Hi! My 4 year old won't eat (or try) beef, beans, fish, eggs, tofu dogs/veg burgers, vegetables etc. She likes fruit, chx nuggets, meatballs, pbj and many carbs (bread, bagels, waffles etc) but any creative ideas for protein sources??
Thanks for the tips. We do have Jessica Seinfeld book. She discovered the puree and wouldn't eat the pizza. I will keep trying. She has to eat one bite of what we're eating. I considered going cold turkey on making her something that I know she'll eat which would push her to eat what we do but it seems so traumatizing, so I don't want her to associate mealtime/eating with being forced to eat something she can't stand etc. We'll see how it goes!
Protein pancakes:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup egg whites
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
1 tsp of vanilla extract
pinch or two of cinnamon
make them like normal pancakes and each one has 25 grams of protein
I'm in the same boat as you....my son however won't eat peanut butter or meatballs...but he does eat many of the things people have suggested - yogurt, fruits, cheese, fishsticks, nuggets - one thing not mentioned is Rice pilaf. He won't even have red sauce with his pasta - so we have a rule that he has to have a veggie with his pasta if he doesn't use the "red sauce". He loves dipping carrots into ranch dressing. I haven't tried the whole wheat waffles - will give that a try! We also give him the pediasure drinks - we allow him to have 1 per day because the ARE very expensive....I feel like it's Christmas when I find a coupon for them! I hate how much processed foods he is eating and I wish this were only a phase...he's always been like this and seems to be getting worse (selectively excluding things from his menu choices). Good luck with your 4yr old...I know how hard it is!
Protein shakes with veggies and fruit. Milk, bananas, even protein, powder.
Milk, cheese, yogurt.
We have the same problem and I've found that my son will eat fried rice with egg scrambled into it. I use leftover cooked rice, chopped veggies, a little bit of soy sauce, and an egg or 2 depending on the batch size. If she likes pineapple, that's a nice sweet addition that might encourage her to try... Good luck!
The name of that book C. S referred to is "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. I've heard it referenced to moms by many people before so it must be pretty good.
I agree too that you might want to always require the child to have one small bite of everything else that is on the dinner table. Tell them that if they don't like it then, they may come to love it down the road as tastes change. Also remind them now and again that they need to eat food from the different food groups in order to be healthy. Show them a picture of the food chart.
If she likes chicken nuggets, you might try fish sticks. Call them chicken sticks. My son is off-the-charts picky and when he was younger we could trick him with the chicken sticks name.
I agree with the fruit smoothies idea. You can add yogurt, milk and protein powder to those.
Many whole wheat products are good for protein, too. So, try whole wheat waffles, bagels (we just got some that have 10g protein per bagel!) and bread, if you aren't using those already. Our son often has wheat waffles with peanut butter for breakfast.
Good luck!
preschooler need alot of carbs with all the running around they do, but it sounds like yours is getting plenty of protien (chicken nuggets and peanut butter) milk products also have a lot of protien, does she like yogurt, milk, cheese or even ice cream?
Try checking out the book by Jerry Seinfield's wife, It has some very creative ideas for picky eaters ,but, is very healthy. C. S. (SORRY i CAN'T THINK OF THE NAME OF THE BOOK RIGHT NOW, BUT, IT IS A COOKBOOK ! )
I bought my daughter Sunkist Orange Cream Complete Protein Smoothie. Shaw's sells the 15.2 oz bottles near the vegetables in a cooled section with apple cider and Odwalla juices They are expensive at about $3.50 each but each bottle has 20 grams of protein and tastes delicious.
We also buy Special K Protein Bars, in the pharmacy section of Shaw's near Ensure type drinks, so not with the granola bars and cereals. Our favorite is the Peanut Butter Chocolate one. They each have 10 grams of protein. I eat one of those for breakfast and am satisfied and full until lunch. Again, not cheap, a box of 6 is about $7 I believe. They sell them as singles too if you want to try a flavor without buying a whole box.
Finally, my picky daughter was on PediaSure for years, and we switched to Carnation Instant Breakfast. It is not as complete a meal but it is a lot cheaper. If you do try the PediaSure or Carnation, check with your doctor about vitamins since ours said that if she drank those she did not need daily multivitamins.
Just a final note: my daughter at that age (she is now 10) would eat the same thing for breaksfast, lunch and dinner, for about 2-3 weeks. Imagine having a hotdog for all three meals of the day, then only mac'n'cheese, etc. However, the pediatrician said to let her, these are phases, and she did outgrow them. She now likes almost everything but is very picky about textures, and eats very small amounts frequently. Good luck.
She is getting protein from "chicken nuggets" that is if you make those yourself at home using chicken breast. The peanut butter also has protein. If you don't think she is getting enough, make a shake out of it if you prefer and she is not allergic
My DD won't touch any kind of meat (never has), she does do eggs (though she recently went through a phase of refusing them). I don't push it, especially at this age bc they are so strong willed. Food is one thing they can control and so we will not win this battle if we try to force it.
What I do is make sure the carbs she is eating are whole grain. No white bread, pasta or pancakes. It's whole wheat, and I add other good things. My ww pancakes have pumpkin in them, for ex. Mac and cheese (homemade with whole wheat pasta) has onions and summer or winter squash disguised in there (I do not puree it, just grate or mash). I add chick peas to stuff she is eating, like grilled cheese, pasta or quesadilla. I mash them and spread them under the cheese or just mix in with pasta. I do not let her see me do it! I always make a veg she eats, she eats weird veggies like cauliflower and broccoli. I also offer (with no pressure) new foods all the time. She recently decided to try pickled beets and loves them. Ok. Yes, it would be better if she ate them plain, but it's something. I try to model good eating and we talk a lot about healthy foods. I don't buy crappy food, for the most part (though we do have treats). I also try to make sure breakfast is a really good healthy meal. If we start the day with cereal or some other empty carb, it becomes a day for poorer eating.
I recently talked to a mom that told me she was in this exact position 2 yrs ago, but now that her daughter is 6 she has really expanded her eating. So I am just trying to ride it out without pressure and hope for the best.
i know you said she wont eat eggs, but did you try hard boiled? i cut them with the slicer and make faces and flowers and stuff out of the circles, they eat them up like crazy.
yogurt, sunflower butter (peanut or almond butter) and banana sandwich, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts (if not allergic), supplement powders- hemp protein powder or whey protein powder make a smoothie or sprinkle in yogurt or in pancake batter, muffin mix ect..
Fruit & yogurt smoothies, peanut butter--on bananas, apples, celery, Carnation Instant Breakfast...
You can put veggies in spaghetti sauce...
Jessica Seinfeld's book is called Deceptively Delicious.
I'd be very leery of catering to this pickyness too much. I've never made a separate ,meal for my child. He eats what we eat and he eats EVERYTHING!
