Picky Eater?

Question

My two year old will hardly eat anything. She will only eat: pizza, macaroni & cheese, plain cheese, mashed potatoes, most fruits and hot dogs. She is extremely skinny and it worries me. yesterday all we could get her to eat was some gold fish crackers and few bites of a corn dog and of course sweets. She has to be hungry. Would it be ok to give her 3rd stage baby foods again just to get some variety in her diet. I'm afraid she is malnurished. But we can't get her to eat. And we don't let her have sweets if she doesn't eat, so she is not filling up on that. She drinks milk good and we give her 100% juice diluted. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

First of all, if you think that your child is too skinny you should get a second opinion from a doctor. You may be able to speak to a nurse or a local WIC clinic for free if money is an issue. (Not sure where you are, so I don't know if you have WIC there.) There are also charts on the internet that suggest healthy heights/weights. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set1clinical/cj41l026.pdf is one of them. If your 2 year old is at least around 20 pounds I wouldn't worry too much.

I believe someone else pointed out that she should know what she needs. That is true. Children who are malnurished sometimes resort to activities such as eating dirt to get what they are lacking in their diets. It's like they have a craving for it and they find sources for the nutrients they need. Of course, you do have to use some common sense when helping your girl choose what to eat. It wouldn't do for her to live off of candy.

Look at the foods you said she will eat. Pizza... Lets see, that would be dairy from the cheese, grains from the bread, fruit/vegetable from the tomato sauce, plus any other toppings she likes. Macaroni and cheese... There's some more breads and dairy. Cheese - dairy again. Mashed potatoes, a vegetable. Fruits are fruit. And hotdogs are a form of meat. It may not be the healthiest selection, but it looks like she has all of the major food groups covered.

You are right to not give her many sweets. And if the 3rd stage baby foods shouldn't hurt. Read the labels - they are probably healthier than what you are feeding yourself!

You may also want to look at how much she is drinking. How much milk? 16-24 ounces a day should be plenty. If she gets much dairy from pizza, cheese, and mashed potatoes, I would lean more toward giving her 16 ounces a day. If she is drinking more than that, she may simply be too full of milk to crave anything else. You can see some of the risks of drinking too much milk at http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weeklyquestion/a/04_toomuch_milk.htm?terms=toddler+milk .

And how much juice does she drink? Read the sugar and calorie content on the juice that you give her. She may be getting more calories than you realize. And the sugars in the juice may be giving her the energy she needs to burn it off!

If you want to get more variety in her diet, have you tried to make her meals fun? My daughter practically lived off of ramen noodles for months! It was a phase. I let her go through it. I would fix some noodles for me too, but I would add stuff such as cheese and meat and apple slices on the side to make it look more interesting. She would want to try some of mine, and that got a little more variety in her diet. I also fixed things like elephant pancakes (I can tell you how if you e-mail [e-mail] ) which included fresh fruit and meat. And I would cut faces into sandwiches and hold them up saying "no, no - don't eat me!" - basically make a game out of eating healthier.

So many young children are overweight nowadays. It can make a kid who is on the slim side of "just right" look skinny in comparisson. My main advice to you - Get a second oppinion from a medical professional about your daughter's size. If they say that she is a healthy size, be happy that she isn't at high risk for the problems that come along with being overweight. And her food... Kids go through phases. Try making meals more interesting, but let her decide when it's time to add more variety to her diet. Seeing you and other family members enjoy other foods will help. You said she likes fruit and pizza. Maybe you could get her to help you arrange some fresh fruit, vegetables and other toppings on the pizza?

Answer 2

Oh my dear I feel for you I felt the same way. This is a stage and it will pass. Do not give her baby food. Try something called Infa Grow it's a drink for toddler's this helped my wee little son get to be a big guy. Infa Grow Toddlers is an all in one supplement for toddlers. It is sold in drug stores and wal mart in the formula section. If you can not afford this shakes are great ice-cream, milk, chocolate syrup, and fruit. My son went through a stage where he would only eat or drink certain things too. Another thing I did was feed him the things he liked and on the side I would add something else for example I would put some cucumber slice on a plate with hotdogs and macoroni. Peanut butter sandwichs are great for them and they love them. My son now eats me out of house and home. The problem at two is they have to many things to do and see they don't want to eat. Try sitting down with your daughter and eating with her. I use to tease my son and tell him he cannot eat that lunch. Don't you eat is what I'd say to him. I also did the whole I'm going to beat you in the eating contest, I am going to finish before you. Good Luck and try not to worry.

Answer 3

She has a better appetite than my 2 year old! Stage 3 baby food should be fine. Is she drinking fortified milk? If not, add formula to it for the vitamins. Here are some suggestions:
*turkey dogs instead of hot dogs
*homemade hamburgers cooked with a small amount of ground up veggies such as carrots, broccoli and/or colliflower
*boca burgers
*sweet potatoes/yams
*cooked tofu (experiment with this one)
*ham and cheese omelet (sneak in some tofu)
*scrambled egg with ketchup on side
*rice with butter
*salt free pretzels
*plain cherrios
*albacore tuna straight from the can
*dried bananna chips

I hope this helps. If i think of anything else, I'll write back.

Answer 4

id cut out the junk food like the hot dogs and corn dogs. Processed food isnt that great for anyone, let alone a young child. If she likes fruit, add some to your blender with whole milk, a wee bit of full fat yogurt. Also for breakfast, add whole milk to her oatmeal. Try grilled cheese with cut up fruit, try pasta with meat sauce, or ravioli with peas, dont offer too much juice though.. Stick with Milk and Water.. good luck

Answer 5

I have the EXACTt same problem with my 17 month old. She just has a few bites of things. She never really eats. I am just trying to offer a very wide variety of things everyday, and hope by the end of the day she had taken in enough food. How much does your daughter weigh?

Answer 6

When this happened to us we realized it was a matter of control.
2 yr olds control nothing about their lives and they know it instinctively.
Your child may be doing this as her way of controlling her environment.
Start letting her make some minor decisions for herself. Let her pick out her own clothes, no matter how wacky the combination. (Personally, I love seeing kids out with their mom in bizzare outfits. I think it's really cute.)
Have her help you make dinner. 2 is not too young to stir something in a bowl.
As you do this, slowly introduce new foods that are similar to what she already eats, or include them in the recipes.
It will be a slow process, but worth the time.

There was an article in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday in the Q section about this and how picky eaters are often malnurished. You can find the article on line.

Answer 7

If you are really concerned speak with a nutrionist they can give you lots of ideas, I wouldnt give her baby food though she is too old and i would also stop diluting her juice too, she can have full strentgh now , Keep trying new foods, let her be a part of making her food , my daughter is extremly picky too and i found that letting her make it she was excited about eating it and will eat most or all of it

Answer 8

Doctors say to let them eat what they'll eat. Kids know what they need, how much they need, and when they need it. If all she wants is pizza then give it to her. Believe it or not, she only needs about a teaspoon of food a day to survive.

She's obviously not hungry or she'd eat. She knows when she's hungry and if she isn't saying anything then she's obviously fine.

Offer her the foods that she likes. Give her pizza and mashed potatoes for 3 weeks straight if that's what she wants. It's not going to kill her. Believe me, we went through the spaghettio stage, the chicken nugget stage, and even the cold waffle stage and they're all healthy and not picky at all when it comes to food.

Answer 9

Yes but consider that most people in the world don't have near the variety as the western nations you probably eat a larger variety of foods than most of the people in the world. You may be allergic to some of the foods you don't care for or have a bad memory of how they were prepared the first time you ate them.

Answer 10

try not to give her sweets so she can have an appetite then when she is hungry she will eat anything you give her