Monday, June 23, 2008

Trauma free dining

What on earth does a toddler eat? Very little, if she's mine. Bebe Lulu has a very small repertoire of foods she will allow into her mouth, and very few of these will be eaten every time:

hot dogs
yogurt
bananas
grapes
ham
cheese
crackers
salami
fruit snacks
mandarin oranges
a hamburger (about 1/3 of the times we offer it)
french fries (about 1/3 of the time)
meatballs
noodles
eggs
bagel and cream cheese
toast
pizza

And that is about it. Which makes planning dinners hard and annoying. I SWORE I would not be the kind of mom who makes totally separate meals for her kids, but its starting to go in that direction. I always offer her what we are eating, but the number one response is "I don't like it." And if she's had it before: "I don't like it anymore." So tonight we tried falafel (new), couscous (LOVED before), cukes in yogurt (both had before). Her response "YUCK." She ate half a yogurt.

She supposedly eats everything at day care. But then again she always pees on the potty there too.

So...how do you encourage new foods without dinner time becoming a battle and food becoming a HUGE issue? I feel like forcing her to eat gets us nowhere. (She'll chew food but never swallow it) and I don't want her to be hungry. Bushe's too young to make decisions about nutrition for herself. So I got nothing.

Advice?

2 comments:

Vicky said...

I wish I had advice. Becca is worse than Lulu. She won't eat pizza, bagels,salami, or ham. Bec won't even try new foods or foods she hasn't had in a while. Let me know if you figure out something that works.

Christa said...

I did this: Bug had two choices 1)What we were eating or 2)A PB&J sandwich. He chose the PB&J 9 times outta 10 and ate like a champ for day-care (figures, huh?) This only last a month - he got sick of the sandwiches and decided to eat what we had...sometimes he complains and I revert back to the PB&J. And now his big thing is this: "fine Mooooooooom, I'll just be hungry then" Ok, dude - your choice. He was at the table eating 5 minutes later. Kids just like to watch their parents squirm.

She's beautiful and growing - don't worry if she won't eat - when she's hungry enough, she'll eat!

Oh and check out my new melodramatic blog! :)