Picky Eater or Just Not into Table Food?

It could be a texture thing for your son. He will have his favorites and not so favorites. Usually they will eat what they need. With the sippy cup situation - try Nuby brand. They have a soft tip that is great for transition from the bottle to the sippy cup and the great thing about them is too that there is no plug thing. I noticed that you mostly listed meats and protein foods. How does your son do on veggies and fruits? I would just keep giving him the foods and maybe one day he will decide that he really likes them. It's hard to force a small child to eat certain things especially when they have their minds made up that they don't like it. Good luck.

I got this book as a gift called "Deceptively Delicious" written by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld's Wife) it's a cookboook with hidden goodness for picky eaters.

Keep trying and offering him the things that you are eating. He will in time, see that this food is pretty tastey. I'm sure he's fine but if your worried, you could give him those supplement drinks, can't think of the name. You could also try foods that are softer, such as noodles and mashed veggies.
Good luck

I'd offer him softer foods, ripe juicy fruits, bananas, berries, avocados, pears, blended apples, as well as some slightly harder foods like celery, carrots, fresh greens, and a wide variety of fresh raw ripe organic foods, or lightly cooked vegetables. Personally I don't eat any of the foods you mentioned and don't think any of them are necessary for (and are actually harmful to) health, (I'm vegan, have been for 20 years (and so are my children and their children) and think it is by far the healthiest diet there is). The foods you say he is eating (crackers and cookies) aren't that healthy either (most likely made from white flour, sugar, and additives). Cow's milk is not a good food for human beings (see notmilk.com). I think your child is showing good sense in refusing to eat those foods! If you're still breastfeeding, I wouldn't worry about his nutrition, as long as you offer him only healthy foods. If you're not, and you're concerned about protein, you could give him vegetable foods high in protein like nut milks, nut butters, tofu.

Hi M.,

I would suggest trying lots of different table foods. The greater the variety and the easier to eat (less chewing), the better. My daughter liked applesauce, yogurt, cottage cheese, grated cheese, peas, rice cakes, Cheerios, cooked carrots, and all fruits- watermelon and berries were her favorites. Rice cakes are a nice transition food because they are healthy and melt in your mouth quickly. Don't give up, just keep offering things and eventually he'll get it. It also really helped to feed her at the same time we were eating, so she would watch us eating and enjoying food. Kids are great imitators and will want to mimic what you are doing! Oh, and I would serve milk in the sippy cup with all meals, eventually he will start drinking it.

I used to make our own baby food in the cuisinart. Rice spinach and chicken, pasta with broccoli and ground turkey were two favorites. You can blend it smooth or chunky depending on your child's chewing ability and preference. You can mix up a big batch and freeze some for later. Since you are starting out with real food, you know exactly what is in it, and since it's fresh cooked, it is probably more nutritious than the little jars of baby food.

I use a KidCo manual food mill to grind up table food so that it has a texture more like babyfood. It becomes a thick puree, and may be good for introducing flavors while he's not into textures.

I also recommend the little nets with handles. Put real food in it, and he'll suck and gum the net until the food comes through. It's good for teaching chewing without any danger of choking. It's also great for self-feeding before they can hold food themselves, and less messy too. They have them at onestepahead.com and Babies R Us.

Hi I have a little boy 22 months that went through abd still is going through the same thing. We thought maybe he just wouldn't eat meat until he got his back teeth and could really chew it. I read somewhere to puree it a little so it is more like mush and then mix it with pasta or rice or something. My kid will eat pasta one day and then not the next so that didn't work real well but maybe for you. I also read that toddlers are picky and stubborn and want to be independent so not eating is there way of controling what they can control. If you keep offering them food the more they see it the more they might eat it but logistics of that is it's own set of problems. Sorry I don't have better advice except to say that I think it is normal and try not to get too frustrated about it or stressed. Good luck!

Hi i have a 14 months old boy and he is a picky eater too, i just try to give him everything i start with eggs with chedar cheese and if he dosent finish then i try fruit pear apple i mush it with the spoon , i also mis veggies with apple sauce , and the chicken too... Tofu is great dosent taste nothing and you can use it with any kind of food , and is healthy ...he just have 4 teeth so i try my best is hard for him to chew have you try veggies with butter and little of salt? Frech toast (with maplle sirup!!from canada) the most healthy , ah oatmeal is great with little piece of banana or any other fruit he likes..
The other thing i do ...much all kind of veggies and mix it with tomate sauce and some noodles...
Good luck is difficult but you'll get there
milk well the doctor told me that a yogurth has more calcium that milk....i used yo baby stonefield farm (organic) with cereal and dha great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and snacks i used baby mum mum rice rusks lots proteins and really healthy (you can find all of this in fredmeyer)

I think that it is common for kids to resist drinking milk from a sippy cup - I know my son had issues with it (we tried to get rid of bottles at a year - I nursed, and didn't want to use bottles for milk), and he wouldn't do it...at 15 months, our dr. said to go cold turkey, which we did. After 2 days, he used the sippy cup for milk...even little guys can manipulate! But, if they want milk that badly (and they usually do) then they will take it in a cup.

As for food, keep trying different things, and keep trying the same things. It can take many attempts of the same food for a baby to get it and accept it. Try things that are softer in texture (my son LOVED tofu - cut into cubes, straight from the box. Avocado cut up, berries are great...just things to get him to recognize texture. My son would not eat eggs then, and at 2.5 still refuses...

Has your son ever really chewed his food? Or does he expect it to dissolve or slide down? Some toddlers gum their food long before they have teeth. Although more teeth has seemed to make a difference in the size of food we can give.
Does he seem to like the flavor of table food? One theory is that baby who only have baby food haven't experienced all the flavor and may not like flavor as much.
One way to get nutrition and milk is to flavor the milk with instant breakfast mix. WE get a variety box of choc, vanilla and strawberry. My daughter likes the flavor plus is has extra protein and calcium.

Hi M.,
Funnily enough, my 16-month-old son was the same, but once most of his molars were fully through (about a month and a half ago), he started suddenly eating everything. I know a friend of mine's daughter was the same, so perhaps when your son's molars come through, he will start eating different textures and more table foods.
I'm still trying to get my son to drink milk from a sippy cup! He will also take water, but not milk in his sippy cup. Just recently, though, we went away for a weekend and were eating out a lot. I ordered him milk in a child's cup to go with his meal and he loved drinking it out of a straw like he saw us doing (we trained him to drink out of a straw at a very young age, though) and was loving it. So now I can put a bit of milk in a sippy cup and he'll take a bit. He's still drinking from the bottle, but I think it won't be long before we've gotten rid of bottles at least during the day.
As for nutrition, as long as he's getting lots of milk and growing and happy, I wouldn't worry too much about the food issue. Good luck!

Don't worry M.. The transition to a sippy cup was hard for our daughter as well. She's almost 16 months old now. I just kept trying. She finally ended up liking one with two handles and it's angled so that she doesn't have to try so hard. They are made by Gerber. They are white with either a blue or green bottom, and either a blue fish or a green sailboat on the front. They have a soft skinny spout that's easy to fit in their mouth. I just had to keep trying different ones to see which one she liked. I sucked on them myself to see how easy the liquid flowed out and some of them were really hard. I thought, no wonder she hates this. It was too much effort. So, the ones I listed above were great and she took right to them.

As far as the nutrition, my daugther has been on table foods since 10 months and loves them, but still prefers some foods in the baby food jars. For example, bananas. She won't eat them cut up, but she'll eat the baby food. So I think it's definitely about texture sometimes, not just taste. Also, once he's drinking out of a sippy cup, he'll be able to use that to help him swallow the food once he's sucked all the juices out. Maybe by that point, it's just too dry and he can't swallow it without drinking something? Just a thought.

Hope that helps and don't worry, you're a great mom! Have a blessed day!

Wow- I think giving a 14 mo old baby that much meat is really early. Especially steak and deli meat? Yuck. They still need to subsist on mostly breast milk and soft foods for awhile. Atleast grind up some veggies and fruits and cereals for him.

TRy soft foods such as fruit and cooked vegies, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt. He doesn't have enough teeth to completely chew up the foods you listed. He may not be able to swallow the meats or he may not like the texture. My mother told me that I didn't want to eat meat until I was 4 or 5.

You could try chopping up the meat in a blender or food processor. Don't make it into baby food. Leave some texture. Pieces that are tiny.

As for sippy cups, you could have one for milk and one for water. Tell him this is a milk cup. You could even make up a fantasy story about how it got the milk cup or how the sippy cup turned into a milk cup.

Hi, I too have a 15 month old that isn't into the table food as much as I would like her to be. My six year old was my picky eater though when he was this age. It got to the point that I gave him a children's pediasure once a day. They have a whole lot of vitiamins in them. They are a little spendy but worth the money. I would maybe cut back on the bottle. He too loved the bottle. I wish you luck...

I think you got a lot of great advice and should try a little of everything, but I just had to tell you not to put much into the response from the vegan who's advice was to go vegan! Obviously you weren't looking for someone to point out that (in her own opinion) you are doing everything wrong and that everything you are giving him is bad for him! I don't think going vegan is your answer...that stuff she recommended sounds like the type of stuff your son (and most his age) would throw right off his plate! There are plenty of healthy choices for you that don't include going vegan!

I think you keep doing what you are doing...he will get it. I also don't believe you are giving him too much meat at his age either!

As far as the sippy cup goes, my son too had a hard time drinking milk from a cup but not water. Not sure why that is, but it just took a little time and he finally got it. One thing I did was take out the little piece that makes it spill proof. I know it's there to prevent the mess, but it helped him. I buy different cups with lids, but always take out the inside piece.

Good luck!