One eats the other does not

I know this question has been posted before but I'm going crazy.

My girls are 17 months. Samantha just started eating hotdogs, frozen chix patties, and frozen italian meatballs. She also eats every kind of fruit, peas and carrots, noodles, yogurt.

Emily on the other hand will only eat fruit, peas and carrots and noodles, yogurt. She also eat every kind of cracker, goldfish or chip she gets her sneaky little hands on.

I'm getting so tired of making macaroni and cheese, veggies and hotdogs for dinner. Sometimes for lunch they do lunch meat or cheese sandwiches. We have just made it down to 1 nap a day (12:00 - 2:00) so it is sometimes hard to stay awake durning lunch.

I was just looking for some reassurance that this is normal and any meal or snack suggestions.

Thank you for the help

Chris

Samantha Jane and Emily Ann born 12/31/05 :help: :help:

 

It is pretty normal -- in fact it sounds a lot like my kids, except that neither of mine will eat any meat except fish sticks. Here's the advice I give myself. :icon_biggrin: I do still stress about it, but I see a bit of progress over the past few months.

Rather than only feeding them things you think they will eat, give them your own food (or leftovers), plus a couple of things you're pretty sure they will eat. This can be frustrating because a lot of the time you wind up wasting perfectly good food, but if you give them just a tiny bit for starters, you won't waste much. And they won't learn to eat more unless you try. In the meantime, they can fill up on crackers and yogurt (or peas and noodles, or whatever) if they want to.

I found out this way that mine really like enchiladas, as well as stir-friend zucchini with black beans! (Granted, those are about the ONLY two things DH and I eat regularly that the girls can be counted on to eat too.)

One specific suggestion -- do they eat scrambled eggs? Those are good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and are a good source of protein. Amy has eaten them for months, but I've been giving Sarah a tiny little bit every time I make them, and as of just last week (after months of ignoring them) suddenly she cannot shovel them in fast enough.

 

Ditto what Alden said. I (or DH, he does most of the cooking) just make whatever we were normally going to have for dinner. Unless it's extremely baby-unfriendly, they are served that. We do try to include a side of something they are guaranteed to eat. I've also had success getting them to eat veggies mixed in applesauce, but meat is still hit-and-miss. Really, I never know if they are going to eat it or not. I just serve it and try not to care whether they eat. I also hate wasting food, so I give them a small amount first. A new thing I've been doing for lunch is giving them soup with the broth drained out (just pour it through a strainer) and they will eat it, veggies and even the meat, woo hoo! I get them the Healthy Choice low sodium soups.

Good luck!

 

Just curious ladies, at what age did your wee ones begin eating these types of foods?