Monday, March 17, 2008
She's not just a picky eater...
Sometimes she doesn't eat at all!!! AAAarrrrghhhhh! My almost 18 mos old has gone from being a great eater to literally not touching her food the majority of the time! I'm going crazy. Tonight we were both in tears by the end of the meal. It's so frustrating putting the time and effort into preparing nutritious meals for her, and she literally won't even take a bite. I know I probably have the first-time mom syndrome going on, so I need those of you with older children and multiple children to tell me it's just a phase, they grow out of it, and my child isn't going to starve to death or lose a bunch of weight, be malnutritioned, etc. She LOVES milk, and would drink it all day long if I let her. So I know she's at least getting fat and calories. But it would be nice if she actually ate something as well. Make me feel better please!
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5 comments:
so normal! food jags, or refusing foods that were formerly "safe" foods, is sooo normal! It's just frustrating when it's all of them at the same time! Usually foods reappear after a while though.
try to: 1)make sure there's something she likes at every meal/snack so that she has a "safe" food
2)try to not let her see that you're stressed because she'll feed off of that
3)if meals keep disintegrating, try to make sure all meals end on a positive without "giving in"
4)don't let her fill up on liquids before she gets her solids
My two year old has weeks where I swear she's going to eat us out of house and home and the next week she's eating like a bird. Toddlers are naturally variable like that. It's also totally normal for toddlers to be very picky. And there's a BIG difference between picky eaters and problem eaters. This is an article that I give to a lot of my feeder parents and gives a lot of basics as well as some good ideas for tough situations!
http://www.gerber.com/content/usa/html/pages/pediatricbasics/pdffiles/PedBasics_100.pdf
Good luck!
I have had these days! Recently at my girl's 18 mo. appt., my doctor said a few things that eased my mind. He said to keep in my mind that little kids are self-regulators, they eat when they're hungry. It's hard for me to conceptualize that because I enjoy eating, but seriously I think sometimes she's just plain not hungry. He also said to keep in mind that a serving size for them is like a tablespoon. So that makes me feel better when my little one will only eat like 10 green peas and then is done with them. I do stuff like that first before she fills up on something else. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Oh, my doc also mentioned she can take like half a Flintstone vitamin now. She likes them. The gummy ones don't have iron. We bought the hard ones. A half a vitamin is so small...she wishes she could have more.
Have you tried offering milk less or is her desire for it too strong?
Thank you! It's just nice to hear it's totally normal, but that other moms worry about it too! And I definitely have restricted the milk. She doesn't get it before a meal, and sometimes I only give her water AFTER a meal as well, if she wouldn't eat her food. But by the end of the day, if she hasn't had much food at all, I let her drink away, so that she gets something!
When Reagan was in that phase, Steph, I started reading her favorite books to her during meal times. She was so into the books that she would continue shoveling food in. I didn't want to make that a habit, so I don't do it all the time. But when she has a bad day or two of eating I pull out the books again or put on one of her sing-a-long CDs to distract her a little.
Every single one of my three girls went through that. It is still that way, but my oldest (4) is slowly starting to expand her herizons. She is exceptionally picky. I do know for a fact that it is normal because I freaked out a little and asked my doctors about it. And, of course what everyone else has said they eat when they are hungry. But it's normal.
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