Weaned and now a picky eater!

[Nature's Kiss]

Ok, my daughter has been weaned as of October 28th. We nursed for 15months! Woohoo! Well, she has now become SO DARN PICKY with her eating. She's always been picky, but now it's a fight to get her to eat ANYTHING healthy! It's driving my husband and I nuts, I don't know what to do... I can't stand listening to her scream and cry because she's hungry and I try to feed her "good" food and she refuses so I almost always give in. It's so depressing, I want my daughter to eat healthy, not crappy. Advice/suggestions?

[Tanya]

OK. she won't starve, lets get that really clear.

I too have a picky eater... and let also not forget at 15 months its as much about control as the menu.

Offer 2-3 small healthy things (usually NOT combined)
lets say 1/4 of a banana, 2 whole wheat crackers, a piece of cheese (or a bowl of healthy cereal and some milk)

encourage her to try just 1 bite, then let her go... that's enough... serve another similar meal in 2-3 hours...

I understand that kids need things introduced numerous times to grow to like it.

Start with fruits since they are sweet. Consider fruit smoothies.... berries, yogurt, peaches and cream with a small amount of sugar.

avoid acidic fruits, and don't try to force things in the cabbage family, some kids taste that VERY strongly (that include broccoli, brussel sprouts and cauliflower

vegi wise, I've slowly gotten my daughter (now 4) to consider /try carrot sticks with ranch dressing. Sweet potatoes, and pumpkin can be mashed into mashed potatoes, or served baked with butter. Strangely my daughter has descided baked turnips are OK... they are a little sweet.

if you have a garden take her into it with you, and encourage her to taste things off the vine... strawberries, and sweet peas are sitting ducks as they are kissed with morning dew...

i think its important that the child be served what the rest of the family is eating at dinner... I think it's an important socialization time, and its NOT a good ide for a child to think you are her short order cook.... we eat spicy food, so my daughter gets exactly what we do, sans chili peppers, she's required to take at least 1 bite of everything on the table... then if she wants to hog into just one thing.. like the cornbread or the rice... fine....

my girl is a carb fan, so now I serve MORE fruits and proteins than starches, and serve them first... so, for breakie today she got a banana and mug of warm milk up front.... then after she started eating, I started making whole wheat toast for her....I used to give her two slices, now she gets 1, and if she's still hungry, the rest has to be eaten before she gets more toast.

good luck
try not to get mad.. I know its tough tough tough....

[Seren_]

What do you mean by 'crappy' food?

It's common at this age for kids to get picky, but you might notice that your daughter will go through phases of wanting one food in particular, until she suddenly moves on to something else. This is common and so long as you makes sure she gets a fairly healthy and varied diet over the course of, say, a month, she's doing alright. She might not be eating a balanced diet day by day, but in the bigger picture she'll probably be getting what she needs. If this is what she's been doing then it's probably best to go with the flow.

My son went through a phase of refusing to eat anything that wasn't pasta or fruit. He was quite keen on cheese as well, though, and occasionally tomato sauces so I just put the vegetables he needed in there and hid them well when he was being fussy (usually when he got bored of one thing he'd been wanting, like carrots, before I discovered that he wanted broccoli or something). He was quite happy to eat his vegetables if they came with pasta, but sometimes he'd outright refuse anything he was given and in that case he was offered fruit as an alternative, which is usually what he wanted anyway.

On the one hand I'd suggest trying not to make mealtimes into a battleground over who's going to win...but on the other, if she's demanding genuinely unhealthy alternatives to what you try to give her, then I think it's important to be firm and set the boundaries as to what's acceptable and what's not. Perhaps if you could give an example of the things she'll eat, people could suggest some healthier alternatives that are similar to what she wants or something like that?

[Ceres]

Great advice here! I would only add: dont forget her portions are going to be tiny tiny tiny. I used to obsess over my oldest's eating habits because while she ate healthy foods, it seemed to me she ate way too little to survive on. Also, if healthy foods are available all day, you may be surprised how much she eats by grazing. For example, sif she eats a whole apple, thats at least two if not three servings of fruit.

[Brigid Rowan]

Awesome advice thus far. Ive nothing of substance to add, but I will really say, Tanya is on the money with the control thing. A 15 month old baby is alllllll about the self awareness, self determination and control of environment. :) I would expect she will learn the word "no" soon...

[Nature's Kiss]

Thanks everyone!

Today she ate oatmeal for breakfast (she loves her oatmeal which is great!). Then she got hungry before lunch so I let her eat two peices of summer suasage (that stuff isn't bad right? it's meat...). By lunch time, she refused the macaroni/carrots/peas but she ate half a banana... We'll see about dinner.

She only wants to eat carbs! Chips, french fries (when we go out to eat), mashed potatoes etc... She LOVES my sauer kraut meal which has potatoes, beef suasage, sauer kraut and green beans. She eats everything in it :) So I make that a lot (because I love it, I ate it once a week while pregnant with her and now once every two weeks LOL!). CHEETOS, omg this girl loves cheetos and all the toddler graduate "snacks"...the chips and puffs etc... She really really really REALLY likes raisins. But eating those all the time aren't good right? Aren't they sugary?

She likes guacamole, but my sister said that it's high in fat (go figure). I got her to eat a few bites of taco salad last night but then she just wanted the salty tortilla chips. Gr!

She likes shredded cheese but she will only eat it sometimes. And that's another thing, since she has weaned, she isn't getting milk anymore and I don't know what else to give her for calcium. She doesn't like cow's milk (yuck anyway) so I'm just at a loss of figuring out my kiddo right now!

Oh, and she used to love sub sandwiches. Well, we were at Subway the other day and she refused mine and my husband's sandwich, and knowing she would get hungry in the store and scream and cry (subway inside walmart), I let her eat the Oatmeal Raising cookie thinking that at least she was getting some oatmeal and raisins.....

[Ceres]

Raisins are a good source of iron, but I would buy organic because they dont wash the grapes before they dehydrate them and so the pesticides are still there. I dont worry about naturally occuring sugars so much as the refined white, but some dieticians disagree. Try her on chocolate milk or yogurt for her calcium.

I would avoid processed meats like summer sausage and ham and beef sauasage because they are full of nitrates and bad fats, but guacamole is a fantastically healthy food! She needs her good fats, so she doesnt have to worry about that and its packed with vitamins. Try toasting cut up whole wheat tortillas in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes for healthy dipping. She might even like it with celery or cucumber.

Oatmeal cookies are on par with granola bars, which isnt great, but itsnt as bad as some snacks. Watch the transfats, though, or better yet, get her to help you bake your own. Its not difficult at all.

If she gets hungry before meals, try to encourage raw fruits or veggies so she will be hungry when the mealtime comes and also to boost her fruits and veggies intake. If you offer them with dip, they are far more attractive. Yogurt makes a great dip for fruit and hummus makes a great dip for veggies.

[Nature's Kiss]

Thank you so much. I actually just bought stuff to make some home-made tortillas. I was planning on using those for her because she likes those.

You gave me some great advice :)

[Tanya]

instead of cheetos and puffs, I've gotten my savory carb lover onto a 'savory trail mix' of whole grain cereal (like Chex or cheerios) popcorn, torn up bits of dry seaweed(sushi sheets) baked whole wheat crackers, rice crackers, nuts and soy sticks lightly salted.. at least in that she's getting whole meal, some vegis and protein... I only offer it to her as a snack AFTER she's had a few carrot sticks or similar.

on fat... little kids NEED fat DO NOT limit fats in particular when they are part of minimally processed natural foods like whole milk, yogurt and Guac ... We worry so much about weight gain, but a kid getting plenty of exercise can eat these foods all they want and should... My mother was a diet Nazi, and I recall as a kid sneaking to the fridge to steal butter....OMG!

I have always kept only skim milk in my home, but when my daughter was weaned I noticed similar butter licking behavior... as soon as she went to whole milk... the butter fixation went away.

that said.. why give foods to which fat has been added?!! Chips, french fries, etc. should be an occasional treat... letting her go hungry in protest won't kill her.... it will teach her a little about reality.