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View Full Version : I think I have the world's WORST eater!!!!



Mommie2MadLyn
09-29-2004, 04:25 PM
I am always reading everyone's posts on here about their toddlers being picky eaters...but to be honest it always looks pretty darn good compared to what we are dealing with here!

Madison never wants to eat. I mean literally, the child does not ask for food...ever. I have tried everything, every trick...like making smilie faces out of food, offering a large variety of foods, not forcing her to eat, etc. Nothing works. She won't even TRY something new anymore. It really worries me because there are many days where she eats almost nothing. In fact most days this is the case. The doctors never seem concerned because, somehow she is keeping up on the growth charts. Granted she does drink quite a bit of milk, but we have cut down on that and she wasn't drinking THAT much for it to sustain her through the day and not feel hungry!

Here's her typical day:
Breakfast: Drinkable yogurt in her sippy cup
(this is me sneaking it in because she drinks without realizing that its food... I tell her its strawberry milk...otherwise if I say "yogurt", she doesn't "like it!")

Lunch: *sometimes* meaning she doesn't always even go for lunch at all! If she does, its either mac n cheese, lipton noodles, pizza, or chicken nuggets. This is ALL she eats! And its usually only a few bites of whatever she's having.

Snack: she doesn't really go for snacks either! sometimes pretzels, she will eat apples, watermelon and grapes...so thats good!

Dinner: Usually same choices as above...she doesn't vary much in what she will eat. The staples around here are Pizza, mac n cheese, and chicken nuggets. She will eat brocolli and cheese though! So we have that pretty much every night! And *occassionally* she will eat hotdogs, rice, fish sticks.

I know the variety doesn't seem SO bad when its written down, but if you could see how "little" she eats of these things you would understand my concern. We're talking 3 or 4 bites at lunch and dinner...thats it. And again the snacks don't grab her either. I don't know where this child came from because her Daddy and I certainly have NO problems when it comes to eating!
:-)

Sorry this got so long, but I'm just wondering if anyone else has a kiddo that eats this badly? I know she can't be the only one.....right?

lcl
09-30-2004, 04:57 PM
i feel for you. my DS is 25 mo and his food repertoire is oatmeal or cereal in am, lunch--pasta or bread and occasional nugget (very rare nibble these days about once a week), dinner-- more (plain, no cheese) pasta or rice and an occasional broccoli. he also doesn't often ask for food.

he will eat grapes, watermelon, oranges and apples.

granted that when he is hungry he will eat a lot of it but a lot of times it is a few bites. we often try to cook his pasta in chicken or beef broth to give him more nutrition. could also use more ideas too. we place new foods on his plate but he gets upset unless it is his old standbys. (no fish sticks or pizza). oh he also likes corn on the cob when we have it.

Southerngirl75
10-15-2004, 03:33 PM
I just want you to know that you are not alone. My 20 month old daughter is the same exact way. She hardly EVER eats. For example this morning I gave her a hard boiled egg and a pancake for breakfast. She put one piece of pancake in her mouth then spit it out. I think she might have eaten one small piece but I can't be sure. The she ate one tiny piece of the egg white and that was it. That is all she had for breakfast. For lunch I gave her pasta noodles and some yogurt. She ate a few bites of the yogurt and a small handfull of noodles and that is it. For diner she might have about one or two bites of whatever I give her and that is it. She has been eating like this since she turend a year. It has worried me and bothered me so much. The ped seems to think it is fine and that she is growing normally. It just bothers me so much that she doesn't eat and I have no clue how she survives on so little. The one thing is that my duaghter loves milk. She will drink milk all day if I let her. I usually don't let her have her milk until after she eats so she won't fill up on milk. Oh and my duaghter does love goldfish. She would eat those all day if I let her but that is all she wants is milk and goldfish. It is so frustrating. I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.

Jeanmick
11-03-2004, 04:45 PM
You're not the only one. I was just going to post this very topic. My 3 1/2 year old does the same thing. It's like pulling teeth to get her anything to eat. It's really a struggle for me, especially since she's allergic to peanuts and has a mild milk allergy.

I'm so frustrated sometimes...especially since I'm not the world's best cook.

Mommie2MadLyn
11-04-2004, 10:34 AM
Thank you for all of the responses. It does help to know that I am not alone on this issue. It is so frustrating though...isn't it?

I just wanted to make a suggestion that has been working well for us lately...I bought the Stonyfield Organic Drinkable Yogurt. This is what she has been having for breakfast everyday. I give it to her in her sippy cup while she watches her cartoons in the morning. I think the distraction of the tv helps because she just drinks it and doesn't seem to notice too much. At least this way I dont feel SO guilty sending her off to preschool in the morning after she has only taken ONE bite of a waffle or pancake!

I just keep hoping that this is just a really LONG phase that she is going through! Good luck to you all, and maybe we could all post little "tricks" that are working for us!

ETA - Just mentioning the yogurts again because I had never seen the "organic drinkables". I am happy because I know these are better than the Danimals we were buying!

natividad
11-05-2004, 09:48 AM
Well, we were on the same boat up until recently. DS must be going through a growth spurt right now because he is eating much better these days. Ellyn Satter's book has helped a lot and I highly recommend you taking a look at it. We went through a lot of experimentation. In our case, these are some of the things that have helped us:

- Fixing, juicy, moist , flavorful foods: I discovered that DS just didn't care for "dry" foods. He has never cared for the traditional toddler foods (nuggets, chicken fingers, pizza, etc.). He loves, moist foods with a lot of flavor, not spicy, but just well seasoned foods. In our case, I just decided to cook the traditional foods from my home country which are rich with sauces. Fixing our traditional foods takes more time and effort, but it is what works for DS and I don't mind spending more time in the kitchen.

- Adding more butter and sugar to things: Yes that's right, if he has cereal, I just add a bit more sugar (in our case honey) to his portion. I add more butter to his toasts also. I don't feel guilty about this at this point because he needs the extra fat anyway.

- Letting him feed himself: Yes, it becomes a mess, but he was insisting in feeding himself and so I just let him. He gets a kick out of feeling independent. After a few tries, he then "lets" me finish feeding him.

We are still working on veggies. Again, the trick with us is to have the veggies mixed in with other things. Hope this has helped.

Naty,
Mommy to Alexander (20 months)

R2sweetboys
11-15-2004, 10:48 AM
Oh, I can totally relate to your frustration. My youngest is not a very good eater. What makes it really hard is that my 4 year old eats(and always has) everything! He asks for more broccoli, loves fruits, and will try just about anything. It's because we always exposed him to different foods and had him try things. Well, Matthew just flat out refuses! Some of the unusual things he does eat though are chinese noodles and rice and egg rolls. Very strange for a kid who won't even touch mac and cheese.(maybe not a bad thing though:)) He does like chicken and corn on the cob which is good. He also eats some fruits. He's been gaining weight at his ped appointments so I try not to worry too much. It is frustrating though, that's for sure!

MartiesMom2B
11-19-2004, 12:56 PM
These are great observations Naty. Martie refuses to eat now unless she has some sort of utensil.

I hate to say this, but this thread has made me feel better about Martie's eating.

-Sonia

StaceyKim
12-11-2004, 12:34 PM
Trust me you are not the only one! My DS hardly eats anything. This is what DS will eat:
Oatmeal with applesause
Little bites of a bagel
Chicken fingers (maybe one if he is in the mood)
Gerber breakfast bars
Cookies (anytime!)
Peas-some and then throws them on the floor
Grilled cheese-totally hit or miss and then only eats half a sandwich at most
Cheerios
Goldfish
Crackers of almost any kind
Corn-little bit
Carrots-he actually took a few bites of this the other day and I was shocked!
French fries
Blueberries
Strawberries
Bananas
Yo Baby

He barely eats anything all day. Thank goodness he drinks his milk

He will not try mac n cheese, hamburger, hotdogs, pizza. I haven't tried fish sticks-I heard they have good ones at Trader Joes.

My biggest problem is I give him new foods to try all the time but he THROWS it on the floor without even trying it. It drives me nuts that he won't even take a bite.

Hopefully this stage will be over soon for all of us!

mickibs
12-14-2004, 03:15 PM
I can totally relate. I have three kids. The oldest would eat anything and everything, still does. The middle one went through a phase when he was younger where he didn't want meat or vegetables, but he outgrew that when he was three years old over a McDonald's Happy Meal. My youngest, heavy sigh, is six years old now. The only meat he will eat is fish sticks, chicken nuggets and an occasional hot dog. The only protein he likes is cheese, milk, yogurt or peanut butter. Vegetables, even raw, are like we're trying to poison him. We finally had him eating pizza if he picked the meat off. Now he won't even eat that any more after today. He wanted to eat hot lunch at school because they were having cheese pizza. Well, he found a tiny piece of burger in the pizza sauce, gagged and got sick at school.

I've talked to his pediatrician and a nutritionist. They keep telling me not to worry about it because they've never met a teenaged boy who won't eat burgers, pizza, tacos, etc. It's just so frustrating. We've tried everything from leaving him alone, bribing him, including one thing he likes in every meal, rewarding him, praising him and all that. Never have we force fed him. One of his daycare workers tried to make him eat and got peas all over her for her effort. I'm just at my wits' end. I'm tired of making separate lunches for him when the other kids eat school lunch. Dinner is nothing but whining. And the rest of our family keeps making rude remarks like "just make him eat," "if he doesn't eat, he can't play outside," or "let me have him for a week. He'll eat everything when I'm done with him and he'll like it."