Picky Eater

One of my boys is an extremely picky eater. He is still pretty much on puree only, isnt all that big on the whole real food thing. Anything I give him he picks up, touches the tip to his tongue to it, and 99.9% of the time, chucks it over the side of his high chair. He does have food allergies, milk, eggs, and wheat. I am seriously running out of ideas of what to give him. He isnt big on meat either. He has had a reaction to peas, and because of that, his allergist told me to stay away from peanuts. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

Does he have any trouble eating stuff with textures, like gagging? Or does he just not like it. If he's gagging you might want to mention it to your dr. and have him evaluated.

Have you tried any seasonings with his food? Maybe give him some baked mash sweet potato with a bit of cinnamon on it. Or kidney beans with a bit of taco seasoning (low sodium). I often find that when I add a bit of seasoning to something it renews their interest in a certain food. You could also try rice pasta with a bit of "healthy" margarine or tomato sauce on it. And whatever type of puree he will eat, just try to introduce it in the solid form. When we were pushing self feeding, I would always offer their solid foods first and then the purees. If they were really hungry they'd go for the solids, and if they weren't they'd hold out for the purees. It wasn't long though before they wanted to eat themselves. I always made a really big deal when they did something by themselves for the first time too. And I also found that eating with them helped.. it won't be long before they want to do everything just like you, so show them how to eat and get excited about your food

 

Thanks. He does gag quite a bit. He gagged tonight on a piece of pasta, but then was fine when he ate a piece of cereal bar, so I know he can chew and swallow stuff, as long as he likes it. Do you think I should still bring it up to his Ped? I always offer the solids first, and he wont touch it. Tonight I tried the pasta, his brother was eating it, so were the rest of us, and he gagged on it. I then took out some stage 2 stuff. He ate maybe 2 spoons, gagged. I ended up feeding him cereal. He shared a cereal bar with his brother and was fine. I really dont know what to do anymore.

 

If he's gagging I would mention it to his ped. He might be a stubborn toddler, but he might just honestly have trouble with certain textures and that can be related to muscle development in his mouth. Most baby items dissolve in your mouth pretty quickly, but adult food doesn't.. so I can see how a cereal bar would be easy to eat, but maybe not pasta. It wouldn't hurt to ask.. have they been for their 12 month checkup?

 

They have, but I am going back to their Pedi for him as he is having a hard time pulling to stand and favours a leg. So when I go back for that, I will talk to her about the eating.

 

Good luck! I don't really have any advice as I have a verrrrry picky little boy too, he would still much rather have purees at 15 months than real food. All he wants to eat are crunchies, toast with jam, stars and mum mums anything else is a huge fight. My dd however would gag on even pureed baby food until about 10 months and would gag on even the stars until 12 months. It was extremely frustrating to have a 1 year old who still didn't even eat yet, but one day she popped one of those stars in her mouth and decided she didn't need to gag and slowly but surely started eating after that! Ironically enough she is now my better eater and will usually eat what we are eating unlike her very picky brother. Hang in there you never know when they may just surprise you! But definitely bring it up with your ped at your next visit.

 

I also had a gagger in DD but she slowly grew out of that and now is still a bit picky but eats most things!! It may be a timing issue or like a pp mentionned it could be an actualy swallowing and mouth development issue. The thing I wanted to mention about the hip , ( i'm a physiotherapist), is do you notice any clicking in the hip? Or that it generally sits so that the toes point outwards (many kids hold their legs this way sometimes)? If he is favouring one side noticeably there is a condition fairly common called congenital hip dysplasia. It's good you're getting his ped to check him out. It could be nothing but better to have a doc check how his hip moves and if they were wondering if it is CHD they will order an x-ray. All CHD means is that the socket in which the hip bone sits (it's a ball and socket joint) is either too shallow or the head of the ball of the thigh bone is a small or flat. My friend's daughter has that and they tried a brace but most babes won't wear it, so they are just monitoring over time.

GL!

 

Thanks. I havent noticed any clicking, but his feet do point outward. He barely puts any weight on his left leg at all. He JUST started pulling to stand, but usually ends up standing on his right leg only, or shifts all his weight to the right side. Does his position of how he was while I was pregnant have any bearing on this?

 

I am almost a 100% sure that his positioning in utero doesn't cause this, that's why it's called congenital. If he isn't weight bearing on one leg at all, then I would be sure to get his ped to check him out and if you're not satisfied get a pediatric orthopedic surgeon to take a look. DOn't be stressed by the surgeon part, many people are followed by them and don't need surgery. I work with adult orthopods so I know

 

Thanks, I am just waiting on a call back from the Ped for an appointment.

 

The ped at the hospital when the boys were born told us we'd have to watch out for dysplasia with Austin because he was breech and he gets an extra few minutes of evaluation at their scheduled checkups. But even at that.. there's not much you can control with that situation either. Hope for the best!

 

Thanks. It just seems that William always gets the short end of the deal.

 

I would mention it to your pedi, in case whatever is causing the feeding difficulties is related to his difficulty standing. However, if your pedi is not concerned, I wouldn't be either. I would just keep offering him solids, and let him progress at his own pace. Have you tried giving him something larger that he can hold on to rather than little small dices of stuff? Some kids do better if they can hold onto a big stalk of cooked broccoli, a peeled apple, or a piece of toast. One of my kids had such a hard time with dices, but did better with larger pieces of food that he could gnaw on.

 

My baby DD was about 3 months late in taking purees, dropping the bottle, and eating solids. The pediatric nurse that advises me at Moms On Call said to be patient and keep offering the finger foods and let her mash them, poke them, drop them, etc. No negatives or corrections, just let her experiment. I kept her on formula via sippy and purees and kept on offering the solids, and she did convert fully to milk and finger foods recently.

I found that she loved hummus on a cracker as she could hold it well, so I would diversify the cracker topping and tried pimento cheese, nutella, peanut butter, apple butter, ham salad, baba ganouj, chicken salad, yogurt, applesauce, etc. She eventually started eating her pieces of fruit, beans, pasta, waffle, etc. (whatever the twins were eating). I would give her the finger foods every meal and just let her go at her own pace, but it was hard to be neutral about it. She just recently started eating pieces of meat.

It's hard when every other one-year-old is picking up and eating everything in sight, but as the nurse told me, you have to parent the child that you have, and mine warmed up to finger foods late.

I did see our pediatrician for an evaluation and he said all was fine, so that is a good step and will take that worry off your mind.

 

Thanks. I have tried bigger pieces, and it's a no go. Last night I gave him a piece of Brocolli to try, he touched it to his tongue and threw it. Part of the problem is that he isnt even WILLING to try anything, and the stuff he does try, unless its cheerios, pieces of toast or a cereal bar, he gags. I guess I'll just wait him out.