I suddenly have a picky eater..help!

[Juliegreen]

My dd is nearly 15 months old, and up til now has been a really good eater, we had no problems weaning and she has eaten 90% of the foods we have introduced with no fuss.  Until about 3 weeks ago.  Now, at practically every meal, she will take about 2 spoonfuls of whatever we have made and then start to spit it out and refuse any more of it.  If I give her something different, she will do the same with that.  Sometimes letting her feed herself helps, but not always, sometimes giving her what I have helps, but again, not always.  She now hates things she used to love, and will love something for one meal, and then hate it again.  I end up making at least 2 choices of food for practically every meal and I am wasting huge amounts of food.  I thought at first it might be teething, but she will eat rusks and hard biscuits for snacks with no problem.  I am making sure she doesn't have too many snacks so she is still hungry, and she smacks her lips (her sign for hunger) repeatedly, but then won't eat anything I give her!   Aaaaaagggh! :evil:   

I don't know what to do.....I decided today that I would stop offering her alternatives all the time, and only give her another choice at a meal if she has been given something new she genuinely seems to dislike.  But then I worry that she won't eat at all.... Any advice you can give me would be very gratefully received as I am running out of ideas (and, to be honest, patience  )

[Lana]

I have also been through this stage with my guy and I stressed about it a lot.  That said I eventually got to the point where I would offer what we were having or what I had made for him and if he chose not to eat it then he got down fromt he table and waited for the next meal or snack time.  I also talked to my ped about it and he assured me that a toddler will NOT starve themselves, contrary to what you may think or feel.  That said they will not eat healthy things if you offer less healthy snack choices just to get them to eat so don't fall into that trap either.

HTH

[tylersmommy]

I do something similar to Lana. Tyler gets 2 choices of what he wants to eat. They're always healthy choices, and 1 choice is usually something he likes. If he doesn't want either, he doesn't eat again until the next meal or snack time. If he starts to eat something he's picked (or I've picked, if he didn't choose) and changes his mind or asks for something else, too bad. He caught on fairly quickly. He also changes his likes and dislikes at the drop of a hat...wish I knew how to solve that one, but I think it's pretty typical toddler behavior. Good luck!

[cjwagner77]

Katy has recently starting something similar.  She is 15 months as well.  Previously she ate anything at any time and usually more than my mom would eat.  But she is slowing down.  Breakfast is great.  Lunch is so so and dinner just depends.  I have taken the approach that is given several choices at a meal and I haven't been giving her as much as I had been.  I try to put something that she likes so she will eat at least a little bit.  But if she doesn't want to eat, I don't force it.  As someone else said, they will eat when they are hungry.  Katy does usually have a snack of goldfish or grahm crackers or something.  But otherwise the choices are healthy choices.  And no matter how much she eats, she is still offered dessert when we have it.  We are not makig eating all of her dinner a prerequisite for dessert.  As she gets older, she will have to have several bites of food to call it quits though.

Be very careful about making this a battle.  My husband's neice is a very picky eater and has been most of her life.  They have made mealtime a game in order to get her to eat.  They also have to literally put the food in her mouth.  If they don't, she often won't eat.  I think it has become a power struggle.  (She is almost three.)  They are also having several other power struggles issues (IMHO).  So just remember to pick the battles that you want to fight.  I don't want to fight the ones with food or getting dressed.  As long as she is eating some and is wearing something warm, who cares how much and what it looks like.

[Ellies_mom]

Wheww....after reading all the posts I can start breathing again. My DD is 16 months old and decided she no longer likes anything we offer. She only has 3 teeth but she showed a keen interest in eating our lunch/supper. We would give her pureed food and once she would clap her hands with the all done signal we would give give her some of our food. At first she seemed to enjoy most of what we ate and she tolerated her pureed food less and less. Now, we are lucky enough to get ONE spoonful of pureed food into her yet shes eating less and less of our food. She loves peas, rice and sometimes eats meat. I`ve tried fish (cod and salmon) yuck to both! So I`m going to assume that this is "normal" behaviour and like everything else, this too will pass. One the whole, she eats yogurt, rice, bread, cheese, chicken sometimes, vegies (peas, string beans mainly) and snacks on vegetable crackers. We are soo worried about her small portions, it seems like shes gone from a great eater to barely eating. She would eat 4-5 ice cube size portions of pureed food for lunch and again at supper!! She shakes her head with a firm NO and claps her all done signal after 2 mouthfuls! We give her a small serving of baby cereal about an hour before bedtime, we`ve always done this and thank goodness shes still accepting the cereal.
I will also print the toddler size portions and try to remember that she will not starve...lol.
Good luck to all
Marneta