I have an 18 month old son who is a picky eater. He may love a food one day and completely refuse it another day. I worry that he's not eating enough each day and not eating enough foods from each food group. He loves bread/crackers and could eat just that all day. But, he doesn't like meats that much other than sporadically tasting some meat that we are eating for dinner. He only likes a couple fruits and veggies so it's hard to mix things up or add variety to his meals. Any suggestions on either how to get him to eat more or ideas of foods to try which are high in protein and fat so he gains weight?? If he only eats a limited amount of food each day, what are the most important nutrients for him at this stage of life? If anyone wants to send me their daily meal plans for their toddlers to give me ideas on what to feed him or how much, that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Thank you for all of your responses! Although I am still trying the multiple introductions of a single food in hopes that he will one day gobble it up with certain foods, others he has started to like after about a handful of tries! I've found out that eating with him and showing him that Mommy eats the same food really has helped to encourage him to put it in his mouth and at the very least try it. Most of the time he actually likes it!
My kids are much older now but when this topic comes up in my Gymboree classes, I always talk about how my kids would eat Stouffers Spinach Souffle. They weren't crazy about vegetables but they would eat that. It's worth a try.
I also used to do raviola like spinach ricotta or something else that had a vegetable in it. That usually worked also.
J. F.
Hi J.,
I recently heard a Pediatric Nutritionist speak on this very topic. She had some very helpful thoughts that might help you too. First of all, she said that current studies show that in a two week period of time, kids 5 and under have will get all the nutrition they need if given a variety of healthy choices at every meal. They do it naturally. Then she said something that really relieved me from the stress I was feeling about my daughter's eating habits. That is, it's my responsibility as a parent to 1 - give her plenty of healthy choices at each meal; 2 - to set a schedule for meals and stick to it; and 3 - to "set the stage" for meal time. And it's my child's responsibility to choose 1-what & 2- how much to eat of what I offer. I found an article about it here: http://www.ucsfhealth.org/childrens/edu/nutritionResponsi...
This addresses the “picky” eater issue and becoming a “short order cook” which I’m sure you don’t want to do – who has the time, seriously??? http://www.ucsfhealth.org/childrens/edu/pickyEaters/index...
This site also looks like it has other articles that may be helpful: http://nal.usda.gov/wicworks/Topics/toddlernutrition_pick...
Will all my best wishes - Hang in there!
For snack, try handing him a spoonful of peanut butter. All my kids and grandkids have eaten spoonfuls of peanut butter for snacks and loved it and it's great for protein!
Hi there. I scanned through some of the responses.. seems like you got a lot of good advice about books/sights to visit to read more about the topic so I'll try to make this short. If there is something he likes, add to it. My son loves hummus so lately I've been pureeing humus with beets and mincing up spinach or micro greens to give him nutrients. Also, if you add a couple leaves of swiss chard or spinach to a fruit smoothly they can't even taste it but the nutrients are all there. Also, try sneaking some veggies in with a pasta sauce (either by pureeing them in there or just cutting them up in the sauce) and try mincing or pureeing veggies and adding to cream cheese to make a healthy spread for a bagel/bread. I even make healthy pizza using a sprouted wheat bagel cut in half topped with a small amount of tomato sauce, organic mozzarella cheese and minced sweet peppers, spinach and mushrooms. I found that if you mince or shred the veggies they seem to go down easier! I used to be a chef and I have fun coming up with great tasting healthy recipes for my son, who usually loves all of it. Even my husband asked, "when do we get to have a Rylie dinner"!! If you want more info I'd be happy to share just message me directly. Good luck!
Try mixing up the presentation of foods. Many kids don't want to try something based solely on how it looks. Try dicing the veggies into cubes or cutting them into various sized strips from thing to thick. Also, offer a dip such as yogurt or sour cream with dill (protein and dairy group). Offer a nut butter (cashew or almond you can puree this yourself) to dip apples or bananas (protein and fruit). You can make a hummus (canned chickpeas/garbanzo beans, tahini (sesame paste), garlic, lemon juice, and whatever else you put into it) this provides a great fiber and protein. Offer foods with various textures that look different. Put some nut butter on a celery stick throw on some raisins and tell your toddler it is "ants on a log" or make other "bug" food. Such as "sail boats" cheese triangle, pretzel stick, apple wedge or fruit kabobs. Good luck!
Hi J.,
Have you tired Tofu? My son loves them and it's high in protein.
Have you also tried eating his food in front of him by saying "Yummy!"? He may sees you eating the same food and it looks good to eat.
Good luck!
A good appetite one day and not eating much the next sounds pretty typical at his age, and I doubt that there is a problem with him getting enough. As far as getting him to eat more variety, the best suggestion I can think of is to simply keep on providing a variety for him. Put just a very small amount of each item on his plate and try to encourage him to eat all of that before offering more of the items he really likes most. Our grandson eats much like your son, and we keep up this routine daily. He eats enough to keep him strong and healthy, and we don't worry about it much. Sometimes he gets upset when we don't give him more bread immediately, but he will often at least try the other items on his plate. I also have no problem taking him from the table if he gets too demanding. In that case, we let him play (or take his nap) and several hours later offer a nutritious snack ... without bread... so he'll still get enough to eat in his day. As long as the bread (which he will also eat all day long without anything else) is not present at the table, he usually eats other things well. You might also try giving your son all the other food first and offer the bread after he's eaten other items.
Hi J., My son is 15mos now and goes through the same thing. I've learned slowly to spread things out and not offer it two days in a row; sometimes a lot longer. I've noticed one funny thing you might try.... If I sit down with Adam and eat with him, watching him and trying to help him eat, he is really picky and stubburn. If I keep myself busy cleaning the kitchen up or something and leave him to 'play' with the food or just look at it, then 5-10min later I'll notice almost all of it is gone! It is so funny but this really works in the morning when for some reason he'll decide he doesn't want pancakes or pears or whatever.... leave him alone and it will be gone. (I just keep my eye on him and smile when seeing hime eat!) Otherwise, I have to start keeping a list of things he likes and spread them out so that I remember; as it is easy to forget things when doing it this way. Also, have you tried giving frozen veggies (straight frozen), chx nuggets, fish sticks, little sausages, string cheese? I have to spread them out but they are all so easy to keep handy. Let me know if you have anything new that works!!! It is a tough stage.
Just wanted to say, once more, you are not alone. I read recently that picky eating in toddlerhood makes sense in terms of evolution--it's good to stay away from bitter, hence possibly poisonous, foods. Unfortunately, that includes most vegs. My 3-y-o still is quite picky, and we don't eat meat. But, we went to the ped yesterday and he is in the 65%ile for wt, and 75%ile for ht, so he must be getting something. I try to add small amts of vegs to "smoothies"--pretty much any combination of frozen banana, milk and something else (berries, peaches, PB, mango, pineapple). I have added sweet potato or pumpkin with orange fruit, broccoli and kale with PB. I know that many nutritionists advise not to "hide" vegs, but to present them with other food, but I do, and he NEVER accepts it that way, so I hide it, too. The only veg he eats on its own is sweet potato with butter and cinnamon. Every once in a great while he will accept broccoli with cheese. And he gets a chewable multi-vitamin as insurance as well. I hear that if you just keep modeling good eating habits, they'll eventually try good foods. I'm hoping so. We eat a large variety of whole foods, including stirfries, fried rice. I hope he gets some of the vitamins from the vegs in the fried rice because he will pick out every bit of scallion before eating it.
have you tried using different flavored spreads on the breads or crackers? that might help with getting him used to different tastes. use what he likes to introduce new foods?
I highly recommend "Child of Mine, Feeding With Love and Good Sense" by nutritionist Ellyn Satter. It's not a 'menu/recipe' book but it has a lot of helpful, practical, manageable information on the different things that affect a child's response to food (it's a totally normal developmental phase for toddlers to be 'loving a food one day and completely refusing it another day' as well as refusing to even let you put a new food in front of him until he's seen it 10 or more times (and then it might take another 10 times before he'll decide to taste it) - it's all part of them growing in their desire to be more independent).
She also gives a lot of info/experience from her work as a nutritionist that helps ease our worries that our kids aren't eating enough (one of her phrases she repeats a lot is "Your child *knows* how to eat and grow"). She helps us understand that the parent's responsibility is to offer the child healthy food choices and to just be consistent in doing that, avoiding the temptation to either give in and cook something you know your child will eat (until he/she gets sick of it and then you're *really* feeling up a creek) or to make mealtimes a power struggle.
As for some specific ideas - does he like yogurt? what about whole-milk yogurt blended with frozen fruit (e.g. smoothie)? Some kids like edamame (boiled soybeans in pods, like what they serve in sushi restaurants), partly because it's fun to pop the beans out of the pods - you can get them at trader joe's and other grocery stores. Maybe try putting some cream cheese or hummus on the bread and crackers he loves so much? You could easily add a little fun to the bread and cheese by cutting it with small cookie cutter shapes (save the cheese scraps for quesadillas and the bread scraps for breadcrumbs)
