April 19, 2010

Nourishment



Do you have a picky eater? In a way I do.It's a struggle to get Jack to eat much. Let me rephrase. He loves most vegetables, and most fruits, but there are still some he won't even attempt trying. He will not touch meat, no matter how it's cooked, or what meat it is.
My struggle with him is this. He decides he likes something or numerous things, and doesn't want to try anything else. There are even things I know he likes, and yet on many occasions he won't eat them. When he was still on baby food he ate what he could ( He's allergic to dairy) so jarred baby food had many constrictions, and he still never accepted any baby food with meat. Jarred vegetables and fruits? - he ate them all. literally. Now he's 14 months old, definately on table food and won't eat a lot of what he ate in puree form.
It's like as soon as we changed his favorite purees over to table food. Pieces he could hold/chew he was no longer interested. I feel like he's not eating enough, even if toddlers do go through stages. I also feel like he eats so many of the same things, so often because he won't eat much else, and I just want something in his stomach. I'm not completely concerned with his nutritional intake because he's still on formula. Next step soy formula due to his allergy. Soy milk itself provides very little nutritionally for children, so formula it is
Between that, and the fact that 95% of what he does eat are fruits and veggies I'm not worried about his growth ( he's pretty solid ) or vitamin intake. I just do not want him to start to "outgrow" food simply because he had them so often, or to grow up to be a picky eater. I want this under control. Any ideas? any tips or tricks in getting your toddler to eat more? and to eat more of various things
Here's a short list of things he loves
*Broccoli
*Soy yogurt ( it only comes in strawberry and peach- he likes both
*Black olives
*spaghetti
*Fruit! - cantelope,honeydew melon,grapes,peaches,pears,bananas. etc
*Zucchini
*Squash
*chicken noodle soup ( sans chicken) with chopped carrots and celery
A Short list of things he loved,slowly started refusing, and now doesnt eat:
*breads. - waffles,pancakes,toast, bagels.
*French fries
*whole green beans
*dry cereal (hes never had it with soy milk) apple cinnamon cheerios & fruity cheerios
We've started weaning Jack from the bottle during the day - but not during sleeping time. meaning a bottle before his nap, and a bottle before bed. Since Jack doesnt eat impressive amounts of food during the day he wakes a few times in the night for formula. I know if I could get rid of this habit, and have no more bottles IN the night he'd more than likely eat better in the day. I feel so bad when I think of not giving him those bottles though, because I know he must be hungry. ugh vicious cycle.
When did you bottle break your children? Did you break them of their bedtime bottle fairly close to the same time? tell me your strategy! please!
( it is a challenge to nourish a toddler who is picky, at the same time as having dietary restrictions. He cant have everything we have, or it has to be specially prepared. A lot of toddler friendly foods include dairy and I'm running low on ideas of what to make him with dairy supplements, and that he'll eat!)

2 comments:

Nicole said...

Bobby was 2. I starting only giving it to him e at naps and bed times and then one day I just decided I had enough and had him help me throw away the baby bottles and replaced them with big boy cups that he picked. He was also in daycare and not too many children there had bottles so...

kim said...

idk. 14 months is a little young to understand the step of throwing away your own bottles and picking cups. hes already on cups all day, i just havent taken them away at bedtimes. i mean I'm not in a BIG hurry, he's practically Just turned 1 ! I wouldn't even be worried about bedtime bottles if he ate more during the day. I feel I have to take them away so he will fill up on food, not formula at night.