My Daughter Is Picky

I truely believe that we as parents make the children "picky". I have read and heard several times that it takes at least 10 times of trying something to get used to it. My kids are not picky. If they "don't like it" they have to try it everytime I make it. My niece and nephew are now 14 and 12 and are very "picky" because their dad was "picky" and he and my sister did not make them eat what their father didn't like, i.e. certain veggies and fruits and even certain meats. They would eat deli turkey but not turkey at Thanksgiving. Just another opinion. Good luck and don't give up.

When I want to try something new w my little ones, I give them the new item with the things that they like and I try to do that a few times just so that they kinda get use to it. Sometimes I have to mix the items togerher because if I keep them seperated then she usually won't even touch the other group.

Sometimes w my youngest who is almost two now, I have to put it on my plate and make a big fuss about how yummy it is and then she'll usually try it just because it's on my plate and not hers. My daughter also grows sick of foods and jucies pretty fast so I just rotate what I give her before she's sick of what ever it is. It took a few weeks to figure out how long her "kick" for what ever the food of the moment was but once I had it figured out I was able to start giving her a new juice (or whatever) and not have the old one go bad on me.

With my middle child I had to have a "fun" name for everything. Corn was "yellow blocks". Greenbeans were "green sticks", peas were "balls". He wouldn't (and sometimes even now at 6) eat pork chops, becasue he wanted chicken. But if he didn't know that it was pork chops and if he thought it was chicken then I would hear "mommy this chicken is yummy" and he would be eating it, until my husband would say that it was pork, then all of a sudden my son was full or had a tummy ache. My husband then understood why I let our son call a porkchop, chicken. As long as he's eating it he can call it what ever he wants to.

And this won't do any good untill your little one is a little bit older but instead of fighting w them to eat their dinner I just tell my kids there is nothing else unless they finish. My kids don't get snacks or treats (healthy or junk) unless they've finished luch or dinner first. If they start talking to me about being hungry I remind them that their lunch is sitting in the fridge.

You just want to keep in mind of course that their tummies are smaller [my husband use to be bad about putting too much on their plates] and if they had a late lunch or if they were at a birthday party w lots of snacks shortly before dinner then they're not going to eat as much for dinner as they usually do. Also, my kids will go in spurts of just nearly cleaning out the fridge for a couple of weeks and then eating like a bird for the next couple of weeks. I think that may be connected to growth spurts.

But over all as long as she's making dirty diapers and growing and you're doing your best to give her a well rounded/blanced diet then you're fine.

I don't think people where saying to make your child eat what you eat, but to not set yourself and your child up to hardships later on, unless you plan to cook 2-3 different meals a night then get them to at least try other things, there are foods that no matter how often they are introduced a child isn't going to like them. But at this stage a lot of a childs pickiness is a "fear" of the unknown, so introducing new foods in with the tried and true foods is a good way to introduce a wider variety. An example would be adding banannas with the pancakes, or mixing anything in with strawberrys that might be new, like blueberrys or placing on some yougurt, etc,... make the new foods fun, but always offer them, always give them as a side to what you know she likes, and always have her at least try. There are some foods that kids don't like as babies and toddlers but grow to like as their taste buds change, just like us adults. So work with what you know, and always add to it.

Hi J.,
Don't ever tell your little girl she is a picky eater and don't let her hear you tell anyone else that. Just keep offering her all kinds of foods. She is so young. Give her small pieces of all kinds of flavors and textures, and give them to her repeatedly a few weeks or longer apart. She will hate it once and then maybe love it a month later. Eating is an ongoing and ever changing issue with all parents and kids. I hope you find a balance. Try not to stress too much.

I posted a request very similar to yours a few days ago and you will get a lot of make her eat what you are eating but I am more concerned with getting the younger children to eat and grow than make them eat foods that they hate. I was forced to do that as a child and I hated it and actually grew to borderline anorexic when I was out of the house when no one could make me eat the foods I hated. I have since then learned to enjoy eating and Love food but I still dont like to be forced to eat something I know I dont like. Some of the foods that my children liked at that age was Chicken pot pies (Marie Calendar makes the best frozen ones!!!) Does she do eggs? both of mine loved them and that is one food that has stuck around for a long time. They both really like them scrambled and boiled. Tyson has really good all white meat chicken tenders that are much better than the nuggets. Cheese and ham rolls or spread cream cheese on ham and roll it up. My problem with my son is that he is extremely picky too and right how he is starting to tire of the only foods he ate so now I am trying to come up with some ideas of my own. Hope that some of my ideas give your daughter one or two new food choices.