[ASheppa0821]

Emma STILL struggles with pickiness. I wrote about this months ago, and it's still frustrating to me. If I try to disguise food, she notices it EVERY TIME! For instance, today I made her macaroni and cheese and finely shredded some baby carrots in it. It just looked like I hadn't stirred the cheese in completely. Well, she noticed it and refused to even take one bite! She won't eat any meat unless it's breaded chicken, no veggies unless it's fried cauliflower or fried green beens (I take what I can get with her!), but will eat fruit like crazy. Her main entrees that she'll eat are yogurt, grilled cheese, an occasional PB sandwich (VERY light PB), mac and cheese, garlic butter noodles and chicken nuggets/strips. Even with pasta, she won't eat long pasta...has to be short noodles. She won't have anything to do with pizza or tomato sauce. I got her to eat three bites out of a cheese pizza ONE TIME, and that's it.

My question is... For mothers of picky eaters to this extent - when does this phase start to change?

[KR258]

Katelyn has been picky since somewhere around 12-13 months. It hasn't ended and just seems to get worse. I'm just glad if she eats at all at this point. She sniffs all her food before eating it and opens it and inspects it.
She usually will do :
Mac n cheese
Grilled Cheese
Bread plain
Garlic bread
Pizza
Chicken nuggets
French fries
Gerber puffs

[gracet]

My 13 and 11 year olds stopped being picky at age 5, but my 8 year old is still picky. She even wipes the sauce off each strand of spaghetti! Good luck, I really know what you are going through. Our pediatrician had said they usually get what they need though. She had said not to worry about the meat yet, as they will get protein from milk, peanut butter, yogurt, the cheese on the pizza, etc which are the foods they usually like.

[ASheppa0821]

It just makes me crazy sometimes when we're wanting to go out to dinner with the family or something, and we have to pick somewhere that has one of the limited things she'll eat. It's insane! She won't even eat eggs for breakfast... Ugh...

[KR258]

I know what you mean! I wish we could go to Olive Garden but...she won't eat anything there. I don't really get why! She doesn't even like their yummy breadsticks!!!! It's crazy

[ASheppa0821]

Olive Garden has chicken strips and mac and cheese...

[dlr]

I was told, probably one of the best bits I've gotten. It's your job as a parent to prepare the child a healthy meal, it's the childs job to decide what on their plate they will eat, how much they will eat or if they will eat at all. This not to say never to go out to eat or never have chicken nuggets, fries, my DD's love McD's, but at home they get what I prepare. I don't make seperate meals for everyone. If DD doesn't want sauce on her noodles, or she wants some cheese on top I can handle those requests, but no chicken nuggets because one doesn't like hotdish. I do puree veggies (think baby food) and "hide" them because I get the "I don't like vegetables". Our meals/snacks are about the same time everyday, if DD's decide they don't want to eat, when it's snack time, their snack is applesause, banana, cheese, something healthy. Where as if they do eat good, if we have a sweet treat, they can get one. My older DD has many times eaten breakfast and not eaten again until the next morning. They won't starve themselves, they may be really hungry, but will eat when they're hungry. Some people might think that it's mean or cruel when they don't eat all day, but I did my job, I put the food in front of them, they made the choice of eating or not. I don't make things they don't like, it's all stuff they have eaten before or will eat a grandma's house, with the occasional new item. There a couple of good books Jessica Seinfeld, 'Deceptively Delicious' and another one 'The Sneaky Chef' I'm not sure on the author. They have some really good ideas and receipes in them, in 'Deceptively Delicious' there is a blueberry bar type thing with spinach in it. Sounds eww, but they are so good, applesauce muffins. Check them out from the local library. Well, there's my opinion on the topic anyway!

[ASheppa0821]

Emma does eat healthy things. She's always eating fruit with most every meal, and for snacks, it's usually whole grain puffs or fruit again, or yogurt, etc. I don't just feed her junk. I hide veggies in certain things, and do my best. It's very difficult because she's such a texture baby. She's gone for two days before with eating no more than a couple bites in those two days, but still, nothing. I keep presenting her with veggies or healthy alternatives. I don't just put the same thing in front of her every single time. There are days where she barely eats anything. All I can do is do my best. It's kind of hard to hide veggies when the foods she will eat are not very easy to hide the food in. You can't really puree veggies and do much with breaded chicken or garlic butter noodles.

[Labhaoise]

does she like certain colours? Maybe if she does you could add food colouring to some foods- like having pink eggs or something?
But yeah, when she's hungry she'll eat!

[dlr]

I would say you are doing your job very well than, you are giving her healthy options, choices. She's deciding not to eat, I wouldn't force her to eat, I think that would only make it worse. Hopefully it's just a phase and she's just to busy wanting to do something else.