Can she survive on banana alone?

[First Time Mom]

My 14.5 month used to eat EVERYTHING! She loved all meats, veggies, fruits, cheese, you name it, she ate it! In the past month I've noticed she's getting more and more fussy, spitting out everything I give her. I make all her food and will sometimes try 3-4 different meals before she will eat something. She's a small baby, always has been, at 14 months she weighed 19 pounds (both dh and I are tall and slim). Today she refused EVERYTHING with the exception of her morning cereal. She ate 1.5 bananas in total between lunch and dinner, oh, and about 5oz of milk. She is still bf 2x a day so not getting much there.

Have I created a monster but giving in and offering her the banana? I don't want her to go hungry and can't afford to have her lose any weight at only 19 pounds. Should I try to start her on formula for the calories and nutrients? She's never been formula fed. Oh, and the milk is 2%- she can't tolerate whole cow's milk (gets runny bm)- she had a milk protein allergy until 12-13 months, only recently can she tolerate yogurt and cheese.

For the record, I used to be a picky eater until I was about 13 years old. I remember, like it was yesterday, going for what seemed like months eating nothing but pasta with sour cream for practically every meal (yeah, I know, what a gross combination).

[dkjokisch]

First of all, 19lbs at 14mos isn't anything to worry about unless she is dropping weight.  So long as she has been more or less consistent on the growth charts, I wouldn't get concerned.  Dd was 16lbs at 1yr, and didn't hit 20lbs until 20mos, and now at 2yrs is only 22lbs, but she stayed more or less steady at the 5th %ile, so that's just her.

IMO, kids learn very quickly that mom is willing to make 4 different things to make them happy, and they use that to their advantage.  14mos is kind of tough as they can't express a preference for something before you prepare it, but I would scale back and start offering a meal with one or two alternatives (as in a different kind of fruit, not a whole different meal).  They will eat when hungry. 

Starting at about 14mos, I would prepare kid-friendly stuff dd liked for breakfast and lunch, and then serve her what dh and I had for dinner.  Dinner always included something she had had and eaten before (even if she chose not to eat it that night).  She was never much for bedtime milk, so we would offer a bedtime yogurt snack, but beyond that, we did not offer alternatives at dinner.  Sometimes she didn't eat, but I usually found she made up for it at breakfast the next morning.

Personally, I wouldn't introduce formula at this point, particularly if she's had some milk sensitivities.  You can ask your doctor whether vitamin supplements would be appropriate in her case.  Meanwhile, keep offering a well-balanced diet, and sooner or later, she'll eat it. You might also try some fun new stuff, star-shaped or string cheese, graham crackers with cream cheese and a dollop of jelly, sandwiches cut out with a cookie cutter, etc.  As far as fruits and veggies go, we had to offer many 20-30 times before she ate them.  We'd put it on her plate with no pressure to eat it, and then eat the same things ourselves for dinner.  A few months ago she wouldn't touch broccoli, but now she begs for it for a snack, raw from the fridge.

[MDHmommy]

Marian, possible that DD is getting some molars and that the banannas and cereal are the only things that don't hurt to eat? have you tried some other foods with same consistency?
Marshall did a similar thing where he would only eat bananna and cheese.
Maybe try her on some soft fruit? You could microwave some apples to soften?
Good luck. This too shall pass...

[First Time Mom]

I thought perhaps it was teeth as well but I offered a variety of mushy foods at last night's dinner and she refused. Again,the only thing she'd eat was banana. I'm now thinking it is just a fussy thing and that she's taking after me.

dkjokisch, I'm going to try your advice to make the foods look fun and I'm also going to stand firm about not making 5 alternatives! I made the alternatives last night and the kitchen looked like a tornado hit it! You're right, she knows what she's doing! I vividly remember when I was a child my mom would make me a separate dinner from the rest of the family, if I wasn't hungry I would ask for something else as I knew my mom would go back into the kitchen and make it- it would give me 20+ extra minutes of playtime waiting for the food and also extra time to think of an excuse not to eat it! I refuse to make food and food refusal an issue in this house! You're right, she will eat when she's hungry!

[tylersmommy]

For a long time now, we've only given Tyler a couple of choices for what he can eat. Even before he could verbally tell us what he wanted, he could point to one of 2 things I held up. I always made one of the 2 choices something I knew he'd eat so we wouldn't get into a battle. And both choices are ALWAYS healthy ones.

Food jags are incredibly common among toddlers. I've learned not to make a big deal out of it and let him eat what he craves (as long as it's healthy). Soon enough, he'll move on to another food. If your DD is happy eating banana all day long and it isn't causing any issues like constipation, you might just go with it. She'll get over it as long as you keep offering her other choices. You can also do all kinds of stuff with banana to get some variety into her. Some stuff that you and I think is disgusting might interest her...you never know! Dip it in yogurt, melt cheese over it, spread it with some thinned peanut butter, coat it in crushed cheerios, etc.