DS is a picky, and I mean PICKY, eater!!! Help!

sherd · November 2011

Do DS will only eat Gerber's mac and cheese with chicken and veggies, ham, some bread and cheese, carrots, pickles, and pears. I tried pb&j, chopped squash, tomatoes, and a different gerber meal. Is anyone else's LO this picky either? I am hoping this is a phase he is going though and not going to be like DH who is super picky!

vansgirl68 · November 2011

Were in the same boat! At least yours is getting some fruits and veggies. Mine turns his nose up at almost anything these days. It's actually gotten worse in the past few months. What used to be his favorites, he won't even touch now. His diet these days are consisting of cheese, goldfish/ritz crackers, bananas & if I'm lucky.. carrot chunks.

JKB1986 · November 2011

DS will eat string cheese, pancakes, yogurt, goldfish crackers, pizza, french fries, chicken nuggets, pretty much any kind of chip, watermelon and some other kinds of fruits. He will not eat ANY sort of pasta, veggie or sandwich. Some days I swear he lives on goldfish crackers. I know it's just a phase but I'm so ready for it to be over with!!

JKB1986 · November 2011

EllaHella:
This is sounds harsh but if you cater to picky eating, you are creating/enabling picky eating. He isn't opening the fridge and pantry and making his own lunch yet. You have to be more stubborn than he is. He can either eat what you offer or he can end mealtime.

I know some people have this view but I have to disagree with it. At some point we will go the you eat what is offered or nothing route but not at this young age. Right now we offer something that he normally won't accept along with something he will. We'll make it a battle later on but not quite yet.

JillAly · November 2011

I wish my son ate half the stuff your son eats! Seriously. My son eats crackers, peanut butter and mac and cheese. That's about it. I think your son is a pretty good eater!

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Singingmama · November 2011

EllaHella:

This is sounds harsh but if you cater to picky eating, you are creating/enabling picky eating. He isn't opening the fridge and pantry and making his own lunch yet. You have to be more stubborn than he is. He can either eat what you offer or he can end mealtime.

I really dislike this advice. I swear the only people who give this advice are people who haven't had a picky eater. I've been given this advice so many times by people and when I finally decided to give it a try, my daughter didn't eat hardly anything for 3 days and lost close to a pound. She also would wake up crying in the middle of the night because she was hungry. Yet, she still didn't eat what was offered to her. I finally gave up because it felt cruel to, essentially, starve my one year old child.

OP, my daughter is extremely picky. Until recently she had about 10-15 foods that she would eat and anything else was either left on the plate or thrown on the floor. However, in the past couple of months, she seems to be outgrowing some of her picky eating. Now, I can put 3-4 items on her plate, with one of them being an "approved" food and she'll almost always eat the "approved" food plus 1 or 2 of the other foods that she wouldn't have eaten before. She still won't touch meat and the only veggie she'll eat are peas (and she'll only eat 2-3 individual peas), but it's better than it was before.

One thing that I have been more consistent about recently and I think it's helping, is to give DD a little bit of everything that DH and I are eating and to make sure that, at least, one of the items is a food that DD likes and that I know she'll eat. Also, if DD has a rough day and doesn't seem to eat much, then I'll give her Pediasure after her dinner and before bed, so that she gets vitamins and nutrients and doesn't wake up hungry in the middle of the night.

Also, I've been known to make a completely "approved" meal for breakfast and lunch and then try a completely new meal at dinner time. That way, if she doesn't eat much dinner, she's at least gotten a significant amount of calories and nutrients from breakfast and lunch and with the Pediasure added in after dinner, she's hungry during the night.

Good luck, it's tough having a picky eater, but things will get better. Just don't give up, keep offering the new foods, talk about how good they taste, make it look like fun when you're eating them, etc. and he'll hopefully start to outgrow some of his pickiness.

yukibaby · November 2011

EllaHella:
This is sounds harsh but if you cater to picky eating, you are creating/enabling picky eating. He isn't opening the fridge and pantry and making his own lunch yet. You have to be more stubborn than he is. He can either eat what you offer or he can end mealtime.

Not to sound harsh back but we are in the same boat and we are trying not to turn mealtime into an unpleasant situation for everyone. Our philosophy is keep introducing new foods and not to push if it doesn't go over well and try again later. That being said, LO still has to eat and sometimes that means sticking to what works and sometimes it feels like we are enabling a picky eater. Just genuinely curious as to your thoughts or tips on how to make a picky eater eat do you force them to eat, do you force them to sit in their seat until they eat, do you take the food away and offer it to them later (and if so is there a point where you throw in the towel and feed them something so they don't starve) and finally, is there a point where you would consider to be forcing the issue or are we giving in too easily?

mlkwmu · November 2011

I feel your pain. I have twins and we've tried tons of things.

My DD will at least eat pasta w/red sauce (which is a royal pain to clean up, but if she eats it..I'll take it), pancakes, a few fruits (watermelon, strawberries, bananas) P&J sandwiches.

My DS likes all fruit, pancakes, P&J sandwiches, french toast, yogurt and on occasion chix nugget. He wants nothing to do with pasta of course. Why would he, why make it easy on mom ;-) He does like to sit up with me in the morning and eat some of my shredded wheat cereal.

They both have oatmeal in the morning w/applesauce and a banana. This way I know they get one good meal a day. The pedi says that if they eat 2 meals a day call yourself lucky.

I hate it cuz I feel like a failure... I don't really want them eating pancakes often and things of that sort. I want them to eat meats, veggies and fruits.

We've tried hamburger, chix, cheese, lunch meats, girl cheese, sweet potato fries, gerber meals. veggies (peas, green beans, etc) lettuce, pizza, guacamole, avacado, mac and cheese.. they just won't eat them :-(

We've tried to sneak something that they previously didn't like in with some things they do, and they always seem to find it. The other day I tried mixing some apple w/my DD banana.. she spit out the apple. It's like they know.

I'll keep on trying and hopefully this is something they will outgrow.

GL!

ANJ410 · November 2011

It doesn't seem like you have tried a whole lot of variety. Just keep offering him tastes of everything you eat and see if he likes any of it.

dejavu22 · November 2011

sherd:
Do DS will only eat Gerber's mac and cheese with chicken and veggies, ham, some bread and cheese, carrots, pickles, and pears. I tried pb&j, chopped squash, tomatoes, and a different gerber meal. Is anyone else's LO this picky either? I am hoping this is a phase he is going though and not going to be like DH who is super picky!

I would suggest offering him a bigger variety of foods. At his age he is able to eat pretty much everything & anything you eat. Will he eat pasta? My LO is a great eater, but she has her moments. We have tons of steamed veggies & fruits as a compliment to all her meals. Some examples of breakfast: Banana, waffle, oatmeal w/ pureed or fresh fruit, yogurt with pureed or fresh fruit, cereal bar, cheerios & fruit, egg sandwich on toast with cheese & fruit. Lunch: leftovers from dinner, pasta w/ sauce & veg, pierogi (favorite with some butter), sandwich & a pickle & grapes, soup & a grilled cheese, chicken & veggies over pasta, chicken nugs & mac n cheese. Dinner - whatever we eat. Spaghetti is a favorite with steamed green beans, chicken & rice, pot roast, sheppard's pie, hot dogs & baked beans, tacos/fajitas, I could keep going. We always have a steamed veg with dinner. Broccoli, Limas, spinach & Green Beans are favorites right now. Raisins, cheese, cheerios, goldfish are good snacks. My suggestion is to also season your food. Most kids/babies prefer it to have some seasoning rather than plain & bland. If we are having an off day, I always offer a HappyTot pouch to make up for anything that may be lacking. My LO still gets milk 3x per day, but are working on getting down to 2x.
How many times per day does your LO get a bottle/sippy of milk? Do you offer it with or in between meals?
Never deny your child food at this age to prevent pickiness. That is just ridiculous. They will likely starve if you kept that up for long. Some babies just take longer to get the hang of foods. Keep introducing new things & he will start to like more.

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