[littlecat]

Our 12 mo DD has gone from eating anything to eating next to nothing!
We never had any problems with vegetables, she would eat them all (apart from peas but I can't blame her for that!). But now if I serve her a meal with vegies she will pick every single one out and throw them on the floor. It can be meat and veg, pasta and veg or anything, in the end they all end up on the floor!
We are at the point where she is hardly eating anything because of this.

Any advice? And if she doesn't eat what we give her do we call it a day or offer something I know she will eat?
I am so scared of creating bad habits and it getting worse

[emiboo]

14mo DS is the same. it's a pain in the butt and makes me really anxious and angry at mealtimes. i've started to just ignore him, because when he is being looked after at creche(i.e., i'm not there!), he eats EVERYTHING in his lunchbox.

[*mylittleprince*]

Have you thought about pureeing them down for the sauces just for now? Then I would add one or two veg per night so she gets used to seeing them/touching them and eventually eating them. Good luck!

[CurlySpikes]

ignore it - its a phase (more than likely!) keep offering them, and they 'should' show an interest!

Above all - stop stressing! Give her a good balanced meal and let her choose what to eat. Eat the same food yourself and let her see you eat it, make it a normal thing to eat veggies and she'll learn.

She will eat some - sometimes!

[Flutter Bug]

Hello, welcome to my world

My child did exactly the same thing - went from eating all of the good stuff to eating none of it!

I tried 'hiding' vegies in her food. Things that worked a bit were frittatas made in a muffin tin, omlettes with finely grated vegies, toasted sandwiches with avocado spread on the bread with some cheese (so I knew she's eaten at least one vegie type food for the week)! You could try smoothies and hide some fruit in there.

But in all honesty, nothing I tried really worked. They seem to assert their independence at that age and I felt like I was fighting a losing battle! Someone gave me some good advice - not to worry aboutt what they eat in a single meal, or even day but to consider what they've eaten over the course of a whole week - their diet is usually not too bad when you look at it from that persepective.

Despite all of the food dramas and seeming to live off nothing, DD is happy and healthy! She is now 2 and I'm starting to win some food battles and she is eating more of the good stuff now(so it's been a year of this sorry to tell you!).

The hardest thing is staying calm - when all of your beautiful home cooked meals continue to get frisbeed across the room or thrown on the floor it's hard not to get upset!

And if she didn't eat what I gave her then I didn't offer her something else. I knew that she liked the food I was offereing her because she used to eat it all the time. I felt mean doing it but no child will starve themselves! I didn't want her to think that she could say no to what I was offering her and then get whatever she wanted (what she wanted to eat was fruit bars or crackers!).

Best of luck! I wish I had some great advice to give you or a way to fix the problem but unfortunately I think it's just something you have to roll with and just do the best you can!

[squirt081]

I've been fighting this for 1.5yrs now. I dont make a big deal of it and most nights if DD doesn't eat dinner she doesn't get anything else. Having said that she has started saying no before she even sees it. The last 2 nights she hasn't had any dinner cause she just wont eat it.

BUT she will often eat 2 lunches at daycare and thats loaded with veggies.

Good luck OP

[CallMeProtart]

This won't help much, but mine did the same from about 14 months - and they were AMAZING eaters before that!
DS now ONLY eats rice, and DD eats tuna and spaghetti, or tuna and rice. Both will eat bread, and drink heaps of milk.

At the moment I'm just running with it, I tried forcing the issue and it just lead to a 2 hour screaming standoff with DD (and she didn't give in). Additionally, they are still at the age where if I deny them what they want, I'M the one who gets woken up at night by them asking for milk.

The plus side is that mealtimes are stress free - they get what they want.
The downside is the lack of nutrition, so I supplement with vitamins, rafferty's packets of veggie smoothies, and fruit.

I'm planning when they are 3 and 4 to try to make a rule that they HAVE to taste whatever they are offerred otherwise they don't get anything else that night... or whatever age they seem able to understand that sort of consequence. Not looking forward to it!