My Daughter Is a Picky Eater! Help!

The biggest thing to remember is they won't starve themselves. It takes an average of 16 times introducing something new before children will like it. I don't cook special foods for my kids-they eat what the household eats. I will usually get them to eat just one bite of something-that is all I require, and my boys are now good eaters-people are often amazed at the things they eat-such as fruits and veggies. I let my 4-year-old dip things in ketchup or ranch dressing-he will ask for seconds of salad if I let him have the ranch. They also go through fazes where they eat almost nothing, and others when they eat a lot. I have a 4 and a 6-year-old.

Enjoy the savings! lol

Ok really, just cook for herself and worry more about her weekly intake than her daily. This is totally typical, as you suggested. Keep juice out of your house and be sure she is on fluoride. Most dentists will prescribe this for you. After watching my three year old get his cavities filled I took juice out of our house completely. And milk, and soda, any beverage that is not water. Seeing him strapped into a papoose and tears running down his cheeks was horrible, and I brush his teeth well every night (that's how I found the cavities).

Back to subject, just offer her food off your plate or anything she is interested in. Unless she is losing weight, looking sickly, acting tired or all three, she will be just fine.

Good luck J.! Remember to look at her body, she is a tiny thing, and she is not growing as when she was under one year.

Definitely need to relax... This is VERY typical at this age. My daughter ate nothing but milk, yogurt and edamame until she was 3. Her pediatrician told me (over and over...) not to worry as long as she was growing and healthy. Someday she would just start eating. And she did, at around 4. Now she is a great eater, usually cleans her plate (not a requirement in my house) and tries all sorts of food. After they hit 1, their growth slows down a lot and it is hard as a mom, because we think something is wrong, when really they just don't need nearly as much food as they did that first year. I would try and cut back on the juice. A good way to do this is to water it down in phases until she gets used to it. This way, it's not so much a battle. It is also true that it takes up to 15 times of offering a food before a child will learn to like it. Keep trying, but don't go out of your way to cook her fancy meals. Cook for yourself and share it with her. Before you know it she will just start eating!

One of my friend's had the same problem and her pediatrician said first off not to give her the same thing everyday, to give her a variety and second of all that when you make a meal for her and she refuses it to rap it up or put it aside and try to offer it to her again in 15 or so minutes, if she refuses it again just continue with taking it away and then bringing it back 15 minutes later. She won't starve herself and when she gets hungry enough she'll eat it.

It must be that time of year, a lot of people are having the same question. Just keep offering her the different foods, offer something she likes and then the new foods you want her to try. It really is about repitition(sp), offering the new foods over and over again. Eventually they will eat them, as they get older you can start to serve just the new foods, they will eat, they won't starve themsleves.