Need Helping Getting My Toddler to Eat!!

Hi J.,
OK, this may sound strange but when I feed my 11 month old something that he typically does not like, I find distracting him while eating works wonders. I have his height chair set up next to the kitchen table. I bought a walking Tele Tubby doll that sings and the belly lights up while it walks. I use this as a feeding tool. The doll walks across the table while my baby laughs and talks to it,he easily opens his mouth to eat what is on the spoon. Give something like this a try! Good luck to you.

Yes! I have been there! I do know, that at this age, basically feeling and squishing the food between their little hands is all they really want to do. They unfortunately do not realize that actually putting it into their mouths makes them less hungry. I ran into this with my second daughter. If I were you, I would spoon feed him for now. That worked for us. I used to spoon feed her so that she actually ate, and then when I knew she actually ingested some food, I would give her her own little dish to try herself. As for the formula, I hear you!! I am on baby #3 who is nine months old, and we are so ready to done with the 27$ deal! Its crazy, right? I'm sorry your little guy is giving you a hard time. Hope this helps a little.

What kinds of foods have you tried? Do you put the food directly on the tray or do you try feeding it to your baby with a spoon? My 12 month old hated anything sweet when we first started her on solids. Sweet potato: BAD. Banana: BAD. Pears: AWFUL. All she would eat was what I call green glop: peas with rice, "summer vegetable dinner" (Earth's Best), etc. Over time, we would occasionally try again with the things she hadn't liked, and eventually she took them. Try different ways of having her eat: spoons, food on the tray, putting little things directly in her mouth, etc. First thing she accepted was rice cereal. Try cheerios (or if you want to go the no-sugar route: Cascadia Farms Purely O's have no sugar). At 13 months they can do some chewing, so try little chunks or pieces of steamed vegetables: asparagus, whatever you have. Also yogurt (whole milk - my girl eats plain yogurt and sometimes I add fruit). Eventually something will work.

did you try eating with him? i also have 14th month old and she is picky but we have gotten her to eat some of when we eat if we eat it with her... try not to stress over meals and see if maybe breaking it down to more like snacks will help= our daughter done't eat a lot at one time but will eat little bits throughout the day... hope this helps

Here are a few ideas:
- Try eating together as a family (around this age, my daughter seemed to like to have meals as a social event, so we now eat together at the table for every meal). Granted, eating at 5:30 is not the greatest, but you get used to it.
- Give him something he can have fun trying to eat (like a whole piece of pizza). I didn't think my daughter at 13 months could do it, but sure enough we tried (and watched her the whole time to make sure she wouldn't choke) and she liked it (I think it was a challenge).
- When my daugther (almost 2) is giving me a hard time with eating, I try to minimize snacks. If she doesn't eat anything for breakfast, no mid-morning snack (except fruit) and then an early lunch. By that time, she is usually starving and eats whatever I give her. I just keep her hydrated.

Hope this helps!

I am responding with no advice but I did want to say you are not alone. My son won't eat anything but chicken nuggets and by eating I mean a very little portion of it. He won't even taste things! He goes to daycare and just got moved into the toddler room. They gave me this nice list of suggested lunches. I looked at it and thought Do other kids really eat all this stuff???

I have to wonder if your Dr. has given you some bad advice. The more liquid (formula) he drinks the less he's going to want to eat. Instead of getting preachy, since I really don't know your child at all, I'll just tell you what I do. I have a 3 year old and an 11 month old. I don't give bottles or sippy cups. I hold a small open top cup for my 11 month old to drink from, both during meals and between meals, only offering water and whole milk. If children have the opportunity to suck by bottle or sippy they tend to ingest larger quantities than if they just sip from a regular cup....thereby leaving more room in their small tummies for food. I also have a difficult time getting my 11 month old to eat, but I find she'll eat anything #1 if it does NOT resemble "baby food." She'll eat far better for me if it's table food...nothing pureed or prepackaged #2 She will eat like crazy with variety...and seems she won't eat anything 2x in a row...#3 if we eat together, and she's eating what I'm eating, she'll eat....just some food for thought... no pun intended! Also I don't spoon feed her at all or she'll refuse. The more control she has feeding herself, the more she eats! As a last thought you can also sprinkle a scoop or two of the powder formula into his food, yogurt, whatever, so he's not drinking, but eating the nutrients he needs. I often do this with my daughter and she's none the wiser!! I hope something I said was helpful and if there's anything more I can help with let me know!!

I have been through this with my daughter who is 6 years old now. But when she was little she did the same thing. I tried reverse psychology, bribes, playing the "choo choo" game, etc. Nothing seemed to work. I would often cry because she wouldn't eat much. Luckily she did eat enough to stay on whole milk.

What worked for me was trying to cook and buy new things until you find the favorites. You can also try kraftfoods.com for recipes. The membership is free and you can find great recipes that are "kid friendly".

Also, try to eat at the same time as your child if you don't already do so. He will want to do what you are doing all the time. Let him try what you are eating too, as long as it is safe for him. Oh, and put the puppy in a different room while your little one eats. I hope this helps you. Good luck. AND DONT FORGET THE WEBSITE!! kraftfoods.com....they will also send you free magazines loaded with great recipes that you can cut out and add to your own recipe book!!

My son was the same way. He stopped letting us feed him from a spoon (except for yogurt which he still LOVES!) and we struggled to get anything in him. He's still picky, but here are some things that he does eat:

*waffle
*pancake
*french toast
*plain toast with butter
*dry cereal (crispix are his favorite)
*cheese ravioli with butter and shake cheese (he hates red sauce)
*peanut butter and butter sandwich (we add butter to alot of his food for extra calories)
*fish sticks (surprisingly)
*McCains "Smiles" (like a french fry, in frozen food section)
**even on days he doesnt want to eat at all, he will eat his smiles
*chicken nuggets
*Veggie bites (like chicken nuggets, but broccoli inside)

We found the key to be not giving him anything too "wet". He LOVES crunchy/salty snacks, just like his Mom!

Also...dont put a pile of food in front of him, give him 1-2 pieces at a time. We found that a pile of food just encouraged him to play "hockey" with it.

Hope this helps!

My kids lived on hot dogs and mac and cheese for months. Good luck!

Sam
Mom of 3 - 6,4, and 2

Hi J.,
I am sorry you are having such a struggle. I am a mom to a 4 year old and a 7 month old. I found with my son he would love to dunk things in applesauce no matter what it was. I would make his portions really small as to not overwhelm him and he would eat very well. I forget when it is ok to introduce peanut butter but if he is old enough, a cute little treat could be peanut butter on mini rice cakes. We eat them all the time here, the caramel quaker mini rice cakes. My son also liked minestrone soup i think because of the variety of different colors and tastes.
Good luck, hope this helped a little.
V.

Remove the dog from the feeding area during eating times. It's not good for either of them: the dog learns to beg, and the baby gets distracted. My son will throw most of his food to the dogs if they are hovering around during eating times, so they are banished outside or behind a baby gate. They can clean up after he is done!