Food suggestions needed!

Ok, so I have a toddler who will eat a crayon, but not put anything else in his mouth that is edible! I need suggestions. I've been feeding him ground up spaghetti & tuna hotdish. He'll do manderin oranges and cut up fruit, but I'm looking for supper/dinner suggestions. He won't do pancakes yet. He's done whole peas but now he just squishes them on his tray or won't let the spoon close to him.
Any suggestions?

 

Do you think he'd eat it if he used his own spoon? Or at least held his own spoon/fork while you sneak bites in?

Other thoughts, toast with cream cheese? mac & cheese (with veggies and ground beef to fancy-it-up)? Fish sticks (since he'll eat tuna hot dish)? Sweet potato fries? Quesadillas (just burrito shells with cheese and chicken)?

 

Here are some of our fave lunch/dinners:

mac 'n cheese with peas
grilled cheese with spinach (sounds gross but they love it and it actually tastes good!)
mini-corn dogs and watermelon
veggie burgers and fruit
crackers, cheese and a protein (turkey,chicken) and some kind of fruit

I try to offer a fruit and/or veggie at every meal. I'm successful most days, and am happy if I accomplish 2-3 meals...

 

I have one eater who all of a sudden doesn't like her veggies (frozen organic veggie medley's). So I alternate what I feed her with each spoonful. First I'll give her a spoonful with something she likes and the next one is a mixture of veggie & something she likes. It works for a few bites which is almost her entire portion of veggies, so for the most part it works.
I also sometimes help her with bananna (since it's so slippery) and then the next handful I give her is veggies again. Sometimes there are trust issues after that but it's worth it! :blush:
My other DD is funny, up until a couple of weeks ago she would gag badly with each veggie I gave her (by hand) or she put it in her mouth. But once I started feeding her with a spoon she gobbles it all down! Weird.
Between the two I also hide a lot in peanut butter.

 

Here are some food suggestions
Mine like ground up hamburger with cheese, green beans with butter & cheese, mac & cheese (I'll put some peas and carrots in there for them to get some veggies in), ours love hot dogs (go figure), grilled chicken tenders, tater tots, grilled cheese, roast beef, fish (tilipia, salmon, flounder), plain pasta with butter and cheese, scrambled eggs. Hope that helps. This is a difficult age to figure out what they will eat. Mine will love something one day and the next time want nothing to do with it!

 

My new trick with Jack who is our pickier eater is to give him something to dip his food in. He loves BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, guacamole and salsa. He likes dipping fruit in yogurt. He does okay with hummus and veggie dip. He will not do any ranch or honey mustard though. I think it's disgusting most of the time, but if he'll eat his veggies as long as they are dipped in mustard I'll go with it.

I think he started it because he would see Daddy and Grandpa using ketchup so he wanted some too. I usually only give him a small amount and most of the time he just touches his food to the dip and then eats it without even getting a lot on it. For now it is working so we'll go with it.

 

Jackie,

Will he eat scrambled eggs? Mine wouldn't until I started putting cheese in them. Now they love them.

 

I have two huge picky eaters from birth. (child of mine:feeding with love and good sense --- is a GREAT book !) A friend of mine said put food on their tray and then look away. This helped especially in the beginning with the mess. I've read several times that you need to expose them to the look and texture and often this takes 10 tries. So just put the same thing on their tray for 10 days. Often I put the veggies and meat first and then much later the carbs like bread and crackers since these kids love the most. Now I often go through the fridge and put whatever. I check out the vegetarian section and offer them veggie burgers or falafals. I just don't take it personally if they don't eat, and that doesn't mean they won't eat it the next day. Other ideas.. I also find too much on their tray turns them off. So one item at a time and at intervals I wipe the tray and offer different things.

liverwirst or pate on bread. (I flatten out the bread so it is flatter and either make small sandwiches or cigar type rolls)
a small bowl with ketchup in the bottom with french fries / fish fingers/ chicken nuggets in it
Yogurt mix in sweet potato puree
use frozen veggies (heated in microwave)
homemade chicken noodle (sometimes my girls like things more cold or room temp.)
some kids like more savoury than sweet. My two like these basil/ tomato crackers more than sweet stuff.


Good luck

Heather

 

Mine LOVE
grilled cheese
French Toast W/ Sugar free Syrup
Mac & chesse w/ veggies
Meatloaf & mashed Potatoes
Rice w/ chicken and veggies

 

Mine like to eat dirt. I hear it goes well with crayons.

Some easy things I fix for my kids that they love :

Cut up pieces of Rotisserie Chicken
Spaghetti with cut up meatballs
All kinds of fruit cut up - cataloupe, watermelon, kiwi, honeydew, oranges, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries.
Yogurt
Cut up pieces of lunch meat

Some foods that they tolerate:
Macaroni and Cheese
Grilled Cheese
Hot Dogs
Chicken Nuggets

One of them loves eggs, the other won't touch with a ten foot pole, and as I said, they both love dirt.

 

I followed an Annabel Karmel book with my two and they were great eaters until three and a half. She has a website too. http://www.annabelkarmel.com/age-range/children-age-1-4

 

It's sad that he won't do pancakes because I mix a lot of things into sweet potato pancakes. Most veggies will mix fine with it and you just throw in a few eggs and some flour - no need for sugar. They are the best healthy snacks when you are running out the door with them, and they are also a favorite side dish at meal time. You can also do something similar with pureed broccoli and cheese. Just add an egg and some flour to get it to pancake consistency and thne make little drops on a hot skillet. I make them bite sized and they really like them.

Other than that, mine love any kind of grilled sandwich (usually turkey and cheese with some veggies mixed in - I use the cheese to hold it all together). Toast with cream cheese or dipped in yogurt or any type of puree (I cut the bread and mix it with the puree/apple sauce/yogurt and they LOVE picking up the squishy pieces), rotini pasta (they like that better than plain spaghetti or other noodles for some reason) with sauce or in chicken soup (I make it and then drain the broth so they just get the veggies, chicken, and pasta). Mine also really like cauliflower of all thing. I just steam it until it's really soft and break it up so they get little "trees." If I dice it, they won't pick it up, but when it's a little bigger and soft, they eat a ton of it!

Do you ever eat with Evan? I know when DD gets picky, I eat in front of her and offer her bites of my food. She'll eat them (especially if it comes off of a different type of spoon or if it's something she can bite like a sandwich or fruit), and then she makes a game out of feeding me her food and eating some herself. Whatever works, right? GL!

 

Since reading This Child of Mine by Elyn Slater, I do not make them anything special. It was the HARDEST thing for me to get past, but she explains it so well and it's worked! I use the "division of responsibility" rule, which basically states that my responsibility is to offer nutritious meals and snacks at a predictable time in an atmosphere that encourages eating (IE: not in front of the TV, with the family when possible, sitting down vs. running around etc.) and their responsibility is to eat it and regulate their own intake.

I can't say I'm 100%, but I'm close. I just make whatever I'm making and it's up to them to eat it or not. I have done this since about 13-14 months, even when G was in the 8th percentile. Sometimes they skip full meals, but they usually make up for it the next day or over the next few days.

Not sure that's what you're asking, but I found that it really helped me to stop trying to come up with something they'd eat and be a short-order cook. They get what they get.