Finicky eater

[nursekat]

Hello!  My dd has become quite the solids picky eater lately.  I think there are a lot of issues at play, so I'd like to see what you think.

She used to just not be able to get enough solids.  We would literally shovel it into her mouth as fast as we possibly could and she would eat HEAPS more than her age recommendation.  She was ebf at the time.

I recently weaned her to the bottle and she wasn't as interested in solids, so I figured she prob wasn't getting as much bm as she was formula, plus formula has a bit more of a lasting effect.  No biggie.

However, she is getting pickier and pickier to the point where I am down to only a few foods that she will take.  Finger foods she loves but isn't good enough to take enough to fill her up, plus she has a massive gag reflex so she still is on mostly dissolvable foods. 

I keep trying to give her foods that she refuses, I'm more stubborn than she is, lol!  But...if she gets a bite of something she doesn't like, she stops eating, period.  I can sometimes coax her to try a bite of something she likes and then she's on a roll again.  I feel like she's training ME, lol!  I'm dreading her toddler years already!   

The other issue is that she's recovering from having the rotavirus 1.5 weeks ago...she refused all solids for quite a while when sick, which the doctor said was normal.  She now has gotten in the habit of taking almost all of her bottles at night, since we were feeding her around the clock first trying to keep her hydrated and then trying to get her weight back up.  Now she just wants to eat at night, and she is eating a TON more than usual at night...so I'm thinking part of her solids issue is that she's not as hungry during the day.  I'm waiting until I'm over my cold before spending a night trying to break her night feeds...

Any other thoughts?

[yaya]

Hi there! I think when u start off with solids its exciting for them , then they realise its more of an effort and sometimes become bored!
i can sympathesise as my DS did /does many of the same things.
My suggestion would be to use the foods she likes as the basis and try to be creative into mixing othwe flavours in. DONT force her to eat something she doesnt like, it really won't help at all, and she'll soon realise the attention she gets from you if she makes a fuss and before u kno it it has turned into a game. Keep offering finger foods, u'd be surprised at what they can cope with, eg DS will still gag on some puree foods but can eat a chicken breast cut into strips NO PROBS (bear in min dhe only has 6 teeth at 15 mos!)
Do u have a kiddie cookbook to give you some ideas?
Write down what she likes and try to make a balanced diet for the week based on these foods (met, veg, fuit, diary , carbs etc) it helps to realise that they are getting more nutrients than u think!
Other suggestions, how much milk is she still having? the formula can fill them up, maybe its time to cut a bottle? Does she have snacks? Could they be interfeering with mealtimes?

HTH

[nursekat]

Thanks!  I think it is a combo of a lot of things - she will eat pretty much whatever we put in front of her for finger foods, but she is slow and doesn't take much...I just read the faq on refusing spoon food, so I'm thinking this is part of it.  It gave me some good ideas on what to offer her other than Cheerios, though! 

I think the other big thing is she is getting all her calories right now at night.  She has only had 2oz of formula so far today, and a little bit of solids, maybe 2oz or less.  DH and I are going to stick it out one night and try to get her back to eating during the day.  We had dropped her down to 3 bottles a day before she got sick, but I put the 4th one back in in an effort to get her retanked.  She has gotten in the habit, however, of eating all night - she took 26oz last night and she usually takes 24oz in a 24hr period of time!! 

I am thinking I need to break the night feeds first and then see where that takes us as far as solids.

She is not snacking.  I like your idea of writing everything down.  Right now the only pureed foods she likes are pears and a Gerber combo of banana, oatmeal and peaches.  No veggies, except the occasional bite or two of sweet potato.  No meats, either, although I gave her a little ground beef the other night and she liked it.  She just can't manage more than a couple of scraps of food in a 10min period of time.

Thanks for your help!

[binxyboo]

When Riley got sick wth a cold, it took weeks for his appetitie to pick back up. He's not a "great eater" to begin with. Have you posted in the "Getting back on track" forum? I sure they have lots of posts there that you could read to get ideas.

[nursekat]

Thanks Michelle.  I'm just focusing now on getting her to take her bottles during the day, we'll work on the solids later.    I'll keep offering them and someday she'll eat again.  She was a voracious eater before, but that was when she was ebf...she is now on formula so I think that might be part of it as well...thanks!

[nursekat]

So...we discovered something today - she will not eat in her high chair.  She ate fine today in my lap on the floor - not an easy task with an active, spirited 9 month old!!  Any ideas on how to get her to like her high chair again?  All she eats there are finger foods...

[yaya]

how about on eof those chairs that hooks onto the table? or those plastic seat things, u could have it on the floor?

[nursekat]

She can flip out of the bumbo seat thing now...but I will give that other seat a thought - we were thinking it would be nice to have one of those as we spend a lot of meals out and about sometimes.  We used to use the bumbo seat everywhere but she is out of it in a second now!