Anyone’s LO picky about food?

Question

How are y’all handling it? Kiddo is in the 7th percentile of weight gain, he’s been in the 10th pretty much since newborn. He doesn’t wanna eat much, he’ll eat a bite of egg here and there, sometimes meat. He mostly likes fruits and yogurt, I can’t seem to get him interested in much. Any help? We offer a variety of food, different shapes, colors, etc. He won’t take pedia-sure or formula. Pediatrician says he’s okay just on the smaller side, but I want him to be healthy and eating enough.

Answer

We go through picky phases. Sometimes he’ll refuse a whole meal, even with a “safety food” on the plate. Other days he’ll eat like a linebacker. 
We try to create a no pressure situation at the table. Research shows the more you pressure them the more likely they are to be picky. 
I follow @solidstarts and @biglittlefeelings on Instagram and they’ve both given me a lot of confidence in this approach.

Answer

We’re struggling over here. Our daughter yes to eat sooo good! We could fill a plate with anything and she’d eat it. Now I’m lucky if I can get her to eat anything other than bananas. The other day she ate the smallest about of lucky charms for breakfast, she ate 3 pieces of Mac and cheese and two bites of a hot dog for lunch, and then half a croissant for dinner. This is how it’s been for over a month now. She just doesn’t want to eat. I mean if I gave her chips and ice cream all day she’d go to town. But for some reason she just all the sudden has no interest in regular meals. I’m praying it’s just a phase.

Answer

I also have a peanut ☺️ Sounds like you're offering healthy foods to him and he's following his own appetite. If your pediatrician isn't concerned, I'd try to remind yourself that we all come in different shapes and sizes. My husband and I aren't unusually short (although I'm certainly not tall), but we're both pretty slim, so it makes sense to us that our daughter will be on the small side. We have been getting into smoothies lately which is a surefire way to get her to eat things she doesn't usually eat. We don't hide the fact that we're putting kale and full fat Greek yogurt in there, but she just seems to not care because she loves the smoothies.
She also does love butter so we admittedly don't hold back on that, and will put it in her oatmeal or allow her to take more when she asks. In fact, one thing I find that does help her be a bit more adventurous when eating is allowing her to have as much of what she asks for as long as there's enough for everyone - it seems like if she's not worried about not getting what she wants, sometimes she'll surprise us and eat something off her plate that I thought for sure she wouldn't touch. For example, if we're serving a protein, a starch, a veggie, and a fruit and all she wants is the fruit and the starch and asks for more, we allow it as long as there's more to give, and then after she gets her fill she'll start to pick at the other foods. 
Honestly the best thing you can do is try to relax at the table, and just enjoy eating your food as much as possible. I feel like whenever I start to worry, my daughter picks up on it and then suddenly is ultra picky again. Eating is social as much as it is nutritional. Picky eating is totally normal at this age 💕

Answer

This makes me feel better. The last couple of weeks my son has gotten so picky and it didn’t used to be like that so guess it’s just a developmental thing

Answer

Omg i literally just wrote this post too. Whyyy?!!!! It must be a '2' thing?! Im struggling with the same thing but now my 2yr old (when it started) is 4. Hasnt gotten much better.

Answer

I laugh only because I could have written this. For a few months mine has been picky.. but it’s gotten extreme as of late. I offer 1 thing she likes with every meal (fruit for example) and just serve what we are eating. I don’t make her separate meals. Lately she even refuses the 1 thing she likes with her meals even. So yesterday she ate 5 bites of oatmeal for breakfast, refused lunch, and ate a bite of corn bread for dinner. Literally that’s all she ate. She’s not a snacker… so isn’t filling up on snacks. Does drink milk fine. She also lately throws her food when she doesn’t want to eat and screams hysterically during the entire meal. We try ignoring the screaming, removing her plate temporarily when she throws her food, etc.. nothing seems to help. And yes I follow all those pages on IG and also laugh bc those tips haven’t helped either. She has a double ear infection recently so I’m hoping the combo of her ears hurting & antibiotic on her stomach is a small piece of why meals are a joke, but this has been going on way before that started. She was 24lbs when I took her in for her ears fully clothed, we haven’t had her 2yr WCC yet since Covid canceled all well visits here.

Answer

I too am struggling with severe picky eating. We weaned off breastfeeding cold turkey 12 days ago now and she's even worse. She weighs 25.6lbs but somedays barely eats a thing. She's also been waking up at 4am with a growling belly. Ill offer apple sauce, fruit cups, milk and she would rather be hungry. I think we just have to keep trying and keep offering but I may have a mental breakdown. I'm trying not to allow myself to show emotion when she refuses and I hope that helps and she'll eventually just start eating it.

Answer

Yep- she’s picky and only 22lbs. We did OT for feeding therapy for awhile. It did help.

Answer

Could just be who he is but if you arent, follow kids eat in color on instagram. She has loads of advice and a picky eaters course. It took my daughter a while but now she eats relatively well and a variety of foods. She doesnt really eat meat but neither do we so it doesnt bother me. She loves oatmeal, avocado, peanut butter and plenty of other healthy filling things.

Anyone’s LO picky about food?

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