I have a two year old daughter who is a very picky eater we have been told by her doctor that she needs to gain more weight as it could be bad for her to lose anymore weight since she does not weigh that much anyway. Is there anyone out there who knows of a website with recipes for this sort of thing or know of past experience that could help in anyway?
Thanks again
I had a picky son and he is only now getting better (14 yrs old!). He would get less picky and more hungry if I gave him a vitamin everyday and I have met others who reported the same. Good Luck!
Shakes? When I was in High School I was told to make shakes. You can make them like smoothies. Add bananas or strawberries or both. Years ago we added raw egg but do not recommend that now. If she eats speghetti puree veggies in the sauce and in any hamburger dishes you make. Fruit in yogurt. Add Fruit on ice cream. My granddaughter was a picky eater when she was 5 just not exposed to a lot and now eats most everything and even tried raw oysters. They will eat when they are ready just keep trying. Best to you God's Grace G. W
Hi C. -
In my experience, I have found that food is often treated like entertainment. Try make sure that you only feed your daughter at meal time, even if you need to have four meals a day so that they are not so spread out and focus on only nutrient dense food. At two, she doesn't even need to know that things like goldfish and chicken fingers exist. Try blending fruit smoothies with milk and, if she is able to eat peanut butter, an organic peanut butter. Make sure she is not filling up on white flour products. Find out what they feed her at day care, too.
Don't make a big deal about what you offer her and don't make a big deal about her reaction. Just give it to her - others may disagree, but I feel that if a child gets hungry enough, they won't be as picky. There will still be foods she hates and foods she loves, but use her bodies natural hunger to help her find more foods she'll eat. I hope this doesn't sound too much like a lecture - I threw a little parenting in because it worked well with my kids. The one comment other moms made consistently was "your kids will eat anything!" Really, they won't, but they do have a wide range of foods they may not love, but they'll eat.
I had the same problem with my son. I didn't change the food I served but I did add pediasure (got the wal-mart brand equivalent) to his diet. he thought it tasted like chocolate milk in his sippy cup. In a day or two his appetite improved and he ate more. however, because he was underweight, I continued to give him the pediasure drinks (served cold). He had 3 a day.
If you are worried about weight, just make sure she gets some higher calorie food that she likes. Milkshakes and ice cream are high calorie, and you get the benefits of calcium. My daughter was only 4lbs at birth and has always been petite (so am I)... she recently had a growth spurt (she's in 3rd grade) and is finally not the smallest kid in her grade. She is skinny, but proportionate-- certainly not a rail. I knew that it was important to feed her what she liked (within reason, of course) and give her choices b/c her not eating on any day was just not an option. So, just more of what she does like!!
I have a soon to be 4 year old who is the same way. He looked malnurished. Will they eat any flavor of jello pudding? If they will buy the same flavor in pudding mix and buy pediasure in same flavor if you can. Use the pediasure instead of mild to make the pudding and let them have at it. I do fix a very small portion of good food and set the pudding where it can be seen and tell him to eat that little bit and he can have it. I let him have the pudding anytime he asks even if it is at bed time. Increases their vitamin intake and calcium plus extra calories.
I have just overcome (fingers crossed) this same problem with my 18 mos daughter. She is my second - my first eats more than me - LOL. I strongly disagree with giving her icecream and other unhealthy food to gain weight, because she can still have nutrient deficiencies. What has worked for us: eating whole milk yogurt, at least twice/ day, lots of fruits/veggies (espeically bananas and avocados), whole wheat pasta with sauce on it. Basically you should look into what healthy foods she does like and keep feeding them to her. The rest of the family models good eating habits for her and she is slowly coming around to try new things. Most people don't know if they like something until they have tried it 7 times, so I never force anything, but she will often try off of my plate. I also try foods with her that kids wouldn't normally like and sometimes she does like it (i.e. spinach). Whole Foods sells all sorts of vitamins from powdered to liquid that you can mix into the food or "candy" vitamins that you can supplement until you feel confident she is getting what she needs from food. Taking her to the farmer's market, food festivals, and then cooking the stuff with her has definitely been fun for all of us and she is more willing to try the food when she has a stake in it. Good Luck!!
Sometimes they go through stages, but does she eat snacks like cookies and then isn't hungry at meal time, or does she just not eat much at all? If the only snack is little & something real healthy for her, and more than a couple hours before a meal, maybe she will be hungry. There is a cook book out there for children that gets veggies in (hidden) for instance you steam carrots and cauliflower, then puree them, and put them in macaroni and cheese, and they can't tell. I tried it and the girls just thought it a different kind of cheese, as it was a little different color. Of course you can't over load it. But I thought it really tasted good, & I wasn't able to detect the flavor of the veggetables. And you can put pureed beats in chocolate cake. I had a son that just like two or three items, thankfully one was cottage cheese when he was little, and for months that is all he wanted to eat, but he gained and was healthy, so if you can find something she likes, and she will eat it that is healthy, she may just be going through a stage and will try more things later.
You might check out a book called The Sneaky Chef. It helps you incorperate healthy foods into foods that toddlers will eat. Good Luck.
Try doing fun things with the food so she is not focused on what it is she is eating. They have kid cookbooks and tons of websites. I agree if a kid gets hungry enough they will eat.
Dear C. G,
I have a 5yr old with Autism who has an extremely limited diet to his pickiness. So, I give him a Caration instant breakfast (sugar-free) every morning b/f school so that he gets all his meds and vitamins in him for the day. I have used soy milk, goats milk and even organic milk. Even with his serious oral/tactile issues, he loves this milkshake and has to have it every morning. This should add about 180 calories for the day.
Hope this helps,
P.
Is she also constipated, or are her poops hard?
Hi C., I have a 19 month old daughter that is the same way. She only weighed 19 pounds at her 18 month check up. She has a nutritionist through ECI (Early Childhood Intervention). My doctor referred me. They have me giving her Pediasure mixed with whole milk. I also rotate it with carnation instant breakfast. This has really helped, but I am trying to make her eat more food. The nutritionist said to feed her things you are not told to feed your kids normally.........high fat and high calorie foods. I am told to dip her foods in pudding and feed her chips and everything else I was hesitant about. One thing that my daughter loves is loaded mashed potatoes. You just have to find what works for her. I feed her many times a day, small amounts at a time because she is a grazer. She won't eat a lot at one sitting.
