Eating help!
memcgee1
member
I'm looking for some advice on getting my DD to eat more. Now that she's 1, it's so much more stressful trying to get her to eat. We've started the transition to WCM, but it's hit or miss right now. I can usually get her to take a few ounces, but it has to be mixed with breast milk. If it's WCM alone, she'll take 4 or 5 sips and then throw the sippy cup across the room. Table food has been an even bigger struggle. She used to gag on everything that wasn't a puree...now she's at least not gagging on everything, but instead she just typically spits out anything that isn't pureed. I come on the message boards and read that a lot of other LOs are eating grilled cheese, lasagna, etc., and I feel so inadequate because I just don't know how to get E interested. I've been offering her all different kinds of foods for weeks, but still she refuses. I know that it can take up to 10-20 tries of any given food before they will take it, but it's exhausting trying to come up with foods we haven't tried yet just to see if she will take it.
I also feel like we are still nursing too much. She goes to daycare, and while there, she's getting half breast milk half WCM in her sippy cups, along with 2-3 purees and whatever finger foods she'll eat (usually only puffs), but since cutting back on breast milk, she's been waking more at night wanting to nurse. I don't want to deny her for fear that she isn't getting enough calories during the day, but at the same time, I'm not wanting to create a habit of her eating MOTN. I should also mention that since beginning the transition to WCM, she isn't consuming as many ounces total of liquid food (i.e., she was getting about 12 ounces of BM at daycare prior to age 1, and is now only taking about 8 ounces of half BM half WCM) and no appreciable increase in her table food intake. This is incredibly frustrating, and my pediatrician's only advice is just to keep trying. Ugh. What am I doing wrong?? Should I just give her more pureed food during the day to make up for less liquid intake if she keeps refusing finger foods? I think I should have bought stock in the baby food pouch companies...
Re: Eating help!
Everyone keeps telling me to let him go hungry (that he will eat when he is hungry), yeah he will, he wont sleep and wake up crying to eat all night long, and we JUST got him STTN a few weeks ago. I am not willing to give that up yet.
I have had slow progress with trying foods over and over, he is now starting to like sweet potato fried that I make (toss in olive oil a little cinnamon and bake), but it is really hard getting any new food into his diet. Usually he will just throw all the food off his high chair in defiance.
Mine isnt like purees or even yogurt much anymore hell spit it out..only the apple sauce pouches which he can suck all of it out in about 30 seconds.
Hes not much for meats.
Sweet potato fries in the oven too.
my happy boy
He will eat applesauce occasionally but hates being spoon fed.
We try to give him lots of easy healthy finger foods. Black beans, blueberries, any pasta, corn, peas, carrots, breads.
Good luck and let us know what happens!
my happy boy
I hope you can find something your LO likes. I know how frustrating food issues are. Just keep trying.
It helps just knowing that I am not alone! It is incredibly frustrating, though! I guess I will just keep trying different foods over and over until we make some progress. She can't eat only purees forever, I suppose
For MONTHS I offered LO table food and he gagged on anything with the tiniest bit of texture. I felt like I was gonna be feeding him purées at his wedding. And I also felt like a short order cook. I was making all these different meals for a kid who was totally uninterested. Then finally, one day, he just started scarfing down food. I just kept trying and kept offering him some type of table food along with his purée. Let her play with the food, feel it, and she will get it soon enough.
As far as the wcm - my LO will only drink it from a bottle, and I took 2 bottles away (trying to get him to use the sippy cup) so he's only getting about 14-16 oz of fluid a day. Per the pedi this is fine. As long as they have at least 3 wet diapers in 24 hours.
I've been giving him extra fruits (cut up and/or pouches) to get some more water in him.
I've learned the last few months, that every baby is different and they aren't always ready for the next transition right when the book says they should be!
Take it easy, try not to get frustrated - my LO totally senses that. Just keep offering different foods and she will get it. Hang in there!
As for how to get your LO to want to eat different foods, I would suggest eating while she's eating and offering her what you eat. That, at least for us, is when S wants to eat the most and is willing to try just about anything. She may not eat very much of it, but the more I can get her to just taste something, the more likely she'll find something she wants to eat.
I do sit and eat with her, but I just realized that I don't always offer her what I'm eating. I usually make something separate for her that I feel will be easier for her to handle. I'm that paranoid FTM that is afraid she's going to choke on everything. Plus, for the longest time, anytime any of her food was textured, I usually ended up cleaning up vomit on a regular basis, which made me a lot more hesitant to give her what I was eating. Maybe that's part of the problem--she thinks if it's not good enough for me to eat, then why should she eat it? I think tonight I will just cut up some of whatever I'm eating, and she if that piques her interest.
I'm really trying so hard not to stress over it, but daycare doesn't help when they are constantly reminding me that she would be completely ready to move up to the pre-toddler classroom if only she would eat table food. It's like they're trying to rush her out of the infant classroom and force her to grow up faster than she's ready.