11:44 AM Fri, Sep 11, 2009 | Permalink
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I have a problem. My 11-month-old son is quickly becoming a picky eater. I guess this is pretty common for kids. But here's why it bothers me. A) He hasn't always been a picky eater. He used to be open to trying all kinds of foods, then one day, he just stopped. B) I go to the extra effort of finding new baby-friendly recipes for him, I make them and then he acts like I'm feeding him garbage. It is so frustrating. C) I'm worried about him not getting enough nutritious foods.
Here's the dinner scenario at the Spriggs' house. I make dinner. We sit down as a family to eat. I start out feeding Jude. First bite, Jude spits it out and makes a face like I just gave him the most disgusting food he's ever tasted in his life. Second bite, Jude eats it and realizes I'm not trying to poison him. Third bite, he realizes I'm trying to feed him with a spoon and gets mad, pushes the spoon away and spits out the food. Bites four and five he takes because I feed him with my fingers. Bite six, he spits it out. He is officially done with dinner and he's mad. How dare you try to feed me a nice meal, mom! This is every night! Moms, I'm sure you can see why this is a little frustrating.
I thinks Jude's hatred for dinner time stems from the fact that he would rather feed himself. That's what we were doing for the most part. Now he wants to squish his dinner instead of eating it. That's why I've reverted back to the spoon. Now the spoon makes him mad.
Jude's pickiness has gotten worse the last couple of weeks. Most nights, he won't eat dinner AT ALL! The only thing he will eat for dinner are those Gerber Pasta Pick-Ups and I refuse to just feed him the same thing every night. I think it's important for him to try new tastes and textures. What do I do? I can't figure out why this kid hates dinner. I'm especially worried because he'll be off formula in just a few weeks, and I'm worried about him getting the right nutrition in his diet. Any tips moms? How do you get a picky eater to eat?
My little picky eater:
Let him feed himself and every now and then get a spoonful in if you can. He won't go hungry; trust me. All kids at every age go through stages where they will only eat one thing. They will eventually grow out of this.
I found at this age, they know that they are not eating what you eat and they want adult food. I would always keep frozen veggies on hand. They are very easy to warm up as single servings. Also turkey meatballs are the perfect size to cut up into little bite size pieces and taste good too.
Good luck! Hope this was helpful.
Cute kid. Our son had a similar "tapering off" of eating everything in sight. It also started around 1 year of age. Now, he's 18 months and eating much better. Each week he's trying more and more foods. I think your son will come around - let's hope it's just a phase. Good luck!