that veggies are so darn hard? DH and I both love almost all veggies to the boys have good models as far as seeing us eat them all the time but other than a very short window where Andrew would eat the carrots out of a Trader Joe's veggie mix he won't touch them. Of course Cooper would eat them all wonderfully until he caught on that brother thinks they're gross :::sigh:::: It's just such a universal thing with kids, I wonder what drives that.
I hear ya on the list, Andrew will eat any kind of pasta, pesto, gorgonzola sauce, sweet potato gnocchi with a brown butter sauce, stuffed shells, ect so those things make him seem downright adventurous but heaven help us all if I should dare to even put corn on his plate.
I hope that you're able to find something that works with Ryan and super fingers crossed that Taylor is an easier eater for you guys.