Any advice for mum with a fussy eater?

Question

My daughter is 17 months old and is driving me crazy. She will not eat any new foods, she seems to be surviving on bread, beans and fishfingers at the moment. How can i encourage her to try new things? I served up a lovely spaghetti bolognaise last night she took one look at it and chucked it on the floor!

Answer 1

Welcome to toddlerhood.  They are notoriously picky.  Just keep trying the foods.  Eventually she will try it.  Don't give up on the bolognese on one try.  This is the perfect age for her to expand her tastes.  Give her a variety of things and try each several times.  Good luck.

P.S.- The bread, beans, and fish fingers are fine.  Try to sneak some milk and fruits or vegetables in there, even if you have to puree them and spread them on her bread.

Answer 2

The very best thing you can do, for yourself at least, is not to worry. Children survive healthily on faddy diets, believe me, my daughter was just the same. Unfortunately tots

quickly learn to use food as part of the power struggle between parents and their children.

We mums put a lot of effort into planning and  cooking healthy tasty meals and to see it chucked on the floor goes right to the heart of us.

Make new foods and tastes available, but other than that, don't make it an issue, otherwise the intelligent child will play on it and make your life, and the lives of anyone else that eats with you total h**l.

Answer 3

I seen a program on the TV earlier last month. and it was about fussy eaters.

As long as the child is mantaining a health weight you can keep giving them the foods they like for the time being, They will eventually try new things.

My two kids were the same, they are 4 and 2 now. . my son the 4 yr old went through a stage of only eating sweet baby foods he wouldnt touch the savoury stuff so i cut out the sweet stuff he liked and he soon ate the other foods as he was hungry and had no option in it.. . also my daughter took a while to eat adult food . .like spagetti bolognaise she tended to stick to the same foods in the begining . . well now she is 2 she eats almost anything i put on the table. . i know this is a trying time for you and sometimes you'll feel frustrated.

Just give her time she will try new things when you least expect her to,

And as long as she is eating plenty to fill her up and drinking plenty. .she'll be fine.

Good luck.

Answer 4

i'm not sure where you're from but if you're from the uk then im sure you've heard of "Big Cook Little Cook" on the cbeebies channel? Well if you havent:

Its a kids show where two cooks who own a cafe cook child-friendly food and they show you wht ingredients you need and how to cook the food but theres always a storyline too, to entertain the kids. Well what I do often with my kids is record the episodes of it and play and pause it when I need to while cooking the meals with my kids. When kids have cooked the meals themselves, they're sure to eat it! It works for me!

Answer 5

When my children were around that age, I myself tried very hard not to worry about them as , at times they seemed to survive on, (and not look beyond) Scrambled egg (and nothing but scrambled egg mind) or fruit and fish fingers, Kiwi fruit, rice pudding, yogurts... you get the picture.

My very wise and now retired HV gave me the confidence to realise that that type of behaviour is absolutely normal, and to go with what they want as it does tend to be "just a phase".

Be casual, and concentrate on other things. It's no big deal, and you can give her "little tastes" of new things alongside what she likes, or give her a spoonful of what you are eating, rather than the whole shebang as one meal. That way she associates the things she likes: fishfingers or whatever, with a little taste of something new.

Think about it, how often do you eat something new, is it as often as a 17 month does? At that age It can all be a bit overwhelming, and repeating familiar food can be a way of enhancing their security.

Just my tuppence ha'penny worth, but I hope it makes you feel better.

Answer 6

Right...i dont know if your gona like this answer or not! i'm a mum of 5 from 15yrs to 17weeks....and i think ive probably seen it all....heres the thing....you cant make a child eat anything they dont want to....its that simple.....and if you try you are literally setting up patterns of behaviour that will stick around for years.....you dont want to do that, believe me....meal times should be happy times....not times for arguing, or having difficulties.....i know its easier said that dun, but just stick with it........beans are a great source of nutrition, buy her the low salt and sugar ones, maybe sneak a little sweetcorn in there and see how she reacts to that, brown bread, try different things on it for her....nutella, cheese spread, peanut butter, marmite......carry on making your lovely meals, sit round and enjoy eating together, let her see everyone enjoying different meals without 'making' her join in, when she's ready for new foods, or starts feeling a little left out of these meal times, i'm sure she'll let you know......please please dont worry, do the opposite...relax! good luck with it all x

Answer 7

every child generally goes through this stage unfortunately

heres a website that gives good advice

http://www.nutrition.ie/fussy-eaters.htm...

Answer 8

I watched a programme last week and found it really interesting. The lady was helping families out with children who are fussy eaters. She advised them to give the child what they want to eat then slowly introduce new foods and small amounts.

For example one girl would only eat chocolate or wotsit crisps for breakfast, dinner and tea.  Then they gave her toast to eat.  amazingly this girl had lived on this diet for 11 years and was perfectly healthly..weird...

The ladies main advise was to introduce small amounts and slowly and if the child ate even a tiny amount praise was given to the child. She said never force the child to eat anything it doesn't want and that she has never heard of a child under the age of 5 starving itself.

I use to have problems with my child eating her main meals then telling she had had enough but when she was gulping the puddings down i realized she was still hungry but would only eat the puddings. So what we did was tell her if she didn't eat even a small bit of her dinner she did not get any pudding at all no matter how much she kicked up a fuss (then i would walk away until she calmed down) she soon learnt and now loves trying new things.

I also found telling her that her favorite cartoon character also loved to eat the food she was trying at the time would also help. E.g i would tell her "Sponge Bob loves lasagna and garlic bread" and it did work. You just have to remember who likes what....

Good Luck and remember to keep it funny they will start to enjoy meal times alot more.