...from my picky eater.
It feels like all I do is make purees for him- he eats about 6 of them.
The pedi says that she isn't concerned, as he indeed eats finger food: toast/ grilled ham/ cheese, Cheerios, and meatballs. He's just... picky. I'll say. Every single day, I give him something new to try, and he goes ahead and throws it on the floor. I feel like I've tried everything to get him to explore new foods.
I've been making purees for nearly 10 mos. now. Do you have any idea how much puree it takes to fill a toddler belly? This is just plain crazy.
Thanks for letting me vent. I'd welcome any suggestions!
Re: I could really use a break
Have you tried gradually thickening them or leaving some chunks?
Does he like apple sauce? Maybe try steamed apples that haven't been pureed?
We had to go cold turkey and let him be a little hungrier before our DS got the clue that the family meal doesn't revolve around him all the time. We give him fruit and veg puree pouches for all his snacks, but at meal times, he has to have toddler foods and we offer bites of our food. No more puree meals- only puree snacks allowed in our house now. Of course, we are still working on getting him to eat non-puree veggies, which is why I don't sweat the snacks, but I think I was rushing the change too much. I have found I have high expectations for quick evolution with DS.
A couple of other things we found were DS seems to prefer to eat non-baby foods from our plates rather than his own serving. Also, we have found that he is now wanting to assert more independance and doesn't want to be fed- he wants foods he can feed himself.
HTH! Good luck.
We all eat together. He's even interested in our food, so before he even sees his separate meal, I try to feed him from my plate. He won't hear of it. I've tried bigger portions, smaller portions, multiple choices on his tray, new choices at snacktime only, putting chunks in the puree, encouraging him just for touching/ picking up the new food, putting butter (which he loves) on new foods, giving him baby utensils, spicy food, etc, etc, etc.
He's just picky, and it scares me. It runs in my family. I was picky as a kid but grew out of it- now I eat everything. My brother just barely grew out of it, but there isn't much he eats to this day. Trying to stay optimistic.