My 13 Month Old Eats like a Bird on a Cheese Diet, Need Some Other Food Ideas.

D.,

Welcome to the world of kids making decisions for themselves. Honestly I think you already know the answer, you just need to give her good, healthy foods and she'll eat when she's hungry. Try not to be too concerned with how much she eats. Over and over doctors will tell you parent's expectations for how much food a kid really needs is way out of whack.

Don't make this a battle. Offer her a few bites of different foods you are eating, and maybe a healthy other option and that's it. Don't become a short order cook or teach her that every time she turns down YOUR food choices that then SHE gets to pick.

What kid wouldn't want pears and cheese over stuffed green peppers and veggies???

If you are really serious about wanting her to eat different foods, then use sprinkle cheese on top of veggies, or melt cheese on them, give her different "dips" to try to put veggies into (applesauce, ranch, peanut butter, etc.). She WILL get it. She'll see you eat it and then eventually she will try it.

I forgot what our ped said, but kids need to be introduced to new foods like 10 times before they'll actually "eat" it. Just keep offering up the healthy stuff you are making for dinner and she'll get it. Don't get on the finicky eater train - you'll never get off.

Good luck!

Hi D.! Have you tried avocados? My daughter LOVES them and has eaten them since she was 11 months old. Just keep trying is all I have to say! My son is STILL a picky eater but it's getting better all the time!
Hang in there!

I agree with all previous posts. Give her time and keep introducing new foods. At such a young age, a lot of it is about texture. It feels weird in their mouth. If she eats cheese and waffles and eggs and fruit as well as milk - it sounds like she is getting enough nutrients. If you are worried talk to her pediatrician and find a good, natural supplement. The only suggestion I have is to please, please, please - don't offer your children overly processed foods like chicken nuggets, spahettios, raviolios, etc. They are so full of salt etc. Offering her the white rice and veggies is what should be offered. Stick to made from scratch and fresh foods. It takes more time and sometimes cost more but the health benefits are worth it. Also, children will learn to appreciate what real food tastes like and will opt for healthy choices over overly processed foods as they get older and make their own food choices.
I understand your frustration though. My son was super picky eater - didn't like meat at all. He ate rice and beans and mac n cheese and applesauce til I thought it would come out his ears. But like the other moms said - it passes. Keep doing what your doing and introducing foods.

This is called the blond diet :) My daughter has also gone through this stage. The good news is that if you don't press it, it will likely get better. If you are worried about her getting enough nutrients, you can also give her a multivitamin. She is also old enough to have some peanut butter which is a good source of protein. For some children, they go through this very narrow diet stage and won't eat anything new. Instead of giving her many new choices - none of which she will eat. It can be better to give her the same one or two new things along with other things over and over again. I have read that it can take up to 18 or 20 times before a child may venture to eat the new thing. It helps if mama is also eating it. My daughter is still not a great eater but she has moved beyond the blond diet and has returned to eating carrots and peas and corn. She is great on fruit. She loves carbs but the only meat she will eat are the dino chicken melt in your mouth nuggets. She also eats morning star veggie nuggets and I tell her they are chicken nuggets. Good luck - remember this too will pass :)

They're nibbling and trying food at that age. I would be moderate with the cheese as it has salt and can be binding. If she's hungry and you only give her green beans, black beans and whatever you're cooking then she'll probably at least try it.

My daughter gets what we eat, and always has (since about 9/10months). If she doesn't like it, she drinks a bit more milk, and I always just try to make sure there is something (peas, potatoes, etc.) that I know she will eat.

But she eats almost anything, including Thai beef curry. As I see it, my job is to provide a health meal. If she doesn't want to eat it, oh well, she can wait till the next meal. The last thing I do is offer something else; if you offer up something else, they will hold out for the something else.

Also, I doubt she wakes up in the middle of the night because of hunger. She is most likely waking up for a bottle out of habit. Start offering her water instead.

My son was the same way all through his second year. (although I agree with the other respondents that I think your daughter is doing great for 13 months.) We called him the "air fern" because he seemed to live on nothing. Of course he was living on milk. He didn't start eating solids well until we cut back on his milk intake, not just at meals but during the day. I'd play around with quantity and timing of the bottles. (and try giving water or milk mixed with water at night.)

D., I would be thrilled if my (almost) 13 month old son would eat all those things!! I was reading your post in awe. I still have to puree everything my son eats since he only has two teeth. He gags on nearly everything. Scrambled eggs is a great idea, I will have to try that one.

But anyway, on to your problem, I agree with Mom On The GO, your daughter is totally normal and there's nothing you can do to make her eat anything. You are providing healthy and yummy choices and she will eat when she's hungry. Cheese is a great food for her, lots of calcium and protein. Try not to get too stressed about it. If she's like my son, she's still getting a few bottles so she's still getting the nutrients and vitamins she needs.

I was told by a nutritionist to get the book First Meals by Annabelle Karmel - lots of ideas for picky eaters. You can find it at your library, I bet.

I scanned through the answers, but I didn't see that anyone said this...give you daughter veggies first before anything else. Just give it a whirl. She may eat one or two while she's waiting for you to cook up something else for her. I've done this w/ mine a bunch of times when she's gone through her not eating veggies stages. Or when I'm busy cooking in the kitchen and she starts hanging on my leg, I open a can of green beans and just start handing them to her. She thinks it's cool cause they're the perfect finger food and she can toddle away, then come back for more. I also usually keep canned green bean in a container in the fridge, and that way it's super easy to offer her a veggie she likes if she doesn't like what we're having. Good luck!

She's fine. I knew one kid who only ate sausage. I mean ONLY. Give her time. Sorry for the fatigue, though. Does she like oatmeal? Give her some right before bed. It might hold her tummy through the night.

Hi D. Try puree some of her vegetable in her meat and mac n cheese. Also pediasure is good for finicky eaters. She seems to like her fruits,fiber foods such as her pancakes, waffles and toast and the calcuim from the cheese. so she's not doing to badly.

There is a great book by William G Wilkoff, MD called Coping with a Picky Eater that every parent or provider of kids should read and have a copy of. http://www.amazon.com/Coping-Picky-Eater-Perplexed-Parent...

This book has what I call the Picky Eater Plan. I have used this plan with kids that literally threw up at the sight of food and within 2 weeks they were eating normal amounts of everything and trying every food.

First you need to get everyone who deals with the child on board. If you are a provider it's ok to make this the rule at your house and not have the parents follow through but you wont' see as good results as what I described up above.

The plan is to limit the quantities of food you give the kid. When I first start with a child I give them literally ONE bite worth of each food I am serving. The book suggests that every time you feed the kids (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) you give all 4 food groups. So, for lunch today I would have given the child one tiny piece of strawberry, one spoonful of applesauce, 3 macaroni noodles with cheese on them, and 2 oz of milk. Only after they ate ALL of what was on their plate would you give them anything else. They can have the same amounts for seconds. If they only want more mac and cheese, they only get 3 noodles then they would have to have more of all the other foods in order to get more than that. If they don't eat, fine. If they don't finish, fine. Don't make a big deal out of it, just make them stay at the table until everyone else is done eating. They don't get more food until they are sat at the next meal and they only get what you serve. When I first do this with a child I don't serve sweets at all. So no animal crackers for snack but rather a carrot for snack. Or one of each of those. I don't make it easy for them to gorge on bad foods in other words. Now if they had a meal where they ate great then I might make the snack be a yummy one cause I know they filled up on good foods.

Even at snacks you have to limit quantities of the good stuff or else they will hold out for snack and just eat those snacky foods. I never give a picky eater the reward of a yummy snack unless they had that great lunch prior to it.

It really is that easy.

Have you tried putting melted cheese on the potatoes, vegetables, etc.? Someone else had suggested this technique: Put out 3 peas, 3, pieces of meat and 3 small pieces of cheese. You dont replace one food group until the one or both of the other food groups have been eaten. Perhaps give it a little more time sometimes it takes a while for the child's palate to get used to some foods. Good Luck!

Sounds like she eats a good variety for her age... She will eat more as she gets older. Don't worry! Just keep offering things to her and eventually she'll eat more varieties!

Sorry to disappoint, but that sounds typical. My daughter at that age would eat only fruit. Then another day it was only cheese. Then only crackers. As long as her diet averages out over a 2-week period to be somewhat balanced, she's fine. They don't need too many calories at this age and she may be getting a fair bit of hers from milk/formula/nursing, too. Also, she probably don't need purees at this point anymore - she can probably handle most table foods. I would just give her a small amount of whatever you're cooking for your family, cut into small pieces, and let her go to town. You can always supplement with cheese, fruit, and toast. Don't make anything special for her because - let's face it - it's depressing when you cook something and then they don't want it.