Seeking Advice on 18Month Old Who Refuses to Eat Meat

Before we became vegetarian, we ate only fish, but my son, 1 year at the time, refused to eat it--he wiped it off of his tongue. He never would eat it, even when he got older. We are all vegetarian now.

My gal took awhile to eat meat protein. She likes chicken the best but likes meatballs and meatloaf too. As long as your baby is getting protein from some source I would not stress too much about it coming from meat. I have 2 good books that have easy info. and recipes. They are the Toddler Nutrition for Dummies and The Idiots Guide to Baby and Toddler Nutriton. Gorton's Fishsticks are great too because they are super thin and not fishy at all and Tyson has chicken nuggets that are shaped like dinosaurs that are made from 100% white meat.
Hope that helps:)

Have you checked the freezer section at the grocery store for protein alternatives to meat? I'm not a huge fan of processed/box food, but my 20 month old son LOVES the Morningstar Farms 'chickn nuggets' (veggie protein in the shape of a chicken nugget that tastes remarkably like a chicken nugget), and varieties of veggie patties.

Ah, yes. I think it is a boy thing though probably every mom can relate. My son is now 9 and still doesn't like certain meats. But he loves veggies so we are great there. As long as he gets protein some way. Great ways are beans, eggs, yogurt. The doc even said this was great and since he likes veggies I was able to give him iron. I also bought fortified bread. Just keep offering it to him and eventually he will try it and find that he actually likes it. My husband forced my son to eat a chicken leg (the horror!) a few months ago and would you believe that he actually likes it? Before that I had to pull the meat off the bone from a breast. It will get better. You can talk to the doc or look up the USDA recommended amounts for protein, etc and then match up foods that way. Good Luck.

I just started using the cookbook Deceptivly Delicious with my 17 month old...it has worked really well.

I feel your pain. My daughter is 8 and is now really just eating meat. She used to only eat chicken nuggets. that's it nothing else. She ate lots and lots of fruit.. wouldn't even really eat veggies. I tried really hard not to force her.. remember our parents forcing us to eat out peas... yikes still don't eat them... so I took the opposite approach. I didn't force her until about 3. Then I would slice up the meat as small as I could and she would have to eat at least 3 pieces. Yes we are now up to 8 pieces...She pretty much eats ground beef, hot dogs and will try other meats except CHICKEN. Thanks to the kindergarten class raising chicks... good luck

My son was the same way. His pediatrician always said he'd grow out of it. So we kept introducing new meats to him various ways. He's now 7 and still won't eat meat. But it's okay, I suppose he's just a natural vegetarian. We do try to get protein in with peanuts and peanut butter though.

Try getting protein from sources like black beans, chick peas, tofu, etc. Seitan (wheat-based) is very good and easy to cook. Trader Joe's has some great veggie items like "soy meatballs". If you are concerned about food allergies I would not recommend peanut butter or hummus (sesame).

There is a great book by William G Wilkoff, MD called Coping with a Picky Eater that every parent or provider of kids should read and have a copy of. http://www.amazon.com/Coping-Picky-Eater-Perplexed-Parent...

This book has what I call the Picky Eater Plan. I have used this plan with kids that literally threw up at the sight of food and within 2 weeks they were eating normal amounts of everything and trying every food.

First you need to get everyone who deals with the child on board. If you are a provider it's ok to make this the rule at your house and not have the parents follow through but you wont' see as good results as what I described up above.

The plan is to limit the quantities of food you give the kid. When I first start with a child I give them literally ONE bite worth of each food I am serving. The book suggests that every time you feed the kids (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) you give all 4 food groups. So, for lunch today I would have given the child one tiny piece of strawberry, one spoonful of applesauce, 3 macaroni noodles with cheese on them, and 2 oz of milk. Only after they ate ALL of what was on their plate would you give them anything else. They can have the same amounts for seconds. If they only want more mac and cheese, they only get 3 noodles then they would have to have more of all the other foods in order to get more than that. If they don't eat, fine. If they don't finish, fine. Don't make a big deal out of it, just make them stay at the table until everyone else is done eating. BUT make sure they get no other food till they are sat at the next meal and they only get what you serve. When I first do this with a child I don't serve sweets at all. So no animal crackers for snack but rather a carrot for snack. Or one of each of those. I don't make it easy for them to gorge on bad foods in other words. Now if they had a meal where they ate great then I might make the snack be a yummy one cause I know they filled up on good foods.

Even at snacks you have to limit quantities of the good stuff or else they will hold out for snack and just eat those snacky foods. I never give a picky eater the reward of a yummy snack unless they had that great lunch prior to it.

It really is that easy.

Have you tried other proteins like beans or tofu? or Hummus. My kids love refried and regular black, great northern and pinto beans. Combined with a carb like rice, this is just a nutritious as meat. I am surprised that no vegetarians have weighed in... Good luck!