Picky Eater

[mop]

I have a 13.5 month old part timer in my care who is an incredibly picky eater. He will eat chopped soft fruit, toast, yogurt and pureed baby food only. I have had him for almost 2 months now and he will not even try anything textured. He won't eat any of the textured baby foods either.

I have always first given him what we're eating, and then resorted to giving him the few foods he will eat. This isn't what I want to do because two months in, he's pretty much just holding out until I give him the foods he likes. A bad habit that I do not want to encourage. Truthfully I'm also tired of preparing two separate meals. If my own kids don't eat part or all of their meals, they have to wait until the next snack or meal.

His parents are frustrated too but I think they're afraid he'll starve so I think they feed into his pickiness. I do a food log with them so they know which new foods I've tried.

I'm not sure if this approach is actually helping or hindering his progress.

Thoughts? Opinions?

[SecondAve]

I had a similar dilemma a while back and posted on here as well. The ladies gave me excellent advice. In the end I did what most said... put it in front of dck and ignored if they ate it or not. I quit offering anything else and they had to wait until the next meal/snack. I also keep a log book of what the children eat and bowel movements. All I would write is what was served and a note if they refused to eat it. I never mentioned that I wasn't providing an alternative and they never questioned it. It only took a couple of weeks and now that dck eats tons of foods that used to be refused. The advice worked wonders! I just needed to build up the confidence to do it and know the child was not in fact starving.

[playfelt]

I have a 19 month old that I am struggling with for eating but yes just tell the parents what was served and what little of it she actually ate. She was really good at eating most foods till she got pneumonia in the winter and was really sick for a week. This child is underweight to begin with so could not afford to go without food so it became a struggle just to get anything into her and mom catered. Not upset about that because I agree it was necessary - ie soft foods, easily swallowed with little effort required because she could barely breath to take longer to swallow, etc.

Now that she is better mom has not insisted on her going back to her regular diet and child is holding out so instead of eating apple slices they have to be softened in the microwave with brown sugar and cinnamon - yes I like that too but at daycare lunch they come raw and sliced and too bad. Right now she eats NO fruits or vegetables, No juice, about 4 meat choices and of course anything carbs. I don't stress it and mom just makes up for lack of eating lunch at supper which again just complicates the learning to eat all foods again so it is a constant circle. At least she is cheap to feed because I only give her one slice of each to stare at during the meal.

[Momof4]

I've had children start here as young as 10 months who eat all the table food the other children eat but chopped really small. I keep serving about a tablespoon of each item at each meal with seconds and thirds if they eat for the little ones.

I had a little one start with me who had never eaten fruit for her parents and she's been here almost 4 months and she's eating every fruit I serve. I have a picky veggie eater and her Mom is so impressed that I've gotten her to eat so many new veggies, but hey by the time we run around all morning and she sits down to lunch she's darn hungry and she eats. I don't offer any alternatives, what I serve for meals is what we are eating. Then I'm not throwing food in the garbage as they learn to eat what I serve.

However, I do keep books for each child with notes about what they like and don't like so when I buy my groceries I buy the favourite foods and pretty much cook the same things every week. My dckids don't mind the same foods every week, but I give them lots of variety and mix up the food items very well so they don't have the same thing daily. I have a chicken lunch, a pork lunch, a fish lunch, a cheese lunch and a beef lunch weekly. In the same way I vary the fruits, veggies and grain items.