My daughter is 23 months old. She used to love veggies and fruits, eggs and meats. Now she wants cheese and sweets. She just stopped eating healthy. I hate having to give her mac and cheese, but she won't eat oitherwise. She won't complain if she is hunger, she rather run around. She loves drinking apple juice and water, but hates milk. She is on the small side, but the doc is not too concerned. She'll eat bananas, apples and grapes. She won't even eat corn or peas. She likes soup and rice. I tried sneaking the veggies in by way of purees, but she won't even try it. She doesn't quite understand yet the terms, "this is all you get so eat it." Are there any vitamins she can take to help her? She will be two at the end of this month.
Have you tried cooking with her. When you go to the grocery or farmers market, make a fun game out of picking a fruit or veggie and deciding to make something fun with it. Make smoothies, popsicles or other recipes that she can be part of so she has some ownership over the food that goes in her body!-www.weelicious.com
if she gets hungry enough, she'll eat what you give her. she won't let herself starve! happy, healthy eating to you and your family!
Part of it might be that she prefers the textures of cheeses and sweets right now (you didn't mention which sweets). Try thinking of healthy ideas with textures similar to the ones she likes at this stage. Mashed sweet potatoes come to mind. I'm told that textures are a developmental issue and that your daughter will pass through this stage.
I completely understand your dilema. My 7 year old was born very early at 2 lbs. and I've been trying to "grow" her ever since, without leaving her with any food issues that will follow her into her later years. Celebrate the positives (my kid will eat almost every fruit known to man, but won't touch a vegetable). Keep trying!
I found this recent article from Parents Magazine: http://www.parents.com/recipes/nutrition/kids/teach-healt... (be sure to follow each "next" link to get the full story.
Good luck!
There is a supplement than I use to make smoothies with for my son by Animal Parade. It's a powder that gives them the 5 servings of fruits and veggies. My son is also going through this phase. He wants breads, pasta and rice and beans. It MAKES ME CRAZY!! However, I keep offering the good stuff and just make the portions smaller of the stuff that should be sometimes foods. He usually will take a few bites of everything on the plate whereas he used to eat all the veggies first and then if he was still hungry go for the other. I just keep hoping that this too is a phase and it shall pass.... It IS very hard to rationalize with them at this age that they need all of the stuff that is on the plate!
Hello! A couple things... toddlers are notoriously picky eaters. Your motto needs to be, "if at first I don't succeed try, try again!" It can take up to 10 tries for a baby/toddler to respond to a food. So keep trying foods she "doesn't like" and don't have a reaction to her reaction. I also wouldn't give in when a battle of wills comes to a head. You have to win, remember that, if she knows that she can get what she wants she will do what it takes... you have to do what it takes to match her! I always tell my husband after 30 years I can definitely be more stubborn than my 2 year old!
I own a company called Baby's Belly and we make freshly prepared, organic baby & toddler meals and deliver them to your home in the LA area, at an affordable price. (for six dinner meal trays it is about $30 a week) Our website is http://babysbellyfood.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/babysbelly - check us out. If you enjoy cooking for your daughter weelicious.com has some healthy, fun & yummy recipes.
Hope that helps!
My son is also the same age as your daughter and is the same way. He hardly eats a thing. There are days that he eats very well and days that I am short of force feeding him. When he doesn't eat well, I will put Poly Vi Sol vitamin drops in his milk (he loves milk but you can try putting it in your daughter's juice). I also give him Ovaltine mixed with his milk or give him Pediasure. They both have lots of vitamins. There are different Ovaltines and the one that has plenty of vitamins is the malt mix. I have also come to learn that if I leave a variety of foods lying out for him, he will eventually pick at them and eat a few items. Good luck!
I had the same problem and still do to some extent, but I got through it with the Juice Plus gummy bears, EFAs, and baking the veggies into cookies, puddings and just putting them in applesauce with honey and calling them "food colorings." She even helped me make rainbows, clowns, pumpkins, etc. using the "colors" which were the beets, kale, spinach, carrots, etc. We just mixed them in the applesauce and covered the whole "picture" with a "glaze" of honey. She is still picky now, but we go to Soupplantation and Home Buffet and let her try a bunch of things, standing by to cover them with cheese sauce, cheese or honey!
Don't push.
Don't worry.
Just get the Sendak book "Chicken Soup With Rice" and learn together 'Each month is gay, each season nice, when eating chicken soup with rice.'
It will pass. Be sure she sees you eating good healthful, colorful food, and try to get through this very typical food strike without conveying anxiety to your little person.
And smoothies can be your friend if she like the texture. drinking through a straw adds to the fun and helps with small portions of high nutrient concoctions.
Check out this website for a great tip I learned from Dr. Sears at a seminar:
http://askdrsears.com/html/3/T030800.asp#T031200
I've also copied and pasted it here:
"Here's a trick from the Sears' family kitchen for the preschool child. Prepare a nibble tray. Use an ice cube tray, a muffin tin, or a compartmentalized plastic dish and fill each section with bite-size portions of colorful and nutritious foods. Give the foods fun names, such as avocado boats (a quarter of an avocado sectioned lengthwise), banana or cooked carrot wheels, broccoli trees, cheese blocks, little O's (O-shaped cereal), canoe eggs (hard-boiled eggs cut lengthwise in wedges), moons (peeled apple slices, thinly spread with peanut butter), or shells and worms (different shapes of pasta).
Don't forget that children love to dip. Reserve one or two compartments in the tray for your child's favorite dips, such as yogurt or guacamole (without the spices). Encourage the child to sit and nibble from the tray frequently throughout the day, especially late in the morning and in the mid-to-late afternoon, when the fuel from the previous meal begins to wear off. Shorten the spacing between feedings and you are less likely to have spacey children."
He mentioned if you leave the tray of food out where they know where it is and it's easily-accessible they'll eat when they want to eat or are hungry and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised that they've eaten a well-rounded diet by the end of the day without you having to nag or remind them to eat even the 'healthy' stuff.
My own sample try might look something like this:
-carrot 'wheels'
-peas in a pod (so she can disassemble...sometime that makes my kids want to eat the 'treasure' inside)
-apple wedges
-grapes
-cheese cubes
-whole wheat bread 'sticks'
-whole-grain letter-shaped pasta
-diced ham cubes (or tofu)
-peanut butter (for dipping)
-(plain) yogurt (for dipping) or salsa/ketchup
Keep trying to introduce her to new foods - offer her a bite of ours, leave some small bites out and available to her during the day. She will be fine. Most kids are picky at this age.
Wow, picky eaters, that is such a common topic. Before you read this, please know that I am a Family Success Coach and you might not like what I have to say.
I will share with you what I know:
I know that if you know it is “bad for you” and you bring it into your house anyway, that is your choice.
I know that children learn what they live.
I know that children will model their parents EXACTLY, food habits, morals, exercise habits, etc.
I know that the children as young as 8 have been diagnosed with ADULT DISEASES that are attributed to their poor eating habits.
I know that this is the first time in history that our children have a shorter life expectancy than we do, because of disease and poor nutrition.
I know that most children get most of their fruits and veggies from fruit juice and French fries (which by the way are NOT the right way).
I know that you are the parent and YOU get to decide what your child eats. You decide what comes into the house, YOU decide what will be prepared and how AND YOU decide the healthy future (or not) of your family.
I know that food is not food any more, everything is processed, sprayed or modified.
I know that NOT all pizza, fries, cracker, noodles, rice, bread etc is bad.
My family eats very “clean” which means little to no preservatives, additives and a pesticides and herbicides with very little effort. It takes a bit of planning – menu planning and shopping ahead of time WHICH IS TOATLLY WORTH IT - but we make our own pizza (20 minutes from recipe to oven), we make our own bread (bread maker), we “prepare dinner” we don’t open a box and trust that some “multi billion dollar company” that packaged it had our best nutritional interests at heart.
We started with Isagenix to get us on the right path. (www.HaveItAllUSA.com). Now I teach families how to do the same. I made DECISION of health for my family…it took about a year for most of the transition; it did not come over night. But it was totally worth it. And here we are 3 years later and my children are still making better choices, THEY REFUSE to eat at fast food restaurants, THEY CHOOSE not to drink soda, THEY SAY NO to potato chips and other candy when playing with friends. I started it, I introduced it bit by bit, but THEY KEPT IT UP. It all started with the right breakfast. The right breakfast CHANGED EVERYTHING!
I can help you and your family if you want. All you have to do is ask. But if you came to Mamasource to hear that you are right, that most kids are picky, that many kids don’t eat well, then I am not the right person for you. But if you are done “venting” about what is wrong and you are ready to “change” it, let me know.
You get to decide what is important. You get to be the parent. Be one. Take a stand for your family now and you and they will reap the benefits of your stand in the future.
B.
Family Success Coach
There is a great website that has information on picky eaters. One thing to be aware of as well, many times the things that our children (and ourselves) crave, we are actually allergic /addicted too. You've got a LOT of fruits, sugars in her diet and for her doctor to not say anything about that, hmmmm...
Mom, now is the time to change her eating habits:o) We had to do MAJOR changes at 10 and it was hard but it was done.
http://gfcf-diet.talkaboutcuringautism.org/picky-kids-eat...
Hi, CC. It is not unusual that kids don't like veggies and fruits. When my daughter was little, she was the same but I did not have the information about vitamins for kids then. But now, it is different. This might-a-mins, multivitamins for children are just for children who do not have a balanced diet, especially for lack of veggies and fruits. My friends' children all love this vitamin drink. It tastes very good, citrus flavor. You can read the following information yourself at (please copy the entire link):
http://www.marketamerica.com/zaiminghu/product-2224/isoto...
Here it is the information about the kid's vitamin:
What Makes Isotonix® Might-A-Mins® Childrens Multivitamins Unique?
Isotonix Might-A-Mins contains 12 vitamins and 10 essential minerals, along with phytonutrients from a proprietary blend of fruits and vegetables. With this formula your children can enjoy the benefits of fruits and vegetables daily, without them even knowing or complaining about them. Also added to the formula is a special blend of probiotics, which are "good bacteria" essential for proper digestion. Iron has been eliminated from the Might-A-Mins formula due to its potential toxicity, especially for children under six, and also because kids usually get plenty of iron from the foods that they eat.*
Special care has been taken in selecting the proper nutritional ingredients. For example, the beta-carotene contains other naturally occurring carotenoids that include a healthy dose of lutein and zeaxanthin, which are both proven to support healthy vision and promote healthy eyes. The Vitamin E that is included in the formula, d-Alpha tocopheryl succinate, is naturally occurring, and found to be the best source of Vitamin E, when working in coordination with support nutrients.*
When taken as directed, whether your children are three or 10, this formula is a complete nutritional source. Isotonix Might-A-Mins with Phytonutrients is the perfect way to fill the nutritional gap that today’s lifestyles can create in our children from the types of foods they eat.*
Absorption and efficiency of nutritional supplements are also two important features to examine when selecting a nutritional supplement and Isotonix Might-A-Mins contains both. This supplement is in the form of an isotonic fluid, which ensures that the nutrients are efficiently absorbed. It is usually taken on an empty stomach and when the isotonic fluid enters the body, it is delivered to the small intestine, nutritionally concentrated. Then it is quickly absorbed into the blood stream maximizing the amount used by the body.
