Eating Issues with My 17 Month Old

I have a 19 month old son and he's a pretty picky eater, too. It's totally normal for toddlers to start expressing their opinions and desires with food right around now. And to be honest, it sounds like your son has a pretty good diet if he's eating cheese, bread, veggies and fruit. My son won't eat any plain meat, but he will eat chicken nuggets and chicken tenders with ketchup. He also loves eating pancakes and waffles because he can dip them into syrup. Have you tried any of those foods? Dipping is fun for toddlers - my son loves to dip things into salsa, salad dressing, and of course, ketchup and syrup. I also recommend V-8 juice (great source for veggies and vitamins) and peanut butter (if you haven't already introduced it to his diet, it is another great source of fat and protein).

Toddlers will eat when they are hungry, so don't worry if he doesn't eat a lot during one meal or throughout a day. My son hardly ate anything yesterday, and today he's already eaten enough to feed a grown man!

I would also try to start slowly weaning your little guy away from the bottle, if you can. He's a big boy now and should be drinking from the cup.

My best to you!

J., I have a 20 month old son. He usually likes to eat, mostly meat and pasta, some days he will eat broccoli or asparagus, other days he won't touch it. He still gets one, sometimes two cups of milk a day. He goes through little phases where he doesn't want to eat what I give him. Do you hand feed your son or let him feed himself? Sometimes, the only way mine will eat is if I put it on his plate and turn my back and pretend I'm not paying attention. Also, it helps if I let him watch Elmo, but not if it's during dinner.

Also, it doesn't sound like the worst diet in the world if he's eating his veggies and fruit.

Have you tried Gerber Pasta pickups, some of them have beef and chicken in them. My son loves them.

It sounds like your son is a typical child. I was spoiled by my first son who is now 4 1/2 and always a good eater. On the other hand my 2 1/2 year old son has gone through many picky phases. When he started eating solid foods he was great and then around 18 months he started giving me such a hard time. It was like over night that he hated eating dinner. Breakfast and lunch were fine and he got his calcium mainly from yogurt twice a day. I tried everthing under the sun and found that the only way he would eat dinner was to just give him the simple things he liked for dinner (chicken nuggets, peas, tortellini and potatoes). I was able to trick him with nuggets and make my own chicken cutlets and slowly over time I just kept sneaking in little things. Over time I was able to add more vegetables by making them in shapes he liked...like breaded zucchini sticks looked like french fries. AND now about 10 months since this started he has been WONDERFUL!!! He eats all sorts of chicken (even if it is just marinated and grilled), meatballs, ham, turkey, cheese (went through a non-cheese phases), etc. A big part of it too, was that he wanted to bein control of feeding himself, so that made it hard to get him (by sneaking them in his mouth) to eat other foods.

Hang in there. From my experience, don't make eating an awful experience. GIve him the basics he likes and slowly start to give him new things. By the way, did you know that it takes at least 10 to 15 times of giving a child a new food before they may like it or even eat it? Just keep trying and don't give up. Always make him sit in the same place to eat (when you are home) so it is familiar and he knows it is eating time. Guess what, as my pediatrician told me, if they are really hungry they will eventually eat. Oh, I also found that sometimes I just had to ignore him and walk away from the table (I would still be in the kitchen) and the less of a deal I made out of eating the better.

I hope my lengthy reply :) was helpful.

It took me a complete year to get my 3 yr old fiance's son to eat vegetables. As long as your son is eating eggs he is getting protien. Just don't give up and he will begin to try it.
I had many tricks. I introduced the idea of "dipping". I used low sodium ketchup and organic salad dressing. It worked and he doesn't drench the food in it either. Good luck!

Don't worry -- my daughter didn't eat meat until she was 7... we called her our vegetarian.. she is rather small... and has no weight problems. She ate everything else really good. Somedays she wouldn't eat lunch or breakfast but only at dinner. The dr. says that they will not starve.. they will eat when they are hungry.. I still find she eats small amounts.. and is not a junk food eater. she will eat watermelon for a snack.. and her brother goes for the chips. I'm glad she eats good. Good luck