Visual eater... HELP!

I feel my ds2's meals are so boring. There are only so many things that he will eat. He looks at it before he will open his mouth and refuses if it doesn't 'look or smell' right. He knows the difference between Spaghetti & Ravioli! :shok:
He'll eat:
1. mac/cheese
2. spaghetti
3. beans/carrots in the right mood
4. some meat slices
5. cheese

Seriously.. that is all I can think of!!! He won't eat a grilled cheese sandwich, hot dogs or tuna hotdish. I know sometimes it takes a lot of tastes to get a toddler to eat things, but what if he won't let you get it past their mouth?

 

My ds is the SAME way!!! :headbang: The only thing that helped here was utensils. If it's something I think he would like but pretty sure he wouldn't eat then I'll either put it in a bowl (which is a rare treat) and give him a spoon or fork.
Also mine are just not getting into dipping things, maybe you could try that?

I'm looking forward to hearing others advice.

 

I agree, utensils helped mine eat more too. We also introduces sauces and dippers and it did help. I feel like I feed mine the same thing a lot too! But these little tricks can help...sometimes! Goodluck.

 

Jackie, I feed mine a lot of the same thing too. I did find using sauces and dips helped them to be more adventurous (ketchup, miracle whip, spinach dip, tomato sauce, etc). Not sure if that will help your little guy but it did mine.
However, they hate ravoli, sauce or no sauce, they want no parts of that. They must not be my kids!

 

Wow Jackie, Evan and Nate should get together for lunch someday. Evan could eat Nate's mac and cheese (which he won't touch) and Nate could eat Evan's hot dogs (his favorite food). :laughing:

Jack will at least try anything once. He may not like it, but he does try. Nate seems to not eat anything that has a color (other than brown). This drives me nuts because I'm a veggie lover and we try to eat pretty healthy. I've been doing a bunch of reading on picky eaters, and there is one school of thought that you don't ever encourage them to try, just plop food on their plate and let them eat it or not. I kind of like the "low-pressure" approach to feeding, but I feel like if I didn't at least give Nate a gentle push to try something he'd never put anything new in his mouth.

Sometimes I will load Nate's fork with a new food or help him to "fork" it then say "put it in your mouth" so he'll try. If he spits it out, no biggie; I just want him to taste it. Sometimes he even likes the new food! I feel like if I didn't give him that nudge he'd pick around anything new. Like PPs suggested, the fork approach is usually more successful than just putting food on his tray.

I also try new and more adventurous foods more at lunch than dinner. Or I'll make sure there's lots to eat that I know he'll like at dinner if I try a new food. That way I know he'll have a full tummy at bedtime (I'm still afraid of night-waking from hunger; I'm sure it's a holdover from FY ). At lunch I feel I can offer him something new and if he doesn't like it, he'll have snack in 2 hours so he won't have to wait too long for food.

HERE is something I found online for dealing with picky eaters. It's not comprehensive, but I like the tone of the guidelines. It's a little more geared to preschoolers than toddlers, but the principles mostly apply.

I hope this helps!