Help me incorporate new foods into DD's daily menu

lmdbww · February 2012

I hope this hasn't been beat to death on here already because I really need some great tips on how to incorporate new things into DD's daily menu. And, not "eat it or you get nothing". I want actual helpful tips that have worked for you. I really thought seeing other kids eating at preschool would help her but it's really not.

Breakfast and snacks she is totally fine with (she'll also eat any fruit and a bunch of fresh veggies). My problem areas are of course the main meals (lunch and dinner) and meats. Right now she'll only literally eat chicken nuggets, on occasion one certain kind of hot dog, noodles w/grated parmesan, once in a while mac n cheese. She'll eat steamed broccoli and corn on the cob. Up until she started eating these things on a regular basis she was essentially falling off of the growth charts so I just started to stick with what she would eat in the meantime until she started to progress. She's back on the charts now, thankfully (around the 5th for weight and 10-15th for height).

She won't touch any sort of sandwich (no grilled cheese, but will eat toast and toasted bagels), soup, anything that looks "wet" (no casseroles). She claims to love tacos but will only eat the empty shell. She doesn't like any sort of dip (no ketchup). She is on a fully nut free diet (but never liked the look/consistency of peanut butter anyway, so sun butter and that sort of thing are wasted in our house) and has an egg sensitivity (but again, never liked eggs anyway).

So I guess there are lots of things she will eat, but nothing that I feel is a nicely rounded meal with all food groups included. She sees me eat so many things that she wont eat, she'll even tell me they look yummy, but refuses to try them. But I have to get her to eat more before she starts K next year!

What foods should I start with? Is there a certain kind of food that may be easier? Do rewards still work? I never really had to any sort of rewards system with her except with food rewards, like the "if you finish your plate you can have dessert" type of thing, which she responds well to. lol Should I keep going with that?

jlw2505 · February 2012

My sister has a child with a sever eating issue (not anorexric) and is being treated at an outpatient eating disorder clinic as if she has anorexic even though she has been like this since birth. A huge part of what they are doing with her is that she eat a set amount of calroies in a day and she has 30 mins to eat each meal and she has to finish what is on her plate. Its extreme and I would not do that in your case but the bottom line to the plan she is on is that you eat what you are giving and you don't get to trade one food for another. We have always followed the basic concept that the meal is what is on the table, we always make sure that there is at least 1 thing that each of my kids likes/has eaten in the recent past as part of the meal. They have to at least taste (2 bit min) everything that is part of the meal (we make the exception on things that we have all the time, that the girls have tasted many times before and we know they don't like - salmon with one DD and shrimp with another are great examples). If it is something like a carrott which we know they like, they have to eat at least 2 bites. We don't allow them to get other things that are not on the table unless they have eaten a certain amount of the food on their plates but we also don't force them to eat. Dinner is the last meal at our house, we don't do bedtime snacks so if they chose not to eat dinner, that is it until breakfast. We don't make eating an issue, the food is what is served, we don't cater to any one person (allergies would be an exception to making something different of course). My older DD will eat just about anything but my little one is pickier but the same rules applies. We have always stuck to this and won't change it anytime soon. We don't sneak food in, just serve what we feel is balanced and good and go from there.

Spin313 · February 2012

If you don't already do dinners at the table together, start there. DS knows that even if he doesn't like what we're having that he still has to sit at the table. Usually he starts to eat something out of boredom.

Also, does your LO like rice...? DS won't eat plain chicken, but he loves rice so if I shred it and put it in the rice he'll gobble it up. He will also eat veggies this way.

momtoRaegan041008 · February 2012

I have found that if I get DD involved wiyh helping to make the food or make it fun, shw tends to eat a lot more. DD1 prettu much eats anything, but sometimes it's hard to get her to eat more than a few bites. I just started giving her sandwiches and cutting them with cookie cutters. She loves this! With tacos we tear the flour tortilla up and let her make her own mini tacos. Yes it's messy, but she eats them.

Jena503 · February 2012

I agree with pp that making her sit at the table for dinner can be a good idea. My DD isn't as picky as yours, but when she's tired and cranky she'll fight against the idea of having dinner. I tell her you don't have to eat, you just have to sit at the table. She almost always eats after a little while.

But on other nights when I'm feeling lazy we do "snacks" for dinner and I'll give them a little cup with some broccoli in it in front of the TV. And when that's gone I'll give them cups of chicken or noodles, or whatever. So it's real food, just served in snack form.

Can you try to slowly upgrade her from chicken nuggets to real chicken? Does she eat chickfila nuggets (since they are real chicken and not pressed nuggets)? You could find a knock-off recipe for those and probably just bake them.

I think it's totally normal for little kids to not eat mixed up foods - isn't a classic thing for kids to not want their foods to touch? Mine don't eat casseroles either. They eat tacos, but they eat all the parts separately, or combined just a little and only if they do it.

Can you branch off of the toast and into sandwiches? Toast with cheese = an open face grilled cheese. Bagel-wich?

Will she eat tofu? beans? Greek yogurt? just trying to think of other sources of protein. Mine do eat tofu, just cubed, straight from the package.

KathrynMD · February 2012

I just put foods on DD's plate - I make sure there is at least one thing she will eat consistently - like oranges or cheese or pretzels - and then put other things on there that are more questionable. One thing that always seems to help to have something she can "add" at the table - so a sprinkle of cheese, squirt of ketchup/honey/syrup, etc.

jerol · February 2012

Make your own nuggets (that helps to make it healthier- not add new foods)

My 2nd is extremely picky....but she is naturally large so it has not been an issue. Things that have worked for us is having her help cook the meal. We own a lot of children's cookbooks and let her choose. Also- making food fun. Research bento boxes. It is amazing what the girl eats with a fancy toothpick it! She also loves kebabobs. She used to eat almost no fruit until I made a kebabob out of it. We also make her have a no-thank you bite. I have found the best thing is just ignoring her. It has been a long time with the eating issues but we have come so far. Tonight, she actually tried celery dipped into cream cheese. Hated it- but she tried it!

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