Eating better at the sitters than at home

[cbell]

My DD  (16 months) is kind of a picky eater but recently got 7 teeth in 4 months which I have noticed has increased her willingness to eat real food... however the sitter who has about 5 children, has much better luck getting her to eat her lunch than I do her supper. I recently started providing the trickier meals at lunch when the sitter feeds her and the not-so-good-easy-to-feed ones for home. I admit I have resorted to Zoodles and KRaft dinner for supper but I figure if she is eating well at lunch its better than nothing. I have pretty much figured out that she does well there because its not home and there are other children eating at the same time which helps. So what can I do at home to make eating more appealing? This week has been rough because as soon as we pick her up and get home she starts crying and only seems to want me but when I hold her she is still upset. And trying to feed her in that chaos is also fruitless. She won't even take stuff I know she likes! I suppose it could be yet another tooth but today is Saturday and she is totally herself and she still doesn't want to eat.

Ideas for a picky eater at home?

[linfran]

Peer pressure is a wonderful thing even at that age!  DS is 18mo and is a good eater but eating with other children has taught him a lot.

Do you eat with her or does she eat alone with you guys eating later?  I notice that my son eats better and messes about less when he has his dinner with us.  Plus, we give him toddler versions of wha we have, or something pretty close.  For example, last night dh and I had bacon, mashed potato and cabbage - ds had the potato and cabbage but had fish fingers instead as the bacon would be too much for him.  He is curious about what we eat so we let him try things from our plate to let himtaste new flavours.  He also seems to like the social element of us all at the table talking about stuff, it makes it more of an occasion.  Also, we have taken him from the high chair and now use a booster strapped to an ordinary chair - he uses the table like us and it makes him seem more a part of it.

[cbell]

Yes peer pressure is working positively in this case.  We do try to eat with her as much as possible but its really hard as there isn't much time unfortunately. We don't get home till 5:20,then feed her, bathe her and then into bed by 7pm. So it doesn't give me a lot of time to prepare something for us to eat with her. If I am on the ball and we have leftovers then we can but its not always the case. And it doesn't seem to matter because on the weekends we are better at it but she still doesn't seem to eat as well. And she still doesn't seem to be interested in what we eat either... and maybe that is teeth still.. she is a late bloomer with that. Sigh... if only she was a better eater to begin with...

[linfran]

I guess some kids are just picky but I've never seen any of them starve themselves yet!

[Sleepless in UK]

We're having exactly the same problem with our DS he goes to nursery 2 days a week and eats everything they give him (and even sometimes has second helpings!) because all the children sit around the table together.  We're going to start doing this at home because at the moment he has his dinner and then we eat later once he's in bed which clearly isn't working.  At home he'll have a couple of mouthfuls and then put his arms up to come out of his highchair and if we try and get him to eat more he goes beserk!!  He eats all kinds of different foods at nursery but at home tends to only eat specific things.  I'm trying not to get too worked up about it because i know at least on his nursery days he eats really well.

Also, at home it's as if he just wants to play all the time and can't really be bothered to be interupted with food!!

Typical day at home:

7am wake up - breakfast (weetabix or rice crispies)
8.30am- 8oz milk
11.30am - Toast with cheese, fruit (will only pick at this)
12 - nap
2pm - sandwiches (ham or peanut butter or cheese or tuna) fruit
5.30pm - dinner (meat with veggies and potato)
7pm - bedtime bottle 8oz mil

xxx