What did your PICKY toddler eat today?

[Meg's Mom]

sabrina - welcome and congrats...i missed something the past 26 weeks :-)!

marisa - veggie chips ?? what are they, you have more goodies to share!

Mydreamcametrue  - thanks, probably have one at Children's Hosp, Orange CA.  I'll check into.
I was pulling my hair out in May 06...w/ 6mnts of ear infections and colds, i took Megan off all milk / soy for 2 weeks and had great success (also not an ear infection since and never looked back).  Now at 2 she is back on all milk products except for milk.  But you need to give yourself a break, they will eat what they can/are ready for.  The best we can do is provide the opportunity to eat healthy and it is up to them to do the rest!

[Mom to M&M]

Veggie chips rock (although not as much as veggie booty). They are real veggies - but in chip form - not sure if baked or fried, would assume baked - come in a plastic tin with taro, green beans, carrots, sweet potatos and squash - look like what they are but dry and little salt. Marisa really likes the carrots and green beans - sometimes will eat a little of the squash and sweet potato chips. I used to buy them at Whole Foods but they've been out lately so just ordered some from nutsonline.com.

Marisa is teething badly. She had today:

- Breakfast:  oatmeal/fruit puree mix, milk, few bites toasted buttered whole grain English muffin
- Lunch: 4 tiny bites grilled cheese (with veg puree spread inside), veggie booty, half jar Mac n Cheese, milk. Refused steamed peas/carrots
- Afternoon snack: Just Strawberries, few bites graham cracker, milk
- Dinner: 1 Perdue chicken nugget, veggie chips, jar veggies/chicken. Refused turkey meatball
- Bedtime: Milk

Milk total for day: 12 ounces. 6 ounces diluted apple juice

[JennŠ]

http://www.recipezaar.com/151000  Surfing tonight and found this.  Sounded like something our lot would like.

[Mydreamcametrue]

Zach ate pretty good today:  YEAH!!

Wake:  8 oz. milk with a multivitamin mixed in
Breakfast:  Watermelon, 1 whole Nutragrain breakfast bar
Snack: Puffs and juice
Lunch:  3 bites of salmon cake, watermelon, 1 square of cheese, a few raisins
Wake from Nap: 4 oz. milk
Snack: Freeze dried apples (almost 1/2  a bag) and some raisens, juice
Dinner: Refused taco puree (pinto beans, sour cream, cheese, meat in blender) tasted good to me.  Ate: 3 squares of cheese, crackers, watermelon and freeze dried apples.

Had diaherra twice today and freeze dried apples came out whole.  I think for sure now, he CANNOT tolerate apples.  He does not even digest them and has had diaherra from them.  Could just be a super good laxactive for him.

I was going to take lo off all diary to see if it helped with some of problems, but I am so scaired to at this point because he already is not getting enough calories. 

* I got a lot of information from a friend of mine that went to Children's Hospital feeding Clinic.  She gave me a list of CALORIE BOOSTING ideas.  I am going to scan them into my computer and then just cut and paste (or attach) the info. I will do it tom, gotta go to bed now.

* I think it will be useful, espcially if your lo's do not get a lot of calories and/ or if they have problems with textures.

Wendy

[Mom to M&M]

Sounds like Zach did well! Thanks for the recipe Jenn - will definitely try that soon since all Marisa usually eats for dinner is chicken nuggets. I did get her to eat a little bit of meatball from a pizza place last night though!

[JennŠ]

Not a good eating day.  She was up for a bit during the night, so slept late-9:40.!!  So, yogurt/weetabix for breakfast and her milk.  Lunch was a few puffs, a few veggie booty and a bit of cheese.  Oh, and V-8 fusion juice.  Fruits and veggies!  Supper we went out.  Mac and cheese and mashed potatoes.  And oj.  Great with the juice, not tons of food.  She also has a cold and probably teething too.  Milk, puffs and one raisin at bedtime.

[JennŠ]

My latest creation: Chocolate Malt o Meal with a spoonful of soybutter stirred in.  Smells like a Reece's peanut butter cup.  Must be pretty tasty, as she inhaled 2/3 of an adult serving.

[Lilah'sMommy]

Lately I've been relaxing a bit more and letting Lilah eat pretty much all day long, instead of adhering so strongly to the idea of "meals".  If she eats at a meal, great, but if not, at least she's been eating nutritious snacks throughout the day.  I start off with a fairly substantial breakfast, as she usually eats quite well then (usually an egg and toast with fruit or juice, or a bowl of oatmeal with lots of raisins and whole milk, with some juice on the side), but after that, I just make "mini meals".  Here is a sample from a couple days ago:

Breakfast:  oatmeal with raisins and milk, calcium-fortified tangerine juice
Mini-meal 1: (in her stroller while we went for a walk): 1 oz string cheese, ~4 whole-grain crackers, two carrot sticks, 2-3 Tbspn raisins (she ate all of that! I couldn't believe it!)
Mini-meal 2: (at lunch time) 3 more whole grain crackers with lots of cream cheese, one deviled egg half.  offered some more carrot sticks, but they were refused.
Mini-meal 3: (after nap) a peanut-butter granola ball, about 8-10 steamed green beans, 1/4 of an apple, 4-6 oz milk with a wee bit of chocolate syrup
Dinner (went out): mac and cheese, pickles from the table (we went to a deli; and she's a pickle fanatic), some bread, a cookie
Before bed: ~4 oz milk

I'm finding she's much more receptive to veggies at snack time than she is at meal times.  And I'm also finding, ironically, that we're having lots fewer dinner-time scenes, when she just flings er food about and demands to be let down from the table, and a lot more actual eating instead, when I allow her to just eat all day.  Who would have thought?  Maybe it's because I'm less anxious about her not eating, she senses that, and therefore it's not as fun to push my buttons by refusing to eat?

[binxyboo]

Funny you should post that, Lilah's Mom, as I have just started doing that with Riley and it is going well. Although now he has two molars coming in at once and is refusing evrything, but is drinking okay, so I'm not too worried.

[kirsty_167]

Well Im here to announce we have had some major breakthroughs with Jakobs eating this week and im thrilled!!!

While he is still very picky over what he will eat he has branched out and eaten meat!!! Wow    Im so proud of my wee boy this week for finally giving meat a go. In the last week he has devoured ham,seafood quiche,meatloaf and chicken (off daddys plate).This is a major breakthrough and accomplishment for Jakob! He has had 2 marshmallows after dinner every night as a reward (he loves these you see)

What a good boy!!!!

Just wanted to share some positives as it has been a hard time of late.
Thanks for letting me share

Kirstyxx

[JennŠ]

Yay Jakob!!!!!!  And then there's me.  I'm happy that she tried Doritos today.  And liked them.  I'm cool with this as it was after she ate almost all of her toast, and all but one bite of her banana.  And she did try something new.  The fact that it is total junk is slightly irrelevent tonight.   

[Mydreamcametrue]

Thats great about the meat.  Zach really does not like meat, I think it is the texture:

Here are a few things that I have learned from the Feeding Clinic so far:  I still have not been, but my friend that went gave me a lot of information and stuff they told her.

1.) If your toddler has a problem with texture and seems to still like purees, but not baby food:
- You can buy this stuff called THICK IT.  Here in the US (Wal-Mart) (Wal-greens) pharamacy can order it for you.  It is actually what they use in nursing homes a lot. 
- Since a lot of the baby foods are just to blan tasting.  One tip they gave:
* Take a fruit cup, put the juice and fruit in the blender and add 2 tablespoons of thick it.  It tastes really really good ( a much better taste than baby food). 

* I did this tonight with cooked peas and carrots in real butter (for the extra calories) (he would never eat them other wise).

- If you need to boost calories for your lo because they are on the small side or not getting enough, I have a lot of calorie boosting ideas.

Just an example:

- They suggest taking 2 pancakes, maple syrup, butter and a fruit with some water and 2 tablespoons of thick it and blend it up in the blender.
- Or just make sure to put butter on toast, syrup on pancakes anything at all with extra calories (the stuff that we normally would stay away from)

They are big on the command "TAKE BITE" and to give A LOT of praise!  And I was really shocked, but if your lo is having a hard time eating, they actually suggest the following:

- Let them eat in front of the T.V:  You say "Take bite, you can watch T.V", they take a bit and get 10 seconds of T.V. then you have to turn the T.V off, "Take Bite, T.V, etc. 
I personally don't like that one, Zach does better with no T.V, but my friends child HATED his high chair and that was the only way they could get him to ever eat.

Anyhow if you want some tips, I got the information my friend gave me.

We go to the feeding clinic in November, but may  not have to go after all.  Zach is doing so much better! 

Wendy

[JennŠ]

OOO!!!!!!  More please!!

[binxyboo]

I am glad that things are getting better for Zach , Wendy. What exactly is in Thick-it? It sounds as though the feeding clinic is very behaviorist in approach, with using reinforcers etc. I feel a bit dubious about the advice about those calorie fillers such as syrup etc. It sounds as though it's all about getting the calories in regardless of the foodsource eg you could eat a healthy banana, or get the same calorie fill by eating a chocolate cookie. I don't know, I just didn't get a good vibe about that part of the advice. Just my opinion though.

[JennŠ]

Thick it is a powdered food thickener.  Basically modified corn starch and maltodextrin.  It is used to thicken liquids and liquidy foods to a consistancy that is easier to handle.  You can thicken stuff to various consistancies like nectar, honey, and pudding thick.     So in this case, you are pureeing regular food, then thickening it some.  Gets lo used to the taste of regular food, with a consistancy he is used to eating.