Picky Eater woes

[joyinthejourney]

My son has always been a picky eater. I just continue to offer new foods, but ultimately give him the healthy choices he will eat. He's been dropping foods the past couple of years, and it just seems to be getting worse. He's almost 5, and will only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Just this week, he decided he doesn't like milk. He's always liked milk. I buy fruit only jam, natural pb, and whole grain bread. He's growing normally, but is hungry more often lately. Like 5 or 6 sandwiches in a day, sometimes!

I'm more worried than I've been in the past. The fruit jelly, even though it's not sweetened with cane sugar, but only fruit juices, is still bad for his teeth, to be eating so much. We've started rotating the same meals every week (spaghetti Mondays, taco Tuesdays, etc.) to see if he'll get familiar enough with seeing them to try them. To me, his teeth look yellowish, and his gums were bleeding today.

He will eat nuggets and fish sticks, but I've stopped buying them. I'm hoping by lessening his variety, he'll get tired of pbj and try real food.

Foods he's dropped over the years include: real chicken (not nuggets), pork chops, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, baked beans, noodles, sandwich meat.

I give him the healthy foods he likes. But, he's down to only liking the sweet things, like cereal and yogurt.

When does this change? It seems to be getting worse, instead of better! I find myself feeling so guilty. But, really, I've been a pretty whole foods kind of mom from day one, so much so that I probably get on the grandparents nerves. In other words, have been doing things "by the book". (I read, "My Child Won't Eat!" when he was really young.)

Once or twice, we tried the "eat what we give you, or not at all". Both times, he chose not to eat what we offered, and both times, he threw up from low blood sugar, which frightened me so much, I won't do it again!

[Domina]

No advice, really, just :hug2. We're just starting solids and are not near the picky kid phase.

Just out of curiosity, have you had his blood sugar tested? The craving for sweets only could indicate some sort of problem that he's trying to self-medicate. I say that because I have PCOS and, though not diabetic, have some diabetic-like tendencies.

[joyinthejourney]

No advice, really, just :hug2. We're just starting solids and are not near the picky kid phase.

Just out of curiosity, have you had his blood sugar tested? The craving for sweets only could indicate some sort of problem that he's trying to self-medicate. I say that because I have PCOS and, though not diabetic, have some diabetic-like tendencies.

I have not, but thank you. Gives me something to mention to the pediatrician. She's been reassuring me it's normal all along, but I'm about to mention it to her again, bc this just seems odd to me that he's dropping foods instead of adding them.

[NewMommy]

Try mixing it up. You mentioned broccoli. My little one doesn't particularly like broccoli by itself. But she loves it when I mix broccoli with macaroni and cheese.

[Elyse221]

He will eat nuggets and fish sticks, but I've stopped buying them. I'm hoping by lessening his variety, he'll get tired of pbj and try real food.


I give him the healthy foods he likes. But, he's down to only liking the sweet things, like cereal and yogurt.

Could you make your own nuggets and fish sticks? Maybe dip pieces of chicken breast or fish fillets in egg and then whole grain bread crumbs/flour and then cook them in a little olive oil in a skillet.

Maybe mix fresh pureed fruit into plain yogurt and sweeten it that way?

[SuperDudesMama]

When does this change? It seems to be getting worse, instead of better! I find myself feeling so guilty. But, really, I've been a pretty whole foods kind of mom from day one, so much so that I probably get on the grandparents nerves. In other words, have been doing things "by the book". (I read, "My Child Won't Eat!" when he was really young.)



I totally get this. :hugheart We are in this stage too and I agree that there can be so much mama guilt associated with food issues. Like you, I have always been on the whole foods side of the spectrum (made all of my own organic baby food, bread, etc.) and said I would never be that mom whose kid will only eat chicken nuggets. Haha!!! :giggle

A couple things that have helped us a bit have been discovering a milk sensitivity (I think with a tummy that is feeling better, trying new things doesn't seem so overwhelming!) and asking now that he just taste the foods on his plate with his tongue. After the initial taste, if he doesn't like it, he doesn't have to try any more of that food at the time, if he does like the taste, he takes a tiny mouse bite, etc. He's starting to find new foods he likes through this method.

:hugs I totally understand your frustration though!!! DS ped was encouraging, saying that you can lead a horse to water, but can't make it drink, and that my only job is to provide good healthy foods and DS job is to eat them, if he so chooses. I know that in twelve years or so, he will probably be eating so much that I won't be able to keep our cupboards full, if I can just get him to survive on so little until that time (kidding, kind of :smile).

:popcorn Subbing for more advice, too!

[mamacat]

Here are some things that helped with my son.We started where we were. You might tell him that PB&J sandwiches are not enough for his body to grow and be healthy so if he wants to keep eating them he will ALSO need to eat some other foods with them and then offer him 2 choices like carrot sticks or frozen peas(just said that because my kids liked when they were young.Then get some neutral (not virgin) coconut oil and mix some in with his PB maybe a tsp or so before making each sandwich or if he is eating something with butter drizzle on and then let butter melt on there too.It helps to keep blood sugars stable and is very healthy. For some reason when started doing this with my son he stopped food craving issues.Does he have ketchup with chicken nuggets? I started adding fresh lemon juice to ketchup(also got the healthiest no HFCS kind) and you can even add to his jam and stir very well to get Vit C into my son which is needed if he has bleeding gums etc.I would also get some barley grass powder because it is neutral in flavor and can slip some in with PB - even if just tiny bits.I think this has also helped my son drop food cravings and he is healthier. Again if he will eat the nuggets and fish sticks I would let him have them but do some of these things to get nutrients in his body that he is lacking and then add healthy foods to it and tell him (again) that if he wants to eat those foods he will have to have some other foods along with.Mine didnt like it but he would eat apple slices,carrot sticks etc. because he knew it was the deal to get the other stuff.Just getting those nutrients into him - vit C,coconut oil and barley grass helped so much and he was even better about rying other foods.He can go down a list of foods to have with the PB&Js and choose the ones he wants.Also try in diff ways.One of my kids likes only raw carrots,one only steamed.My kids wouldnt eat a whole apple but would eat apple sauce (one of them) or apples cut into thin wedges.

[joyinthejourney]

My son will not taste new foods, period. Doesn't matter what we put it in or with, he will not taste it. If, once in a blue moon, he does taste something, he immediatly says yuck. No dips, cheese, macaroni, etc. will entice him.

If I take him off milk, I feel like I'm giving him even fewer nutrients. How long off milk might he taste something? It frightens me to think he might starve while we wait.

I'm calling the pediatrician today. I'm at my wits end. It's so discouraging.

[Rea T]

:hugheart I've been there and it is frustrating. Add in the extra dose of guilt many of us feel because conventional wisdom says that if our kids are picky eaters than surely we MUST be doing something wrong.

All I can say is 'know your child'. There was a time when we just didn't push Gates to try new things because it was an outright battle and fighting it didn't seem beneficial to any of us. Over the past year or so he has slowly picked up more foods again, but has been resistant to others. Because he is 9 we decided it was time to be more firm about trying new things.

He still had a screaming fit over a half-inch cube of watermelon last night. So I got him to drink some of the juice from cutting it up. He didn't like it, but he got it down.

It truly is a journey of baby steps, trying one thing and then another. And it can be discouraging. There are glimmers of light though. The child that screamed about melon loves feta cheese and spicy taco meat. :shrug So I figure more tastes will come in time.

[joyinthejourney]

Dr says it may be sensory related. Which sounds plausible, since he's the type to notice if I switch brands, and has even made up words to describe how things taste. She's going to set up an appt for him.

How common is this? What can I expect from "food therapy"? I feel somewhat guilty about this, too, bc I'm a SAHM...seems like I *should* be able to introduce foods in a sensitive enough manner to entice him to eat, without taking him to a specialist. But, then again, I want him to eat. I think he's going to b evaluated before any therapy begins.