Toddlers and fussy eating (merged)

sarahlouise210

My eldest would not eat solid food at all - I breast fed her until she was 2 1/12 and then tried to feed her but she just regurgitated everything - I had to take her to a special clinic where they told me they would not do anything until she was 5 even if she was not eating anything !!!! I remember vividly the day my mum phoned me at work and told me she had eaten a baked bean!!!! She was 4 !!! She is now 14 and you try keeping her out of the fridge!!! Dont worry - it hurts as a parent to see your child not eating but they really will not let themselves starve..and at least your child is eating something !!!

rach!_3

lol perfectlypoor i call him my little man too

Cullumpster

Hi Guys :hello:

I wonder if anyone can help me at all, my 20mth little boy is refusing to eat anything 'wet' at the moment he will only eat finger foods.

He used to eat spag bol and sausages and mash etc and loved it but he's now going through a stage where he is saying everything is 'dirty'.

He will eat bread loads of it sandwiches toast etc, and he eats loads of fruit bananas, grapes apples etc and he also likes cheese and yogurts.

I dont understand what is hapening, i've tried to substitute foods as he likes chippy chippys so i thought i'll swop them for sweet potato and roast them, he noticed in seconds :eek: ate a bit and spat it out !!!

He'll eat breaded chicken strips and i've moved from oven chips to chopped up waffles but what else will he eat

I've tried and tried to give him veggies but he wont have it, if we have a sunday dinner he'll have his bowl of food dry chicken a roast potato a yorkshire pudding i'll stick a couple of peas and carrots in the bowl but they just end up on the floor !!!

Can anyone help at all, is this jst a stage or hae i got a fussy little monkey in the making ???

HariboJunkie

Could you try whizzing up some veg and making it into quite a dry burger by covering it in breadcrumbs and oven baking?

lilmisskitkat

Will he eat soup? This has always been a favourite with DD (now 6) and a great way to get lots of veg into them.

You could break up a slice of bread in in to make it less sloppy or serve with cheesy toast soldiers. I usually make tomato soup and add red lentils, peppers, carrot, courgette etc and blitz it all until smooth.

Maybe serving veg raw? Like carrot sticks, celery, cucumber, peppers etc with a dip? Toddlers often eat better with 5-6 small 'snacky' meals a day rather than 3 big ones so picnic-style food is ideal. Try HM potato wedges instead of the waffles, very simple to make and healthier.

If hes a generally healthy child he wont starve if he misses a few meals, try not to make a fuss about him not eating as it could actually be the attention he likes rather than not liking the food iykwim? I found this with DD as if she decided not to eat something my mam and dad (i lived at home then) would give her all these choices of other things she might want instead (or just give her some chocolate :mad: ) whereas i was more 'Thats your tea, if you dont eat it theres nothing else'. I dont know why they were like that with DD as when i was a kid we'd be made to sit at the table until we'd eaten it all, whether we liked it or not.

Hth

Kate xxx

allIcouldwishfor

They all go through funny little food phases. I know that's probably not very helpful though.:rolleyes: When my 2 started to get fussy about certain foods we found it best to just keep offering little bits of a wide range of foods, incentivise them (stickers, etc.) to try some of what they "don't like" and not turn it into a battle of wills if they refuse particular foods. Please don't for heavens sake do what some of my friends have done and just give him what he likes all the time. Kids that age don't have the equipment to decide for themselves what a healthy, balanced diet is, he'll only get a very limited range of foods and won't try anything unfamiliar. As long as you are offering your little one food, he won't starve himself, even if he's not eating the amount you think he should be eating.;)

I've had days when I get so upset by the kids rejecting food I've lovingly prepared with their best interests at heart, but they are now 6 and 4 and quite adventurous with their food, more so than a lot of their friends.

Haribojunkie, like your sig, is it Erma Bombeck?

allIcouldwishfor

lilmisskitkat wrote: »

If hes a generally healthy child he wont starve if he misses a few meals, try not to make a fuss about him not eating as it could actually be the attention he likes rather than not liking the food iykwim? I found this with DD as if she decided not to eat something my mam and dad (i lived at home then) would give her all these choices of other things she might want instead (or just give her some chocolate :mad: ) whereas i was more 'Thats your tea, if you dont eat it theres nothing else'. I dont know why they were like that with DD as when i was a kid we'd be made to sit at the table until we's eaten it all, whether we liked it or not.

Hth

Kate xxx

That's grandparents for you!! It's their job to undo all your good work and indulge/spoil your kids!!

Cullumpster

Thanks guys, hadn't though of the HM burger and wedges i'll try that thanks.

it's not so much that he's going hungry far from it, his lunch is one cheese spread sandwich (2 pieces of bread) 1 banana 1 apple 1 cheese slice thing 7 or 8 grapes 1 x mini yogurt and then maybe after all of that a mini sponge roll it seems loads to me but he keeps asking for more so i just keep plying him with more fruit :eek:

ubamother

mine did this - now 7 and eats the lot - and my health visitor said this was quite normal - in his case I think it was a a fiercely bad-tempered independence bid rather than a 'don't-like-dirty' campaign! I just ignored it and he grew out of it. Do you do any messy play - mud pies, finger painting - these can help stop the dirty issue and make being messy normal and fun? Can he sit in the highchair and 'help' mash stuff like just warm cooked carrots and potatoes together with his hands, or hand-mash a banana? If you do it with him and show him how lovely and fun it is to lick it off your hands (!!) he may respond.

Cullumpster

Hi there, well i tried the cheese on toast soldiers and some soup which went down like a fart in a klift to be honest :rotfl: he liked the dipping bit but thats all he done i could hear him going dippy dippy dippy but as soon as i put it near his mouth he was saying yeuch !

messy wise he doesn't mind he squishes bananas and if i give him a yogurt by the time he's finished with it he looks like he's been body painting, but he still will say dirty if it is on his hands