Tonight we ended dinner with another food fight. Not the sort of food fight where you need to clean up the room with a mop and towels, but the kind where Marley goes to bed without dinner for the fourth night in a row. I have about had it up to hear with these food fights. If there is anyone out there with any bit of advice that might possibly help, please feel free to send it my way.
I have got to have the pickiest eater ever. For a long time, all she would eat was broccoli and pasta. Then she went through her Mac & Cheese, followed by spaghetti phases. Intermittently I’ll get lucky and she’ll eat a little chicken. Once or twice I’ve managed to trick her into eating beef by calling it “Daddy’s Red Chicken.” Her favorite snacks are cucumber and mixed nuts. If I let her, she’ll eat an entire pack of bacon. Now, all she want is bread, the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls to be precise. She went through a bag of those small rolls in three days. She’ll have nothing to do with peanut butter. She throws up every time she’s tried eggs. I just don’t know what to do anymore.
Today, she had three squares of the Hawaiian sweet rolls, two baby carrots, a few pretzels at our potluck in the park, a handful of almonds, a third of a banana, two cups of milk, a cup of apple juice, and a few cups of water.
If I could only get her to try different foods, I know she’ll like them. She won’t even look at it, let alone taste it.
I do have to be thankful for one thing though. Even though she is a very picky eater. I am glad that she eats healthy snacks instead of junk food or fast food. Up until this summer, I could honestly say she’s never eaten anything from McDonald’s. However, beyond my control, she ate a few McDonald’s french fries. Although she may be picky, at least she will not grow up to be one of the 60% in her generation to suffer from obesity.
Tonight, I know she will be waking me up and telling me that her belly button hurts because she’s hungry. I will probably let her drag me out of bed again to give her another piece of bread. And tomorrow will be another day that ends in a food fight.
Blind Mom in the Burbs 
Lots of food experience here. Four kids, one adopted with food issues, several very picky. With four, I can’t be a short-order cook. Here are a few tried and true tricks.
Bribery. If you eat so much of that, you can have some M&Ms.
Don’t feed them snacks for two hours before meals. They’ll whine but they won’t starve. And they’ll eat dinner.
Don’t let them fill up on drinks, especially juice.
Compromise. Healthy, balanced dinners made up out of the six foods they like mostly. A new food once a week or so and only a spoonful. Side dish of something I know they’ll eat so no going to bed completely hungry.
Conveniently run out of “that food”. Oops. 🙂
Patience. They won’t have toddler palettes forever. Mine won’t eat eggs either. Oh well. Pick your battles.
I think all of us moms have been there on the food battles. You’ll make it! Remember toddlers go through phases where they are hardly hungry, then a week later they’ll eat a house! You kind of have to roll with that. As long as they are getting fruits, veggies, breads and protein in a day, they’ll be fine. 🙂
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Oops, that last comment logged me in as a totally weird name. Thanks, WordPress.
Erin J
http://whistlererin.blogspot.com
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Mama Rupp: sounds like Miss Marley and Sir Erik have been talking with each other. Erik has hardly touched his dinner in the last two weeks and I finally gave up trying to make him eat. I decided that if he was hungry when I sat down to eat and seemed interested in food then I’d give him some of what we were having for dinner. Marley is going through a stage that you shouldn’t be too concerned about. The wonderful thing is that when she does eat she eats well. One of my fav sites to go to when I can’t understand my son and his odd behavior is Baby Center. Check out this awesome link I found that might give you some insight and some tips on your picky eater.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-to-handle-a-picky-eater_64302.bc
Don’t despair too much. And, don’t get out of bed to feed her in the morning. She needs to learn that night time is for sleeping not eating. I know that’s far easier said than done.
With much sympathy:
Bay Area Blind Mom
Check out my blog at: http://www.bayareablindmom.wordpress.com
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We’ll I’m not going to give her anymore midnight snacks. I’m also cutting back on the milk like people have suggested. She’s super excited about turning three, so we’re going to make it a big deal and do away with zippy cups
completely.
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I am just catching up on your blogs! I remember when Aaron and Meg were little, they hated mushrooms. Yet they loved cream of mushroom soup because they thought it was “cream of cracker”! lol. It worked until they got old enough to recognize the mushrooms in the soup!
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I am now in the process of making chicken soup for the kids. But for Marley, it’s called rice soup because she eats it with rice. There can’t be anything else besides rice and soup broth otherwise she tells me to take the nasty out.
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