Picky Eater

[trudytrudy]

Hi I'm pretty much a stranger here these days but I wanted to hear some testimony on how your kids are eating these days? My son seems like he is getting worse about eating. He only wants to eat chips, fries, anything sweet, and milk. The other day he mowed down some fish sticks and occasionally he will eat something with protein but more and more he is saying at dinner "no like it" before he even tries it. Do you gals have any advice or tips for us? The best plan we have right now is withholding milk until later in the meal and trying to make sure he doesn't spoil his appetite at meal time.

[princessvespa1]

I have been just giving her what we are eating and if she doesn't eat it, she doesn't eat it. She also sees her brother getting "dip" (ranch dressing) and she will want it too. This sometimes works for us, it sometimes doesn't. The other favourite way for her to eat stuff is covering it in cheez whiz. Sounds gross, I know. But if it works, it works.

[trudytrudy]

My guy also likes "dips". Surprisingly I was eating a Caesar salad last night and he abandoned his hot dog to hijack my salad. I was glad to see him eating something green and tomatoes.

[nymama917]

We are on the "dip" bandwagon too. So if she's not eating something we either give her ketchup or some sort of salad dressing or hummus, yogurt, cottage cheese to dip into. I give her what I give her and if she doesn't eat it then that's fine. If she really eats nothing I'll give her some cereal before bed because I don't want her to wake up a bunch in the night. I make sure to separate that from meal time because I don't want her thinking of it as a replacement and only do when she really didn't eat. Sometimes she says no and I leave it on her tray and ignore her a bit and then see her eating...maybe more time would be helpful. I don't make a fuss just leave her alone and go about my business and then she'll give it a chance.

[redfraggle]

The most important thing you can do is model good eating. Toddlers go through a picky stage around this age, which is normal. Kids go through picky and non-picky phases throughout childhood, too.

Some things we do include:
offering a variety of items (DS's favorite veggie is olives) and different preparations(Raw or cooked veggies, Corn on the cob or kerneled, refried beans or whole beans)

a "no thank you bite" rule. I only require one bite at this age because I figure DD knows if she doesn't like the taste or texture once she's tried it. She has to try it again the next time it is served, whether she liked it last time or not. If the kid won't even taste the food, they don't get anything other than that food until the next meal, including dessert or snack; when I remind them of this, they almost always try a bite.

get the kids involved in dinner. We grow a garden which has encouraged the kids to try some things they grew; DD loves raspberries from our bush but wouldn't eat them from the store. We let them pick out some of the produce we buy at the grocery store. I let the kids help with cooking when possible; they love to make pizza and bread.

enlisting others to help also sometimes help. My mom always makes a big deal about how good her salad/veggies/whatever the kids are avoiding is. She has gotten them to try things many times. MIL sometimes bribes them with a cookie; it's not my favorite method but Grandmas can get away with stuff like that. And my kids know I'm not going to bribe them.

[annarose]

Am I the only one whose like

[trudytrudy]

Thank you for the advice! I'm glad to read that my kid is just being normal and the good tips. I think I'll take from this that sometimes it will just be hit or miss.

[redfraggle]

annarose, I thought the same thing, but I figured she must be more of a lurker who posted occasionally on TD and came over with us here. She's polite and asked a good question, so I don't care that she's not a frequent poster.

[annarose]

redfraggle - I'm just glad I'm not the only one and I don't actually care, I was more excited to use a GIF

[redfraggle]

Jul 24, 2015 20:39:39 GMT -5 annarose said:

redfraggle - I'm just glad I'm not the only one and I don't actually care, I was more excited to use a GIF

Ok, I thought it seemed odd that you would be picky about a relative stranger posting, but stranger things have happened. We have seriously lacked in gifs around here lately.