Ideas? DD won't eat

BeebopandBuddy · October 2013

DD is 2.5 and has always had issues with eating. She eats a handful of items consistently (pancakes, PB&J, bananas, mangos, a couple of other things). She eats almost no meat and we were told to start supplementing for protein with Carnation or Pediasure at her 2.5 year pedi appointment. In the last week it has gotten worse and she is barely eating at all. She is eating a bite or two at each meal, if that. She drinks about 24 oz. of milk a day, that's the only thing that she does consistently.

The pedi said to just keep offering, but I'm getting really concerned at this point. Any ideas?

BeebopandBuddy · October 2013

She is offered 3 meals and 2 snacks. She has been sometimes requesting to eat at random times and refusing at set meal times so I have been giving in a little on that as long as it's a healthy snack. For the most part though, I ask her to eat and she either says no or says yes but refuses the food when I give it to her.

bosha711 · October 2013

You've described DS pretty much exactly. He's been on pediasure since his 2.5 yr appt as well, and we have seen consistent gain.

If he doesn't eat on his own, we usually bribe him bite for bite with fruit. He will always eat fruit so for every bite of food, he can have a bite of fruit.

Recently we've been telling him that eating his food is part of being a good boy & Santa only comes to the houses of good boys. MOTY

GL

kelbel527 · October 2013

I will admit that I have been lucky enough to have two really good eaters. But, from experience from friends, I would just suggest keep doing what you're doing and get as much nutrition into what she is eating as possible.

There are cookbooks out there with recipes to "hide" vegetables into meals for picky eaters. Like - what can you potentially put in her pancakes that she might eat but give her as much nutrition as possible? Just another thought.

Hopefully the last couple of days are just a phase, I know DS1 goes through stages where he doesn't eat as much as normal.

ellebee2 · October 2013

FTM of a 1 year old - so really, I don't know what I'm talking about.... but here are some thoughts/ideas/things that I recall reading or hearing/etc:

- Have you tried having her help you prepare the food? Maybe if she has a role in making the meal she will be more inclined to eat it?

- Are there any storybooks about food/eating/nutrition that you could read together to get her more interested?

- I heard/read somewhere at sometime (big help I know) that sometimes kids get overwhelmed with decisions when there are too many things in front of them so offering food one item at a time helps (ie if you are having chicken, noodles and peas - offer chicken until she won't eat any more, then remove the plate and offer peas, and so on).

That's all I've got. Good luck. I can imagine how frustrating it is. Hopefully she gets through this phase relatively quickly.

Holly_1007 · October 2013

I am such a picky eater and have been all my life. like, failure to thrive until I was likefive, 85 pounds at my high school graduation. keep offering her things, healthy things. Its not even a battle of the wills at this point. she likes pancakes? add in protein powder to them. strawberry banana smoothies? add in some kale. keep with your routine and schedule. offer things that you know she likes, but make other things as well, so that she see's you making them, see's you eating them, see's them on the table etc. I'm so sorry you are struggling with this, good luck!

bosha711 · October 2013

delaine0821 said:

She is offered 3 meals and 2 snacks. She has been sometimes requesting to eat at random times and refusing at set meal times so I have been giving in a little on that as long as it's a healthy snack. For the most part though, I ask her to eat and she either says no or says yes but refuses the food when I give it to her.

This is frustrating for us too. It's a battle to get him to eat a meal, and then like 10 minutes later, he's begging for milk & snack. You try telling him, "no, sorry, you should have eaten your lunch", and then tantrum ensues.

Or you ask him what he wants to eat, he'll say "oatmeal!", with such excitement. You sit him down & then he acts like you're feeding him poison. It's exhausting.

And for DS it's not even a matter of being a picky eater. He just truly could not care less about eating most of the time.

linzeek44 · October 2013

When I was talking to a pediatric food therapist about one of my students, she talked a lot about food chaining. You start with something she likes and take baby steps towards something new. It's an interesting concept and might be worth looking up for some ideas.

If she will drink milk would she drink a milkshake (maybe something like mango and banana)? If so, you could try that and then move on to adding other ingredients.