Then he turned into a toddler. I now had this little ball of fire with serious energy WHO DIDN'T EAT ANYTHING. Okay I'm exaggerating a bit, but his diet at that time consisted of this (not including the junk he ate, yikes there was alot of that):
Ovaltine
Eggs
Chicken Nuggets
Smoothies
Toast
Cereal
Sweet Potato Fries
Maybe there was more, but not that I can remember. Even the few things that are on that list were a total struggle sometimes to get him to eat. It drove me CRAZY. I hated how picky he was, and that there was nothing I could do to get him to eat more. I dreaded every meal. His favorite thing in the world is ovaltine, and he wanted it constantly. Eventually we got a little smart and only gave it to him after he ate, and that seemed to help a bit. There was not any more variety in what he ate, but at least he ate. After a while of that I knew something needed to change because there was no way he was healthy eating what he was eating.
We limited his snacks way more. I banned fruit snacks. I still wont buy them. The snacks I did buy were much healthier options than what was given to him before. We gave him yogurt, applesauce, pretzels, multi-seed crackers, cheese slices, apples - whole apples (apparently having them sliced was not what he was interested in), and bananas. He didn't always eat these, but it was all stuff that he'd had at least once before so I knew he at least liked it enough. I was pretty stoked about the good things he was eating.
Now he's 3 and a half, and still mighty picky. He wont touch meat.. except for chicken fries/nuggets. I even tried homemade chicken nuggets-he gagged and threw up. Awesome. BUT the list of foods he eats now is bigger than it was a year and a half ago.
Smoothies (loaded with spinach)
Apples, pears, blueberries, grapes, bananas, cuties, and carrots.
V8
Oatmeal
Macaroni and Cheese
Grilled Cheese
Quesadillas
PB & J
Multi-Seed Crackers
Applesauce
Yogurt
Toast
Eggs
of course, ovaltine. He's a Moore after all.
Maybe in next year and half the list will grow even more. I want there to be meat, and beans, and veggies on there, but I'll take what I can get right now. Do you guys have picky eaters like this? What do you do? I hope a lot of it is his age and it's something he'll grow out of. I feel so limited sometimes. I hope I'm not alone.
xoxo,
Shell
Rex is my pickiest eater. It can be so frustrating. It seems like all he eats is yogurt, cheese, and chocolate milk.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, too because he's my youngest, and you would think that I had this figured out. Chase naturally loved so many foods. She still does: she loves almost anything you put in front of her. (One of her favorite foods: salmon with pesto and pasta!)
I think that you're on the right track, just keep putting good, healthy foods in front of him.
-catania
I totally feel your pain!!!! My 4 year old is the WORST eater ever, and also would gag and throw up anytime we tried to feed him something different. I literally DREADED dinnertime because of how awful it became, just frustrating and nagging, and just plain awful. We finally just started something new, and although he still isn't eating very much, dinnertime isn't terrible. I just put what I make for dinner on the table, along with a couple of things I know he will eat, and let him put the food he wants on his own plate. It's only been a few days, and the first day all he ate was tortilla chips and strawberries, but dinner was SO LESS stressful and actually enjoyable. He even says, "thanks for the good dinner mom" I don't know if this will work for you, but it's something that helped us. Good luck!
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