My daughter is 3.5 and I am not sure how to classify her eating habits and how I could diversify her diet. In general, she refuses to try anything new and resorts to mushy pureed type foods. There are a handful of things she does eat (any type of cookie/cracker, pancakes, pizza, bread, chicken soup). She used to like Mac & Cheese so we always had something we can rely on when we went out, but now she even started to spit that out. There was also a time where she really liked these children's veal hot dogs, but now she refuses. I used to justify it that she is at least getting vitamins/nutrition with the pureed type foods and that eventually she will come around ( I was a picky eater myself).
But as my 1 year old eats just about anything I give her off the table, I am beginning to get more frustrated about the situation and feel I need to do something else to get her to more age appropriate eating habits. Her teeth came in very late, so we didn't start offering her table foods until later, so I wonder if that has had an impact on her willingness to try things.
Thank you to all of your responses. All of them were helpful. It was reassuring to know that there were others with similar challenges. Since she has down syndrome, she has been tracked by speech therapists since birth. Although they have tried to promote her eating skills, none of them were really quite concerned. Her weight and growth have been good so the pediatrician wasn't concerned either. She has also been very healthy.
There were a number of things that happened incidently that have helped us really advance in this area.
1. We went on vacation. I am not sure if it was the change in scenery or active schedule that may have made her more hungry than usual; but she was more open to try new things. She started to each fries, chicken nuggets, and muffins.
2. Along with the fries, my husband introduced her to ketchup. She loved the concept of dipping the fries in the ketchup. This opened up the door for just about anything. She will now eat a regular dinner as long as it has ketchup and meat. It doesn't have to have much ketchup....I just lightly touch it so their is a slight hint. I am able to mix in a vegetable on her fork and she is eating nutritious and solid meals. We have been eating like that for a couple weeks now. There are still some combinations she does not like (ie I tried to mix in some vegetables in her mac & cheese - which she started to eat again - but she refused that combo)...but I feel we have made significant strides.
As long as she is healthy and her doc isn't worry then I wouldn't worry either. My son is her age and a SUPER picky eater. I give him a multi-vitamin to cover all basis. I offer up yummy, healthy foods all the time and he refuses, I feel one of these days he will come around and this is just a phase.
Good luck!
Honestly, if a preschooler is still eating pureed foods, I would take her to the doctor to evaluate if there's anything medically that's keeping her from processing normal table food.
I know it's hard to not act concerned when you don't think she's getting what she needs but you also can't force her to eat. Remember that she does not need a huge variety within each food group. I know it makes moms crazy when their kid eats the same thing over and over, but if you find one healthy breakfast she likes, one healthy lunch, a good source of protein for dinner, one fruit, one green veggie, one non-green veggie, you should be good. My strategy for picky eaters is to set out a variety of foods at mealtimes and let them serve themselves. Don't suggest she try something or beg her to take one little taste. Just let her have what she wants, often kids will balance out their own nutrition this way. Sometimes when the kids were little, dinner might include some type of chicken dish, rice or noodles, bread with butter, cheese cubes, melon, a cooked veggie and a raw veggie. Even if someone didn't like the chicken, they still made a meal of bread and butter, cheese cubes and melon, maybe even a few cucumber slices too.
I wouldn't tolerate a 3 1/2 year old spitting out food, she isn't a toddler and it's not acceptable.
Good luck
My daughter turned 3 in February and is similar. I agree with the other postings...if her pediatrician doesn't seem worried then I wouldn't be either. This may be a subject to bring up to her pediatrician the next time you see him/her. Good luck!
You might want to try food chaining from the foods she will eat. There is a book on the topic "Food Chaining" by a local doc, Dr. Mark Fishbein. Also look up "sos feeding therapy" on the internet for some techniques to introduce new foods. For instance, one trick we found really helpful is the "all done" cup. My son would go into full panic when a new food was introduced. So we would put a cup on his tray and just let him put the food in the cup without eating it. If he handled that ok we would ask him to smell the food before putting it in the cup and saying "all done". Then you move to kissing, licking, eating - as the child will allow. Some how the all done cup diffused much of that anxiety. Also you only want to put a very small amount of food on the plate. Food burnout is not unusual for kids with a very limited repetoir (sp?)
normal normal normal behavior... when I was younger I wouldn't eat anything round or crunchy....can't even tell you why... My daughter would not eat anything green, and she smashed all her food before eating it. Whatever it was, I had far more important battles at the time... as long as your child is healthy, let them eat whatever, just don't be the mom who makes seperate meals for every occasion though, it is a habit that does not go away, and will eventually cause more problems then it helps. Good luck
the reason is most likely that you delayed table foods, studies have shown this to be a direct correlation. But that doesn't matter, what matters is how to fix the problem. So, here is my picky eater plan to take care of that.
There is a great book by William G Wilkoff, MD called Coping with a Picky Eater that every parent or provider of kids should read and have a copy of. http://www.amazon.com/Coping-Picky-Eater-Perplexed-Parent...
This book has what I call the Picky Eater Plan. I have used this plan with kids that literally threw up at the sight of food and within 2 weeks they were eating normal amounts of everything and trying every food.
First you need to get everyone who deals with the child on board. If you are a provider it's ok to make this the rule at your house and not have the parents follow through but you wont' see as good results as what I described up above.
The plan is to limit the quantities of food you give the kid. When I first start with a child I give them literally ONE bite worth of each food I am serving. The book suggests that every time you feed the kids (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) you give all 4 food groups. So, for lunch today I would have given the child one tiny piece of strawberry, one spoonful of applesauce, 3 macaroni noodles with cheese on them, and 2 oz of milk. Only after they ate ALL of what was on their plate would you give them anything else. They can have the same amounts for seconds. If they only want more mac and cheese, they only get 3 noodles then they would have to have more of all the other foods in order to get more than that. If they don't eat, fine. If they don't finish, fine. Don't make a big deal out of it, just make them stay at the table until everyone else is done eating. They don't get more food until they are sat at the next meal and they only get what you serve. When I first do this with a child I don't serve sweets at all. So no animal crackers for snack but rather a carrot for snack. Or one of each of those. I don't make it easy for them to gorge on bad foods in other words. Now if they had a meal where they ate great then I might make the snack be a yummy one cause I know they filled up on good foods.
Even at snacks you have to limit quantities of the good stuff or else they will hold out for snack and just eat those snacky foods. I never give a picky eater the reward of a yummy snack unless they had that great lunch prior to it.
It really is that easy.
Some eating habits can be linked to problems with speech - tongue issues. So if you see that occurring it might be time to have her evaluated by your local school district. This is free. If you call your local school district they will evaluate her and see if speech therapy is in order. They can help you do some kind of therapy with her to develop the tongue better - linking to liking solid foods more. They will assign a therapist and that is free too.
If you don't think it could be linked to that and it is just a phase. I do pulse a lot of vegetables and cook things down to put in pancakes and breads. Start with carrot cake (no chunky carrots) made with applesauce, do pancake style things like veggie latkes. Who doesn't like latkes. There are some really good sweet potato/carrot/zuchini recipes out there for those.
Be a little creative with the pizza by adding a pureed veggie to the sauce. cooked pureed spinach, broc, peas etc. Some of the sweeter vegetables you have to be careful with because you might not enjoy the sweetness of say butternut squash on the pizza.
Finally there is a food spot called the THE KIDS TABLE
http://www.kids-table.com/ourstory.php
They have classes and most of the time I have discovered that once a child makes something with bunch of other kids and sees everybody loving it - they will eat it over and over and over again.
Good luck.
How is her speech? The muslces they use to chew and push real bites from the front of the mouth to the back are necessary for good articulation. I would suggest thatyou call a Speech-Language pathologist who does oral motor evaluations for a consultation on feeding issues. If it is texture, you should be on the look out for possible sensory defensiveness. I would disagree that this is typical, it may not be all that uncommon, but not progressing to more and more textures and tastes and eating pureed food at age 3.5 is not a typical developmental path. It may be one that is quite simple to solve with therapy if she has more of an issue than just being over the top stubborn.
Hope that helps you, I would find out for certain if you have an issue that could be helped.
M.
I agree with Diana S. If the pediatrician doesn't seem to think this is a problem, then I wouldn't make the dinner table a battlefield or you could prolong this phase. My sister refused to eat anything other than Cheerios as a child and the doctor told my Mom that as long as she kept offering healthy foods and praising her for trying new things, to not worry. Kids tend to regulate themselves. Good luck! PS- Eventually she did outgrow her Cheerios phase :)
What does your pediatrician say about it? Each child is different so you can't compare her to your 1 year old. Kids often go through periods where they refuse a food they have been eating forever. You can't get frustrated. Our pediatrician told us to continue to offer our children well rounded, healthy meals and snacks. Eventually they started eating again. If this has been going on for a long time you need to consult your pediatrician. If there is a medical issue it could be anything from a dental problem to texture issues.
I agree with Martha R. about having an evaluation by a speech-language pathologist or a occupational therapist - whoever your daughter's pediatrician is able to refer you to that specializes in oral motor/feeding issues. In our case, my son (who only ate soft foods) was evaluated by a speech-language pathologist (as it was thought to be a swallowing issue) but eventually received services from an occupational therapist with experience with feeding/sensory issues. He still receives OT services but has made such progress we can't believe it sometimes. I totally know where you are coming from - mac and cheese was what we relied on for so long in restaurants. Now he'll eat cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, quesadillas, steak and some types of pizza. He has also added many fruits and a couple vegetables to his repertoire and we continue to work with him with the OT's help to expand on his food choices. I can also relate to the situation with your 1 year old as my son also has a younger sibling who eats just about anything - you don't want to compare but you can't help but be frustrated. Best of luck and please feel free to e-mail me privately if you want to talk further.
As long as she's not underweight and doesn't get sick too often than she probably is fine. You can give her a children's vitamin just to be sure. Make sure she gets enough calcium. Certain orange juice has calcium added to it. The more you try to control or push the food, the pickier she'll be. Be careful not to make a control struggle. Praise her if she ever tries anything new even if she ends up not liking it.
