Hey ladies! My 3 year old is very very picky. It used to be that all he would eat for lunch is a peanut butter sandwich. Well, now he won't eat that anymore either! I'm at a loss because he won't eat hot dogs, macaroni, chicken nuggets (unless they come from McDonalds), soup, and a whole lot of other stuff. He basically likes grilled cheese and pizza, sometimes spaghetti, which I've already tried Chef Boyardee stuff and he won't eat it, and he'll sometimes eat some taco salad (which seems odd to me). That's about it though. I have to make him try one bite of dinner before I finally let him get down. I'm not giving him snacks between meals if he hasn't eaten his meal, so that's not it. I just can't figure out what to feed him! Any ideas??
By the way, thank you for the responses so far. I just wanted to add that I do say "either eat your dinner or you have to wait for dinner, breakfast, depending on what meal we're eating. He says "okay, no snacks" and then will ask to get down. It's also not working to offer him his food again when he asks for snacks, and if he doesn't want it, he's just choosing to not eat. Also, no worries about his weight or anything, he's 3 and weighs 40 pounds and looks like a little football player.
Thanks for all the advice ladies! I'm just going to continue what I've been doing all along, which is giving him the same dinner we all are eating, and hoping that eventually he develops a taste for it. He still will only eat his whole dinner when it's certain things that I mentioned he likes, but today he did eat a whole hot dog for lunch for the first time ever! We are health nuts, so I'm sure it's hard for him to eat what we eat, but I'm sure he'll come around. We have veggies and chicken or fish about 4 nights out of the week....
My kids are 13 and 8 and both of them went through stages where they would hardly eat anything. All you can really do is offer it to them they will eat when they get hungry. One thing that helped my son was to make his meals fun such as using cookie cutters on sandwiches. Good luck to you.
I have an 11 yr old son that used to be somewhat of a picky eater but not that bad. He was just not going to eat anything that resembled soup and wanted meat at dinner. Not unreasonable but when everyone else is eating homemade stew and I've made enough for another meal and acouple snacks, and I know he likes everything that is in it, I didn't see any reason for him not to eat it. When he finally told me he didn't like the texture I met him half way and added Velvetta cheese to thicken it up. That way he would have seconds and thirds of the exact same soup just thickened up. Have you ever had your son pick out his own lunch items at the store? And I know that he is pretty young yet but maybe if he helps you "cook" the meals he might be more prone to eat what he helped make. He can wash veggies or even cut them up with a butter knife. Add liquids or canned veggies in the pot. My kids seemed to always eat better when they helped prepare the meal. Hope this helps.
I purchased a recipe book that is called silly snacks. It features recipes especially for children and all are very easy and inexpensive to make. A few of them are apple oatmeal snack bars, easy nachos. grilled cheese and turkey cut outs, pizza cut outs, zsuchinnie stix, tic tac toe tuna pizza, frozen chocolate covered bananas, hot dog burritoes....my kids absolutely love them, and they can help make them too.. we have so much fun!! You can purchase this book at www.current.com
I have the same problem with my 5 year old son. Everynight it is a battle at the supper table ,so i know what your are going through .Goodluck and I hope you get some good advice ,sorry i was no help .I just wanted you to know you were not alone !
Put food in front of him and tell him to eat it or eat nothing. It seems harsh but you are setting him up for the life-long annoyance of being picky. My MIL let her second daughter dictate what the family ate because she was picky early on and it only got worse and worse as she realized the power she had by saying she wouldn't eat something. So she went back to fixing what she wanted and would make my SIL a sandwich. Don't go to the extra trouble! Fix one meal, he will get used to eating what you put in front of him because he doesn't like being hungry.
My parents' rule was "you serve yourself but you have to eat what you take, if someone else serves you, eat what you can". I also had to eat my age in lima beans (yuck!).
Good Luck!
Maybe he just doesn't want so much junk food? I would try giving him a choice between a couple healthy snacks. Include peanut butter or yogurt for dipping, try and make it fun. You could have him help by making something fun like bagel pizzas--bagels, spaghetti sauce, cheese, toppings then bake at 350.
Here is a list of healthy snacks or meal ideas, you might be surprised what he'll like.
All veggies cut up (bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, etc)
Almonds
Apple chunks
Apple pieces
Apples
Avacado chunks
Avocado slices
Baby spinach leaves
Baked apples
Banana chunks
Banana pieces rolled in oatmeal
Beans
Berries
Black bean patties (homemade)
Blue corn chips
Blueberries
Boiled peanuts
Canned green beans
Cantaloupe
Carrot sticks
Carrot strips and frozen peas
Cashews
Celery sticks
Cereal with raisins mixed in
Cheerios
Cheese cubes
Cherry tomatoes
Cooked pasta (in different shapes, my DS loves eating cold cooked rotini)
Cooked yucca chunks
Crackers
Croutons (homemade)
Cucumber slices
Cucumbers
Dates
Diced lunchmeat
Dried apple rings
Dried apricots
Dried cranberries
Dried fruit (w/out the sugar and chemicals)
Dried papaya
Edamame (cooked & shelled)
Figs
Fish Crackers
Fresh apple
Fresh peas
Frozen blueberries
Frozen peas
Frozen veggies (yep, still frozen!)
Fruit
Fruit leathers
Fruity booty, veggie bootie, pirate's booty
Garbanzo Beans, roasted or boiled
Goat cheddar cheese
Goat chevre
Graham cracker sticks
Grapefruit
Grapes
Hard boiled eggs pieces
Healthy mini muffins
Homemade fruit pops
Homemade granola
Honeydew
Hummus
Hummus and rice crackers
Kidney beans
Kiwi
Korean Pear cut-up
Leftover pizza
Little beef jerky bits (depending on # of teeth and age of child, of course)
Mango (dried or fresh)
Meat or "meat" roll-ups
Mini cashew butter sandwiches
Miso
Nori (strips to chew on)
Nut butters
Nutbutter balls (rolled with pretty much whatever your child likes)
Nuts
Olives (limited though, since so salty)
Orange sections
Organic cereals
Organic dried fruits
Pancakes or waffle sticks
Peanut butter or almond butter
Pear slices dipped in fruity yogurt
Peas
Pieces of Swiss cheese
Pineapple
Pita wedges
Popcorn
Prunes (not too many)
Puffed rice/millet (or kamut/wheat)
Pumpkin seeds (shelled)
Raisins
Red seedless Grapes
Red/yellow/green pepper strips or rings
Rice cakes
Rye crisp
Seasoned & baked sweet potato fries
Seed mixes
Shredded cheese
Sliced Nectarine
Sliced plum
Smoothies
Snap peas
Sprouted almonds (peeled)
Steamed broccolli
String cheese
Stuffed grape leaves
Sunflower seeds
Sushi rolls
Sweet Potato (cut into chunks, toss in oil, roast)
Toast tortillas
Toasted English muffins
Tofu- Cubes
Tomato chunks
Trail mix
Unsalted prezetels
Unsweetened carob chips
Various dried cereals
Whole grain cereals (mostly for baby to snack on)
Whole grain crackers
Wild rice sesame sticks
Yogurt
sounds a lot like my little girl! She asks for PB&J for lunch just about every day. Thankfully I can sway her pretty easily. Threatening no snacks or saving food for later usually doesn't work for us either.
She likes it when she can help pick out what to eat or if I let her help make it (or help pick out what to buy at the store). We like to make english muffin pizzas for lunch at our house. You can make it a little healthier if you use whole wheat english muffins, if you (secretly) dice some tomatos and put them in the sauce, and if you use 2% milk cheese. You might want to look into getting a cookbook specifically for picky eating kids.
Another thing I like to do if she insists on PB&J is get her to eat something else while I prepare the sandwich. I'll slice up and apple or a banana or give her some applesauce just to get SOME kind of fruit in her! It usually works for us.
They all go through this at one point or another. You can be short order cook or you can tell the child like this "this is dinner...you have a choice, you eat it or you go hungry". Trust me...if he gets hungry enough, he'll eat.
I went through this not so long ago with my 3 year old refusing to eat various things. I made up my mind a long time ago that whatever was placed on the table was dinner and if it was not consumed then they did not eat. I know that sounds extremely cruel, but in the long run it is extremely beneficial. My 3 year old now loves eggs, salad, spinach, broccoli, carrots and an entire list of things, way too many to mention. For my household, it was pretty much just laying down the law and sticking to our guns; not giving in to what the child wants. Because in all reality, the child is not the boss, you are. I don't mean to sound harsh, but it is the truth.
I agree with Tiana, get your child involved in what he eats. Give him choices (not too many though), plant a garden and let him help, let him help you cook, etc. Good luck!
only idea... ask him what he wants for lunch? maybe youll actually have it, or when getting groceries, ask him what he wants to eat this week...GL
Try some veggie spiral noodles with parmesan cheese or melt some velveeta on them-that way he can get some vegetables. Also, try "Veggie Booty" or "Pirates Booty". It's a great, healthy, all natural snack that tastes great. My kids love it. They sell it at Trader Joe's. Or try some cinnamon raisin toast for breakfast. I just wouldn't worry too much about it, because I'm sure he's getting something to eat if he weighs 40 pounds at 3 years old. Just offer a larger variety of foods to him, cooked different ways such as grilled or baked. Have you tried casseroles or rice with grilled chicken/fish and veggies?
Don't make a big deal out of it. Dish out whatever the family is eating and sit down together (even if it's just the two of you). Sit down for at least 10 minutes. Don't make him eat, but don't let him down, either. He'll see everyone eating the same thing, and eventually get bored and start participating. And if he doesn't, at least he'll be hungry by the next meal. He may fuss at first, but try to ignore it. This way he's learning how mealtimes work, and that you are not a short order cook. You really just have to keep offering food over and over and over without making it a power struggle. There will be things he truly doesn't like, but he'll probably like a lot of things after he actually tries them. Keep the food as healthy as possible, and you're doing your job. Good luck!
