What should I do when my baby (12 months) only eats dry cereal, fruit, and yogurt?

Question

When I offer meat, vegetables or milk she either spits it out, throws it on the floor, screams at me or all of the above. I just weaned her and she is soooo mad at her milk cup. She throws it and madly bats at it. She had her 1 year pediatric appointment a couple weeks ago and they gave me a food pyramid chart with how many servings of each food group they should have each day. Even if my baby loved every food in the world there is no way she could possibly eat that many servings in one day anyway! I am really concerned about her nutrition. Her Doctor said she is a healthy weight and height (21 pounds/30 inches) but she's not going to grow anymore at this rate. I have already tried disguising meat and veggies, it doesn't work. She will eat nothing else but cereal, fruit and yogurt. I am also supposed to be giving her 2 cups of milk a day, yeah right!

Answer 1

Ahhh - the never ending worries about food. My 2 year old would consume nothing but fruit roll ups, yogurt and juice if left up to her.

If she's a healthy weight, really - don't worry. She will be okay. Just don't fall into a trap of offering cookies, cola, or other sugary snacks to get her to eat more. Keep offering a variety of healthy foods and she will eat when she is hungry. For the protein you might try beans - my picky eater will eat beans. Yogurt works for milk, you might also try cheese. Get a variety of cheeses in string, shredded, slices, ect.

If you have a nice deli counter at your local grocery store, stop by there one day when no else is around and get the smallest amount of a whole bunch of meats, pastas and other goodies and then have fun trying out new foods when you get home. As for the meat, will she eat fish sticks? What about putting ketchup on the meat? A lot of little ones will eat some meat if there's ketchup on it.

But in reality, dry cereal, fruit and yogurt is not the worst diet - obviously not if she's healthy. Don't stress out about it too much. Just continue to introduce new and interesting foods here and there and she's sure to like a few of them. She will eventually tire of the same old stuff. I promise.

Answer 2

Childrens eating habits and desires are fascinating as a minimum. She is getting the nutrition needed with those three things. You can try a sippy cup. Some have straws and others have little tips that stick up. The nice thing is they don't easily leak with the inserts. One child went to the straw directly while the other three liked the tipped type. We have always given them fruit juice ( 100% no sugar added) in their cups sometimes mixed with half water. At the table we would give an open cup with the liquids and let them watch putting on the lid when they got down from the highchair, then handed it to them. Seemed to work. Be happy she is eating what she is and just keep slowly offering new items.

Answer 3

Aw Man I have a 13month old Daughter Girl And SHE EATS EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING the only thing I dont and wont give her is sea Food. Does She Not Winse Or whine when she sees You eat? Maybe you should try eating infront of her and going Hmm Hmm lol i do that when my daughter doesn't want to try something and SHe goes for it just let her do it on her own! you can Purree some of the Veggies or wat ever and mix it in with the Cereal thats a sneaky way to mix in the flavor Try Using Chicken stock to give the Veggies or rice or anything your going to blend some flavor! Just don't put alot just enough to change the flavor just a lil! She is suppose to drink 12-16 oz of milk Everyday She might be healthy but she Needs all those nutrients to Grow. Hopefully that helps a lil Keep in Touch !

Answer 4

This sounds just like my daughter at that age. I was still nursing her, though, so I didn't worry too much about her getting adequate nutrition. Just keep offering her a variety of foods several times a day, but don't pressure her to eat. She'll eat what and how much her body needs.

See this site for some good ideas:

http://askdrsears.com/html/3/T030800.asp

Answer 5

My daughter is very picky and always has been. She still to this day doesn't eat pork... just started eating beef.... (rarely does that) but loves chicken. When she was younger (she's 2) she only wanted juice, milk, yogurt and fruit as well. I told my doctor and he was like, feed her what you can but try to keep introducing the foods. Eventually it works... their more mature taste-buds come in, but it's frustrating when they don't eat.

Answer 6

Events like this tell me why children normally wean at 2 or older. I can only recommend mixing additional protein into the yogurt (powdered whey). Have you tried salmon (freshly cooked, not the can)? Keeping with fruit is good. Juice provides no fiber.

Answer 7

You could try to mix a jar of baby veggies into her cereal or have her drink vegetable juice like V8. They even make V8 with fruit so its sweet. My son wont drink milk either so my doctor told me to give him cheese...so you could try to give her cheese OR what about giving her fruit with cottage cheese. A lot of people eat peaches with cottage cheese. Good luck!

Answer 8

most kids love mashed potatoes either with butter or gravy.try macaroni and cheese.if you do not get a handle on things you will regret it! you are the parent ,act like one and do not allow your child to become a bossy temper tantrum throwing little brat!!! try giving her milk in a type of cup that has a straw and also add chocolate flavoring or strawberry.also give her juices to drink and just plain water.no pop or colas, no teas or coffees these are not good for babies teeth.good luck.

Answer 9

yogurt counts as milk product, but be careful it doesn't have too much sugar. potatoes are pretty good and if she starts to like those you can put soy milk in them to make them creamy or smashed broccoli and cheese. i wouldn't push the meat, I hate meat, maybe she will think eating endames are fun or beans inside quesadillas. good luck.