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October 2011 Moms
DoctorWorm222
member
Picky eaters
DoctorWorm222
member
My kid will NOT eat meat. I've tried chicken, beef, pork, sausages - ground, braised, shredded - everything. Even if I mix the meat with other items (for instance, small bits of pork chop mixed with mashed potatoes and gravy), she finds the meat and spits it out. My kiddo is on the smaller size, so half of me wants to give her anything she'll swallow to make sure she gets enough calories and the other half doesn't want to give into her BS.
Thoughts on dealing with picky eating habits?
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Re: Picky eaters
From dealing with E, the more you make it an issue the bigger issue it becomes. There are ways of getting adequate nutrition into kids. They will eventually eat. And just like adults there are flavors and textures they don't like. We just do vitamins and alternative protein sources like greek yogurt, protein bars, beans and protein/green smoothies. He will now eat hot dogs, sausage and bacon so we also are doing a lot of breakfast for dinner. He still won't regular pork, any chicken that isn't a nugget or any kind of red meat. When people say kids will eat when they're hungry they are totally full of crap.
ETA: I don't let him snack or eat junk all day and he will go without eating if I don't let him eat what he wants so I let him go without eating. He is required to sit with us at meal time regardless of if he eats. He is completely healthy, active and normal size. He is skinny but both sides of his family are skinny to average size and he is strong and athletic.
Audrey is a picky eater, I have given up. I refuse to make special meals for her. She picks through what I make and then she can go make herself something extra. This doesn't help your situatio, sorry.
I guess I would just keep trying things. Audrey goes in phases too, example, sometimes she will eat ground beef and love it, sometimes she won't even look at it. I do make her try a little bit of everything before she can make something for herself.
I think Lopes and PSD both are dead on here. At this age, I don't think you're really dealing with a picky eater, I think it's phases they go in and out of. LBB used to adore meat, but now he practically wants nothing to do with it (he's been okay with shepherd's pie and minestrone soup). I am confident that he'll pass through this phase and be interested in carnitas again!
And like Lopes said, fighting and making an issue of it is only going to make things worse. It becomes a power struggle, and makes eating stressful for everyone. For right now, I offer meat when we have it, but don't force the issue. And I've been doing lots of meals with alternative protein sources like beans for all of us.
I think a LOT of toddlers don't eat meat. My doctor said it is pretty common until they get all their teeth.
Anyhoo, someone gave me some great advice the other day. They always make a meal with something that they know their kid will eat. So lets say you make a meat dish, well then make 1-2 sides that you know the kid will eat. Place everything on their plate and allow them to chose what they want to eat. So for example, last night I made spaghetti and peas. DS normally eats spaghetti but last night he didn't want to so he ate a pound of peas instead.
Also, I heard the toddlers get their balanced meals over a week, so you don't need to worry about them eating a balance meal each day or each meal.
Then once they are older you can teach them to not say anything bad about food (so no screaming, yelling or whatever) because they have things on their plate they can eat.