Grazing

[Phoebe]

My 18 month-old has entered a new phase of eating habits. I don't know whether to chalk it up to having roto-virus last week, that she has found a new game in opening the refridgerator or if she is just bored.

My daughter has resorted to grazing all day and not eating at mealtimes. In the past she has been somewhat on a schedule eating three meals a day with a couple small snacks. Now she will eat when she gets up and throughout the morning and evening asks for more food. Then she won't eat much of a regular meal, but acts like she wants food a short time later. I have tried offering a couple choices in her meals so she is getting something she wants.

I am not too worried about this, but I don't want her grazing on things like cheese sticks and cereal, etc all day and miss out on the nutrition of other meals. She gets upset if I don't let her have something when she wants it.

Any suggestions? Should I not worry about it and let her have her way?

Jennifer

[peggyfromwastate]

My 20-month old is going through something similar. Generally, I just go with the flow with the kids, although I do strap em into their high chairs for 3 meals a day. Your 18-month-old's desire to eat more could be from a growth spurt she's having. My daughter wants to keep eating and eating, and when I try to take away the tray (after she's been in her high chair for 45 minutes and her brother finished 25 minutes ago and is busy playing) she will protest and say "no no no no..." Then she'll keep on eating! After she's finally done eating, it will take her about 20 minutes before she asks me for more food! (cookoo? (that's Cookie in Isabel and Steven't world!)) I think it's just a growth spurt!

My best advice to you is go with the flow. Toddlers tend to know how much they need to eat and naturally regulate in an amazingly efficient and clever way!

Peggy

[houseelf]

Uh, Jennifer, I hate to break it to you, but we haven't moved out of the grazing stage a year and a half later. 8O In fact, if I want him to eat dinner, I have to call it "snack". He tends to eat much better if we have a family meal sitting at the table. I'm sure that the "family dinner" is equally hard to achieve in your family's life with hubby schedule. This happens maybe twice a week with my hubby's schedule.

While he is not so good at eating traditional "entrees", save an occasional PB&J or chicken nuggets, I have learned to sneak in healthy food in his snacking: just veggies dehydrated vegetables, apples with peanut butter, Vruit juice (orange and carrot juice), multigrain cheerios sprinkled with wheat germ, turkey pepperoni, string cheese, carrot cake clif bars, gogurts, yogurt raisons, banana chips, and chocolate soy milk to mix up his protein intake since he is a poor meat eater.

Sometimes his bizarre palate gets difficult when we're out at a restaurant and he wants to play Mahatma Gahndi and starve himself. I think that this is just a control issue for him. Or at least I'm hoping that he doesn't grow up to have an eating disorder.... Good luck.

Kelly

[PrincessFiona]

grazing

In fact, if I want him to eat dinner, I have to call it "snack".

That's so funny!

As to the grazing....we have that going on in our house too....It moves from toddler grazing to school-aged opening/shutting the refridgerator to get snacks...sometimes w/o mom seeing them I don't know what the answer is except maybe to provide her with a snack more frequently so that she isn't entering into the fridge on her own? I've resorted to this tactic and it is helping a little....though there seems to be an issue about 'getting it themselves' with my kids....control, control

In any case...I think grazing is the norm when they become toddlers

Kris

[SueC]

Yep, I have a grazer too! Maya didn't eat that much as a toddler, and still doesn't though she is a little better. It is a little harder to make sure you are getting the right kinds of foods in them since carbs are so condusive (sp?) to grazing. I just tried to keep cut up cheese, raisins, and other things handy so that I wasn't tempted to always give her crackers or cookies. I think some kids are just like that and there really isn't much you can do about it. In our case, our daughter is as skinny as a rail and I always worried that she wasn't getting enough to eat. She weighed the same at 24 months that she did at 12months, and that was only 20 lbs! But, she was so active and was right on target developmentally so I tried to assure myself that she was fine.