Veggie Boycot

[Phoebe]

My 10 month old instantly started boycotting vegetables and most baby food. I can't get her to eat anything but cheerios and fruit. I am sure if she was hungry enough she would eat anything, but I don't want to get to that point. She spits the food out or turns her head away from the spoon. I have offered the food repeatedly.

She is eating a combo of table food and stage 2 foods. She won't take the stage 3 jars. She only has 4 teeth so I can't do much in the way of table food, plus the jars are more nutritious. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions? My first baby eat everything so I haven't encountered this before. Did your infants eat table food at this age? If so, what types?

[Amiens]

This post might be all over the place, because I am having a hard time organizing my thoughts.

Brigham is my youngest, and has been way different as far as food goes than Emma. This is how Brigham was at the introduction of solid food. We stopped and started solid food for about 2 weeks until I took him in for his 6 month appointment. The ped told me that he probably didn't like his food mushed up, wanted to feed himself, and that we should put him in his high chair with some "real" food. So we did that, and he has been the happiest kid since.

After a couple of weeks of table food, I tried the jarred stuff, and homemade baby food. He took if it was the only thing. Brigham will only eat his veggies whole- peas, carrots, corn. I have to admit it makes it much easier on me.

Brigham is now 11 1/2 mos old, will be one on Aug 10th. Anyway, he only has two teeth on the bottom, and has no problem eating table food. He isn't a big fan of baby food, in fact if he sees us eating and we are trying to feed him jarred stuff, he will flat out refuse. I make sure I break his food up. He absolutely loves apple slices, just like his big sis, but I don't feel comfortable having him gnaw on a hunk of apple, so I steam apple slices for him for 3 minutes. For veggies- he gets shredded carrots, peas, corn, diced bell peppers, won't eat broccoli. He also eats cream cheese and fruit sandwiches, shredded cheese, yogurt, spaghetti (loves this). Brigham is better at eating table food, and more willing than Emma, even now at the age she is at. I am also finding than I am less concerned about the messiness of eating this time around, and I am more apt to allowing Brigham to "try" and feed himself earlier than Emma did. I think I didn't let Emma start trying to eat with a spoon until she was 16 months old, and pretty much fed her messy finger foods until she was a 12 mos. If Brigham is determined to feed himself, and you try to help him, he gets very upset.

Emma was like your oldest, in that she ate anything we put in front of her. Now she is 2 1/2 yrs old, and food is hit and miss with her. Our pediatrician gave us some great advice that we are starting to see pay off- "It is your job as the parent to put good nutrition in front of your child. It's your child's job to eat it. Don't look at what your child ate each day, but rather over the course of a couple of weeks." Once we started doing that, meal times with Emma became much less of a battle, in fact she is starting to try new foods, and will comply with the "just one bite rule," which leads to many more bites.

Hope this helped!
Crystal

PS- I have a great list of nutritious finger foods for babies, if you want it.

[houseelf]

My only advice is to keep trying. This household feels your pain. I swear my son is an anorexic in the making and has been since the beginning.

We have shed blood, sweat, and tears with our child's eating habits and frequent food strikes. He is crafty and has been since a small age. He would try to increase his breast feeding intake instead of trying new foods, and then try to drink all his calories from cows milk after he turned one. Being the oh-so-rationale parent that I can be, I was SURE that this was somehow due to some defect in my parenting. (Now I'm jaded enough to know that he is just as hard-headed as his daddy. )

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, Ella, I read somewhere that little children have to be introduced to foods up to a dozen times before they decide if they like it or not. Unfortunately, most of us parents are willing to give up much earlier on. In fact, the first time it is introduced, the child may just smell it or feel the texture of it with their hands. After a few more attempts, they may put the food in their mouth and take it back out. This is frustrating, but apparently this is very normal behavior. As kids get older, the parenting magazines all suggest making little boats, happy faces, origami with food. As the least crafty person that I know, let's just say we haven't tried this route in our household. But it may work for you!

To allay your fears, my pediatrician has assured us that kids will not starve themselves, they will eventually cave. Also, try foods that maybe you wouldn't try but your kid may love. I don't care for olives or carrot cake Clif Bars but my son lived on these and scant other few items for a few months of his lives. Beats the heck out of me, but whatever.

Believe me, we have tried everything, even a few methods that I'm sure place me in the "Mommy Dearest" hall of fame. The best advice that I can offer is to just keep at it. When our son would finally take one bite of something new after introducing a gazillion times, we made sure that he would have a serving of it within the next few days to reinforce his acceptance of the new texture and/or taste. After four years, he can still be labeled as picky {<gasp> label your child!} but he will eat at least a few types of lean proteins, vegetables, and fruits. I'm sure that when he is a teenager who is eating out of house and home, I will disbelieve that we ever went through this stage.

Anyway, best of luck. This is not the most pleasant dining experience for the whole family, so I feel for you.

Kelly

P.S. Ella is a little young for this next point, but I wanted to add that my pediatrician suggested to be vigilant about allowing my son to drink all his calories. At ten months, she should be consuming the majority of her calories from breastmilk or formula, but should she continue on with fussy eating habits, you may want to carefully monitor what she drinks. Because my kid is so picky and would drink fruit juice all day if we let him, we allow him unlimited water, 3 servings of milk, and one serving of orange juice a day. Only on VERY special occasions does he gets Capri Sun or soda pop. He would drink this juice and other beverages until it came out of his ears if we let him. Limiting these caloric beverages makes him hungry enough to have to eat.

I guess in this situation I would just let it pass. My daughter will completely refuse a particular food every so often, even if it was all she would eat the previous week. I just make sure to offer it again after a few meals, and if she still won't eat it, then I don't push it and know she is eating a variety of foods and getting great nutrition from them. I don't want to start any battles centered around food, and she is much too young to understand "well, you didn't eat all your veggies so you can't be that hungry". She's always been a good eater, and this is what works for us.

As far as table foods go, I always give my daughter a serving of whatever DH and I are eating. Little cubes of chicken, any kind of fruit, rice, spaghetti, cubes of cheese, boiled veggies (carrots, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus), pasta, fish, baked potatos, yams, eggs, pancakes, cereal, tortillas, breads and bagels, homemade pizzas, and so on. As long as its soft enough and not too spicy or fatty, I like to let her try it all. And though she has a mouthfull of teeth now, she didn't when I started giving her table foods. She usually gums more than bites anyway, so I would give it a try even without the teeth.

I'd also like the list of finger foods Crystal mentioned. I'm always looking for new ideas!

[Phoebe]

Thanks for the responses. I would love that list of foods. We have actually been giving Ella table food for awhile. Green beans are the only veggies she will eat which is better than nothing.

This is a switch! My almost 3 yr old who hasn't eaten a vegetable except ketchup since 12 months of age actually asked to eat green beans today. We haven't pushed food issues with her at all and maybe we are finally getting lucky.

Jennifer

[irisheyes]

Hey Jennifer!!!

It's me, Christy. Gosh, it's been so long, I forgot my old username here. So, I signed up for another one.

I was wondering if maybe it was the texture of the food your little one doesn't like? I don't know what to tell you. I wish I did have a good answer. I think you have some great advice from these ladies though.

Anyway, I cannot believe your oldest daughter is almost 3. How time flies. I hope you are doing well. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you... I finally got pregnant again with using Clomid (AGAIN). 16 weeks today and very excited.

I hope you and Ron and the girls are doing well. I think of you often.

Love & Miss ya,
Christy