On the Forum: Help a Mom with a 22-Month-Old's Picky Eating

the first thing to remember is that you child will not starve herself. she will and is getting more nutrition that you realize, don’t give up, serve her the things she wants with some other healthy options and keep serving it up, she will come back around. My daughter didn’t eat meat, we drank a ton of milk ate dozzens of eggs, I even dehydrated spinach to sprinkle on everything she ate so she was getting enough iron, hang in there, and try to be creative.

Dear maddysmom,
As a mom to 3 (including a Maddie) let me reassure you That this too shall pass. Dani is right she will not starve.. It has been my experience that kids go through these ebbs and flows of eating. There were times I thought for sure my son would die of malnutrition (he did not). Times I thought my daughter would turn yellow from eating nothing but mac and cheese (she did not). My advice is to feed her when she is hungry even if it isnt meal time. She will get all the nourishment she needs and in no time she will be eating like she used to. I would think judging by her age she is in a “slow down” period of growth. Dont worry she will be fine…..and so will you! I know it can be worrisome I have worried myself silly over my 3 so far my sanity is intact. haha. Good luck!

She’s right at the age that most kids go through a picky eating stage. Because, she’s tiny, you need to be sure she eats some food. Fruit is healthy, most crackers are not. Make sure the crackers you give her have 3 grams of fiber and DO NOT contain altered fats like trans fat or Interesterifed fat. The incorporate multi-sensory learning with each meal. Most kids outgrow this faze as long as you are giving her whole foods. To insure that she does, include all her senses, even if she doesn’t eat the food. You can find out more about multi-sensory learning on my website. BabyBites dot com.

It’s very normal, but no less frustrating. Your job is to provide a selection of foods; her job is to eat them. You could try and do cutesy stuff like forming neat shapes in sandwiches, renaming foods–broccoli as “trees,” but often the best thing to do is actually pretend you’re not paying that much attention, and not engaging in any kind of battle. Keep offering “new” foods, and one day, she’ll try some. It takes a few tries to convince a child they’ll like a new food, but try and be as nonchalant about it as possible.

When they were small, my girls both seemed to thrive on bagels and cream cheese, with the occasional banana, apple and raisins added from time to time. I could sometimes get them to eat some chicken. As they were both taking a multivitamin, I tried not to let it bother me too much.

Hi
I went through this with my first child. I recently wrote an article on it for my website babynunu.com
Here is the advice I gave (full artice follows – sorry it makes a long comment but it is probably easier for you to read it here than having to navigate away from this site). Hope it helps…

“Every child goes through a stage where they refuse to eat or will only eat sweet food. For some it is a day and for others it can be weeks. It can also come at any time. There will sometimes be days where your child has a poor diet or refuses to do anything but nibble. For babies there will be days where they revert to just wanting a bottle or breast feed and turn their nose up at solids.

This is normal and should not be any cause for concern but here are�a few tips to help you through those annoying times:

Tip 1: Try not to obsess over what your child eats on any one day. Look instead at a�5 – 7�day period and what your child has eaten over that time. In most cases you will find that, although your child has had days where they have refused to eat or only eaten select food, over the period of a week their diet has been acceptable.

Tip 2: Do not push your child. Put the food in front of them and try to get them to eat but do not make a battle ground out of it as this may cause more deep set problems in the future.

Tip 3: If your problem is with a newly weaned baby refusing to eat savouries then try mixing sweet and savoury (such as vegetable puree mixed with apple) or try feeding baby a spoon of sweet then a spoon of savoury and alternate

Tip 4: If a child or baby is being a picky eater or refusing to eat because they are ill try to concern yourself more with ensuring that their fluid intake is sufficient. In the case of babies their intake of formula will often provide most of the vitamins and nutrients that they need.

Tip 5: If your child is refusing to eat altogether and this goes on for more that a few days consider visiting your doctor or health visitor for advice.

Tip 6: Watch out for any underlying problems which may be causing the fussiness/ refusal to eat. With younger children it will often be an early warning that they are about to get a cold or that a new tooth is about to come through. With older children ask them calmly why they do not want to eat

Tip 7: Try cooking with your child then congratulating them on the lovely meal they have made for themself

Tip 8: Arrange food into the shape of a face and get your child to eat the nose, eyes and mouth

�Tip 9: As a short term solution (especially if the cause of the refusal to eat is because of illness) make smoothies, milkshakes, frozen fruit iced lollies and home made juices. This way you can be reassured that even if your child is off their food at least they are still getting some of the vitamins and minerals that they need

Tip 10: If the problem is as simple as your child refusing to eat vegetables then puree the vegetables and hide them with food they like such as using them as a pasta sauce for fun shaped pasta, as a spread on toast or as the base of a pizza that your child is allowed to top with cheese them self.

Tip 11: When your child does begin to eat properly again do not hold back on the praise.

Important note; If the refusal to eat ANYTHING AT ALL continues for over a week or if you have a particularly young baby then see your doctor”

My son is doing the same thing. I have stopped letting him snack on crackers and chips and wait until he tells me he’s hungry…usually by way of “num-num, num-num”!
I will then make a meal for him that includes those few things he likes to eat, mixed up into other items. For example, he will eat corn and only corn…so i mix corn into chicken and stuffing or seasoned rice dish. As long as he sees that corn, he will be so preoccupied trying to pick it out that he lets me feed him the rest of the good filling foods!

My 2 year old daughter has always been picky. I just reverted back to the pureed Gerber veggies and fruits and my 2 and 3 year old are gobbling them up. They both ate sweet potatoes as long as I let them eat it out of the little container. If I put it on the plate it suddenly wasn’t fun anymore. Otherwise she would live on Peanut butter and Jelly on bread,waffles and crackers. Good luck it too shall pass.

I went thru the same thing with my 2 year old. He went from being a super eater to only wanting crackers, pasta, and cheese. After much begging, crying, and stress, I opted for the following strategy…First, I stopped letting him snack unless it was something very healthy, like fruit or yogurt. I bought sectioned plates and I filled 2 of them with the things I wanted him to eat and the last one with something I knew he would eat. Of course he ate what he liked first and asked for more, but I just told him that that was what he was getting and he could eat it or not. When he started to whine or fuss, I would declare mealtime over and take him from the table. It didn’t take him to long to figure out that I was serious and he started to eat again. We still have bad days, but I know now that he will eat when he gets hungry. I also feel better knowing that the choices I give him are healthy. Most importantly try to stay calm (at least on the outside:)