Eating questions

Hi, I've asked this question in the 2nd year forum, but thought I'd ask those of you with twins older then mine, to see if this faze eventually passes.

My girls are 23 months old now. And extremely picky eaters! They refuse to try new foods. When they were 4 1/2 months old, I started them on rice cereal. They were doing great so I started trying veggies. When we went in for our 4 month check up (a month late so they were 5 months) I told their doc that I had started solids. He freaked.yelled at me and told me to stop, that they weren't ready. He said they could swallow it wrong, it could go down the wrong tube, into their lungs and they could get pneumonia and have to be hospitalized!!!!!! Needless to say he scared the crap out of me! So I stopped feeding them and waited till they were older to start. Once I started I was too afraid to give them anything but smooth textures, afraid they would choke and the Doctors paranoia would come true. In all this, I think I missed the very important time for gradually introducing new foods and textures to themcc. As a result they are very, very picky eaters and will eat next to nothing!
They will eat Vanilla Yogurt, (Bella will eat ONLY the vanilla kind) Emma will eat any yogurt pretty much as long as there is no chunks in it.
Vanilla Wafers, Saltines. That is pretty much all Bella will eat! Occasionally she might eat a chocolate chip cookie from vons:/
Emma will eat:
Yogurt, goldfish, wafers, granola bars (sometimes) fruit puffs, cheeze its, some puddings and bananas.
They refuse to even try Mac and Cheese, spegettios, anything 'gooey and chunky'
So my question is this,
Did any of you experience the same thing when your twins were in their 2nd year, and did they grow out of it? How did you get them to eat? My girls aren't talking yet at all and just started speech therapy, so I can't just say eat this or you get nothing, I'm afraid they wouldn't understand that/ Do I offer them healthy choices and if they don't eat , too bad? Help!!!

PS. I recently stopped the bottle (they use to get it in the morning when they woke up, nap time, and bedtime) They refuse to drink their milk from a sippy cup, so they haven't had milk in about 4 or 5 days. I think their milk is what has helped keep up their healthy weight, so I'm worried they haven't accepted it in the sippy yet.

Thanks!!!

 

With milk, it might take them a few days to get them to up their milk intake in sippies. What you can do is give them other dairy products to make up for the lack of milk (cheese, yogurt, pudding) and then to help with milk intake, you could flavor it a little (I would use a small amount of strawberry syrup) and if you are worried about calorie intake you could add something like carnation instant breakfast or pedisure to their milk for extra calories and vitamins.
Picky eating is very normal, especially if your children are sensitive to textures. I would tailor the meals with a healthy choice plus something you know they will eat. So if you are making chicken for dinner, offer them some chicken, fruit or veggie, then if you know they will eat yogurt, offer that with the meal. They will come around eventually. Good luck!

 

Mine were both super picky (and still are) and very sensitive to textures. They did fine on baby food, but when we went to table food I couldn't get them to eat any fruits or veggies. It gradually got better...still not great, but better. They still don't eat many fruits or veggies. So, I sneak them in when I can. I am a firm believer that as a parent our job is to offer a healthy, nutritious diet at regularly scheduled intervals (for us 3 meals, 2 snacks) and it is up to the kiddos if they want to eat it. You can't force them to eat.

My suggestion would be to keep offering a balance diet. BUT...to make yourself feel better and know that they are getting the nutrition they need, sneak it in. Add pureed veggies and fruits to the foods they will eat. I add pureed apples or pears to oatmeal, sweet potatoes or pears or apples to pancake batter, pureed fruits in there yogurt. Make smoothies with fresh fruits. Make milkshakes for them and add bananna's, etc... It is important that they learn to eat the real stuff. That is why you should keep offering it, but it makes me feel better knowing they are getting it even if I have to sneak it in.

 

I have very picky eaters and one continues with weight issues. I read a fantastic book that someone on here recommended.. "child of mine: feeding with love and good sense" --it really puts feeding into perspective and it gives you some great ideas. Eg. it says that kids need to be exposed to food 15 - 20 times before they will accept it. so often you will see they will feel the food or put it up to their mouth and smell it but not eat it. If you decide say for 2 weeks to continue to put the food on their plate they will eventually think that they must like it and will eat it. I did this with avocados and I had 2/3 of my kids that liked it and one who didnt' ... now she will eat it. It really is worth getting the book from the library.

Heather

 

Thank you all for your advice! I tried flavoring their milk and giving it to them in their sippy, but they still refused it. Except for last night, after Emma spit the chocolate milk out, she went back to her cup for a second taste, and had half the sippy! Yay! Hehe. Bella is my most stubborn. WILL NOT try anything new! If I could just get them to eat a few more things I would be happy. Like Mac and Cheese, I can work off that, or grilled cheese. I could easily sneak some 'good stuff' into those two foods, but they won't give them the time of day. Emma will eat a grilled cheese every once and a while. But it's not a 'guaranteed she'll eat it food'
@Heather: Did you put the same new food on their plate at every meal for 2 weeks, or just one meal a day? And thank you for the book recommendation, I will check my local library.
I know being a picky eater at this age is normal, but is it normal for them to be THIS picky? My twins essentially live off of Vanilla yogurt, vanilla wafers, and saltine crackers!! I feel horrible that I can't get them to eat better! But afraid to withhold theses foods they will eat in fear they will refuse them too! Emma is more willing to at least try something new (as long as it feels and looks how she wants it.)
Thanks guys!

 

I also have picky eaters that are low weight so it is so hard for me to watch them miss a meal or even a whole day sometimes. It gets really stressful! But through feeding therapy, books (also reco Child of Mine) and other things I have read you have to take the stress out of the meal. So hard to do but I have noticed that if I am not standing over them watching every bite and forcing or tricking them to try things they do eventually come around. My once super picky one is now eating and trying new things. Now my other guy who used to eat great is super picky - but I think that is just typical toddler. If you can add calories to the things they do eat that will help ease your mind - if its vanilla pudding - make it with whole milk or even some 1/2 & 1/2 to up the calories. Same with the milk - we add heavy cream sometimes. Mine also like the carnation instant breakfast but didnt at first - try it warmed - like hot coco or the different flavors. But yes it is about trying and trying and trying many more times. I cringe about the amount of food that goes wasted in our house. We are far from out of the woods, but wanted you to know you are not alone!

 

Until you get things sorted out you can always offer protein shakes (I told my little ones they are milkshakes), and instead of making the shake with water I made it with whole milk. The kind i like is called ARIA, the chocolate and the vanilla are delicious. i even put peanut butter and fruit in the shakes -- they think it's a treat and I give this to them if they are being picky to make sure they are getting what they need in terms of nutrition -- I am also a HUGE ovaltine person. If you give them chocolate milk (really ovaltine which is rich in vitamins) will they take that from the sippy????

 

I've also heard about fortifying your milk by adding some powdered skim milk. It's cheap and it bumps up the nutrition a little without affecting taste.
We are picky here too- especially to new textures. A lot of food goes wasted here, but I insist that their plates offer a small variety of healthy foods. Today's lunch was veggie fried rice with some brocolli florets. They also had watermelon on the plate. One boy ate only watermelon for lunch and the other wouldn't touch the watermelon, but did eat the rice and a little of the brocolli.

 

I got Emma to drink Chocolate milk from her sippy cup She's more adventurous then Bella. So I will give her some in the evening after dinner while we're doing 'wind down' time. I like to fill their tummies before bed so they sleep better Bella is still being stubborn with anything but water from the sippy, but I'm not pushing it. She eats enough yogurt that I'm sure she'll be fine! LoL... We found something new Bella will eat and it very good for her!! Those Plum Baby Organic fruit pouches, but only the 'banana, apricot and peaches' one. But hey, thats 3 fruits I couldn't get her to eat before. Hopefully we can get her eating the actual fruits soon. Also, the girls just discovered 'Smore poptarts' not the healthiest breakfast I know, but Better then vanilla wafers. We tried the cherry ones, but they weren't interested! Lol... Maybe soon. They're slowly accepting new types of crackers and 'cookies' so I guess thats a start. I'm gonna make some cookies and sneak veggies and fruits into the batter, so at least when I give them a cookie I feel like a horrible mom. I will continue to offer new healthy foods, even though they just get thrown away, in hopes that one day, one magical day, they'll just eat it!
Thank you everyone for your advise and support!!

 

check out weelicious.com - she has some good recipes

 

Thank you!! What a great website!!