I have no idea what I am doing wrong!
He won't even try most foods.
Besides the boob, soy milk or formula, this is what he will eat:
oatmeal
pancakes or waffles
pb&j sandwiches (most of the time)
crackers
Cheerios
soy yogurt
scrambled eggs
chicken nuggets (most of the time)
french fries
carrots (most of the time)
hot dogs (sometimes)
baked beans (sometimes)
chicken (occasionally)
pasta (occasionally)
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes
pretzels
and of course cookies, cake, candy etc.
To add to the difficulty, he is allergic to milk products so cheese, regular yogurt, etc. are out.
There are no fruits that he will currently eat. Not even bananas! Don't all kids love bananas?
When he was eating baby food I made all of it myself. I gave him a pretty good variety of fruits and vegetables and there really wasn't anything he wouldn't eat. He loved fruit then and most vegetables.
I keep buying new things and trying them with him, and he refuses to even put them in his mouth. I try not to pressure him. I offer it to him several times as the "experts" suggest. I pack a combination of things I'm pretty sure he will eat and a couple things I'm not sure of when I send him to daycare. At home I usually offer a variety of things as well, although sometimes I'm so tired of the struggle that I just give him what I know he'll eat. Although this weekend he wouldn't eat pb&j, so that isn't a guarantee either.
Noah at this age ate pretty much everything we offered him. He's picky now, but I think he's fairly typical of most kids his age.
I'm worried that Kiel isn't getting enough to eat now. And he's definitely not getting the right nutrition. I'm giving him formula to drink instead of water or juice just so I know he's getting something. I'm not really sure that's the right answer though.
I have his next checkup soon, so I'll ask the doctor, but I doubt they'll have any more to offer than keep trying.
So what do all you mom's and dad's do? Any suggestions on things I can try?
Our family doc once told me "no American child in normal circumstances is going to starve." When they get hungry enough, they'll eat it. But at Kiel's age, he'll go through phases, I'd just go with what he likes and do your best to make it a balance of fruits and veggies with the occasional new add-in here or there. Also, if he sees Noah eating it, he may join in. One of the things we did with fruit was to sprinkle cinnamon (you can start out with very light cinnamon sugar just to get them hooked on the cinnamon flavor, then switch to plain cinnamon) on apples and bananas - my girls still love it to this day. I used to hide bits of broccoli in their cheese quesadillas. Be sneaky! I think, actually, Jerry Seinfeld's wife and others have books out about how to sneak veggies into your kids' foods. Good luck, and stop worrying! My biggest advice with kids is to not stress, because I swear sometimes those little buggers sense that they're freaking you out and then do their best to keep freaking you out! Laura
ReplyDeleteThere is a great book - How to Get Your Kid to Eat but not Too Much - by Ellyn Sater. This helped me alot! My 4yo now eats everything she avoided at 15mo - she would only eat white food then.
ReplyDeleteI hope this helps.
Lisa
Have you tried mixing fruits and veggies into the food he will eat?
ReplyDeleteLike maybe cut up bananas really tiny and put them into the soy yogurt?
Really, I am grasping at straws here. My kids are the exact opposite. They will eat anything and everything.
I do know he won't starve. He will eat when he's hungry. Keep offering it to him.
Also, my ped did say to hold juice/milk/etc until after they ate. That way, they didn't fill up on liquids first.
Good luck :)
My 15 month old is the SAME way. I can barely get him to eat more than potatoes, wheat bread, applesauce, and goldfish crackers. I offer him stuff all the time. He just refuses all of it, throwing it on the ground. It's so frustrating! Once in a while he'll eat part of a quesadilla or small bits of hot dog. Or maybe a grilled cheese. But I'm also worried he's not getting enough nutrition.
ReplyDeleteMy son wouldn't eat either. But the fact you are getting him to eat some of that stuff is way above what my kid would eat. I bought him Pediasure to help keep nutrients in him. I also bought Ovaltine and put it in some lactose-free milk (Lactaid)..on the off chance he might be lactose intolerant like me. The biggest thing I found that helped -- and this is going to sound impossible to do -- I tried to act like I didn't care that he wasn't eating. I ate dinner and kind of ignored him. Before I knew it he was grabbing things off my plate. Up until last week -- and I kid you not -- the kid ate like crud. He got a horrible stomach virus and after he got better he ate like a horse. I'm not saying to get your kid sick. I guess I"m just saying patience is a virtue in this situation because I did not have it. But again...I just let him do his thing, prayed he'd eat enough to keep him going, offered, but didn't pushed and now he is asking for pb sandwiches and tonight he had a bunch of baked ham. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteOh my son is 2 now. I mean to add that the food issue has been a huge stress for us!
ReplyDeleteAs a mom of 4 and 2 with allergies I know exactly what your dealing with. I have a almost 1 yr old that won't eat nothing but oatmeal and breastmilk that's been three days so far. and that's only 1 meal in the am and nurses all the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteI first want to say that looks like there is a pretty good list of things that he will eat. Keep offering what he will eat. Most of the time children go through phases and this is probably one of them. My 3 yr old is on a eggo kick right now and it has to have whip cream. He has it for 2 meals a day. Some kids don't go through this phase but most do and several times throughout childhood.
I always love to make nice yummy sounds when I eat my own food. With that I always get the looks. Looks of wanting to try my food. Sometimes a bite and sometimes not. BUt its always worth a shot. Find new things to offer. Keep them out on the table. Sometimes children like to graze. I always kept crackers, cheeze squares, pretzels, meat sticks and cut fruit out on a childs size table if the baby skipped a meal. You can also try that. Good luck.