What happened so suddenly to my great eater?????

[We Three]

WAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!   SO frustrated!  My dd has been a pretty good eater...likes her veggies and her fruit...really don't have much trouble with that at all.  But out of nowhere, she now won't eat her veggies...this is the second day that she either refuses them OR puts them in her mouth, chews it up, and THEN spits it out.  OMG.   All of a sudden she hates broccoli, hates carrots, and I have no idea why this happened?  Tonight I made her mac & cheese with tiny chooped broccoli, carrots and cauliflower....she had 2 bites, both of which she chewed and then spit out and refused more.  I ended up making her a sandwhich...which I feel I shouldn't do..(correct me if you disagree) because I don't want to set up that pattern that I'll just keep putting new stuff in front of her, do I?  But then I don't want her going to bed without her dinner, either.
 When she chews and then spits out, it isn't a game...she isn't laughing or smiling, but rather making a face like "yuk!", and then uses her hand to wipe any remnants off of her tounge.  These were her favorite foods just a few days ago!!!!
  Anyone have any thoughts??

[JennŠ]

Toddlerhood.  Pure and simple.  I never found a cure for the love it/hate it syndrome except time.  Hang in there!

[We Three]

I don't like that answer. 

[JennŠ]

Me neither.  Charlotte for some reason will eat stuff from my food.  Give her the same stuff on her own plate, forget it.  I don't understand it, but there's a lot I don't get with these kids.  Fortunately she likes the fruit/veggie juices.   

[aisling]

We had a bit of that, it was mainly due to his senses being more aware and teething. His responses to textures made him really, weirdly picky.  E.g loved raspberries but not strawberries, hated grapes but liked oranges. Actually preferred dried fruit to fresh fruit, when he was a baby he would eat any fruit, especially papaya. He told me when he was about 18 months that it was "stinky" and refused it. One thing though and I am glad I took advice from my one good friend and mother of 4 LO's, don't stop trying and giving up saying things like: "oh she doesn't eat eggs, she hates broccoli etc.." my friend said to keep offering and don't be offended by the spit outs or the refusal, and be persistent, one day they say yes again.  I followed this advice as well as being very creative with my hiding of veggies etc...it lasted about 6 months for us. He still has his fave's and some dislikes, like any person, but I could never, ever call my child picky or a lousy eater. He had a short blip from 14-20 months and I was so sick of cooking and feeding him the same old, same old.  Now, he would eat the plate I serve him his food on! He ate so many fresh strawberries that we picked last week that he had blisters on his tongue (so did I actually!) Now he just has moods about food, like me and most adults and the only thing he is not a fan of is leftovers! Hang in there, it is hard when they seem to change over night! HUGS.

A x

[We Three]

Thanks girls....it IS hard, all these sudden changes.  What is your feeling about serving something else when they refuse what you've offered?  Clearly I can't have her go to bed without her dinner....but like I said, I also don't want her to think she lives at a diner!     Do you guys think it's counter-productive to make her a second thing or even a third thing if she keeps refusing? I'm running out of ideas as to what to even offer her!!!  The only absolutes right now are pancakes, grilled cheese, cereal, andALL fruits.  Those she will eat like crazy...everything else she has been intermittently spitting out.  I'm not even sure what to prepare anymore...I feel like if I make chicken and cut it up and blah blah only to have her tell me NO.....well, you know...just frustrating.

Great advice to on being careful what we say around our lo's with regards to this (and everything else, I believe).  When my dd is feeling less than sociable, sometimes a stranger will say "Oh, she's so shy!"  And I say "Nah...she just doesn't feel like talking right now".  What we say is what they belive....I agree 100%

[We Three]

Anyone else have ideas??  I'm afrais she's gonna get rickets!!!!  And any opinions on if it's a good idea to kep offering her different things at a sitting until she'll finally eat???  This has me very concerned. Don't want to start any bad patterns IKYWIM. 

[aisling]

I made Ds's fave's for breakfast and lunch.  For dinner I made what we were having and offered. If he didn't eat a lot, I didn't panic, but always gave a snack that was nutritious and something I knew he liked before bed, e.g hard boiled egg, pita and hummus, yogurt or porridge.

I also got creative with the things he liked for breakfast and lunch and worked with it. I made smoothies for breakfast (yogurt, flax, fruit in season and OJ) and he would eat pancakes, so I made my own with added stuff in them.  He loved (loves) meatballs, so I made turkey, soy and mushroom or ground mince chicken with finely diced, spinach and carrots added. 

Have you seen this:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=105078.0

[grahamsmama]

Me neither.  Charlotte for some reason will eat stuff from my food.  Give her the same stuff on her own plate, forget it. 

That is exactly how Meghan is!  Give her fruit on the table and she won't eat it, but put it in a ziploc bag and she loves it!  LOL
What I do is put veggie puree in things (cauliflower in the mac & cheese, sweet potatoes in the pancakes, celery in the salmon cakes, spinach in the pasta sauce, broccoli and spinach in the meatloaf), then I put one or two bites of a veggie on her tray with every dinner.  But I don't stress if she doesn't eat it or spits it out because I know she's still getting the nutrition and I'm offering her the "right" foods even if she doesn't eat them. 
We also do a bedtime snack each night just in case. 

[We Three]

When you say puree, do you make your own? With a food processor?? Or do you use store-bought baby food? And if you do make your own, you just put the veggies in and make a paste??

[grahamsmama]

When you say puree, do you make your own? With a food processor?? Or do you use store-bought baby food? And if you do make your own, you just put the veggies in and make a paste??

It depends.  For the mac & cheese, I cook the cauliflower and puree it in the food processor with milk and butter (kind of like mashed potatoes) then I just use the Kraft Mac & Cheese fake cheese in there and add the whole mixture to the noodles. 

For salmon cakes and meatloaf I put the veggies in the food processor and get them really well cut up, but it's not liquidy yet and I don't add any extra liquid, then put them in with the meat. The same with the spaghetti sauce, just use the food processor until I think I can add them in without causing any texture "issues" for the kids.

For pancakes, I just use the stage 2 baby food purees.  It's easier for me.  I'll put in 2 containers and then thin the batter with milk or OJ until it looks right.

[We Three]

Thanks for that...I'll give that a shot. What sort of veggies taste good in pancakes?? Thanks to Stacy also....I like the idea of setting up for success. Her plate will look pretty funny with chicken, poatoes, veggies and some Cheerios on it!   

I am SOOOOOO tempted to give her baby food veggies.....I know I shouldn't, but she still will eat them that way.  Tell me again why that is so bad?? I know...because she'll never eat the real thing if she doesn't get used to the texture....but that's where I get stuck...she WAS used to it.  I'm just freaking out that she hasn't had any veggies in days.    I need to chill out, I know.
 
I'm gonna go trolling for a carrot muffin recipe...

[grahamsmama]

LOL  I agree, offer her both ways and start to have her use a spoon to feed herself.

sweet potatoes, carrots and squash all make nice sweet-ish pancakes.  Today we had sweet potato/apricot made with OJ.  Yummy!!
If I'm using meat and/or cheese, I usually put broccoli in them.

[We Three]

Stacy I LOVE that answer!!!!        I decided today that I'd give her some baby food, and she ate a whole jar of spinach/potato.  SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have tried to offer her regular mashed potato...but she won't eat it.
 Yesterday I again offered her her "former favorite"...mac& cheese with broccoli and chicken....ate it and spit it right back out.  We were at a family party, so I had brought a jar of spagetti & cheese baby food, and even though it was basically chopped up spagetti, she ate the whole thing without issue.  WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?
  Also this morning I made her pancakes with sweet potato mixed in...she was NOT happy.      Ate about 1/2 of a pancake, wheras a bluberry pancake she'll eat 2.
  How can she have such texture issues so suddenly?? I feel like we're starting over.  She was eating everything, and now I have no idea what to even make her anymore.
  I'm fine with b'fast and lunch...I'm ok with her having cereal/oatmeal/pancakes/friut and yogurt/or a muffin for b'fast, and then a sandwhich at lunch.....but as far as dinner I'm just at a loss.
  I know I'm being redundant.....so please forgive me....there are just alot of food issues in my family, and I'm extra-sensitive about this I guess.  I know I need to relax about it, and I am trying. It just bothers me that everything she likes now is just fairly empty...wheras just a week or so ago, her food was full of color and fiber and all that good stuff. I've taken all of your advice....and will just have to keep trying to calm down and get creative.
 I'm sure one day when she's a teenager I'll long for the days when picky eating seemed like a big problem!!!   

[We Three]

Ok so I am resurrecting this just to share something funny.  You all helped me to see that sometimes toddlers just do odd things regarding food (like eating off of your plate, Jenn, but not her own)
Sooo...in desperation I got dd one of those Gerber kid meals....turkey stew with vegetables. I am not a big fan of these, and would prefer to cook her food myself, but I bought it thinking I could doctor it up, add stuff maybe.  So she ate the entire thing (even the veggies which were whole, and prior to that I could NOT get her to eat any of the ones I cooked for her) 

So the nest day I tried a little experiment.  I made her her former favorite dinner, macaroni shells with mixed veggies and ground turkey. Instead of putting it on a plate, I saved the container from the Gerber dinner, and served it to her in that. ATE EVERY BITE.

Little savage. 

So for 3 nights she has eaten her dinner in the gerber container without question. 

And p.s.....I did doctor up the stew that first night...added my own chicken, some extra peas and some chopped carrots (there wasn't many veggies in the gerber) and it was actually quite yummy!!!

[grahamsmama]

LOL  That's fantastic.  Today Meghan was refusing the meat part of her dinner, so I took one of the plastic teapots from her sister's tea set and she ate every bite.  I guess you have to be creative at this age!