Creating a Fussy Eater???

[Ezz]

DS has been on solids for a few weeks now. He loves pear, apple & pumpkin. But, he screws his face up at carrot, avocado, sweet potato and corn. He used to like banana (ate one every day for over a week) - then suddenly refused it (I have tried the last few days to give it to him - I've tried different levels of ripeness - he still won't eat it). Can babies get "sick" of a food??

I've tried giving him "finger food" vegetables (cooked zucchini & cooked carrot). He just mushed the zucchini in his fingers (after screwing up his nose at the first taste). He chomped at the carrot - until he broke a piece off & rolled it around his mouth gagging. He will chomp on rusks - sometimes he will eat the bits that break off & sometimes he spits them out.

I keep trying these foods - because I've read it can take a while for them to develop a liking for a new taste - but he always just spits them back at me. The only way I can get him to eat them is to mix them with apple, pear or pumpkin. I'm concerned I'm creating a fussy eater - who will only eat sweet foods!!

I don't know where to go from here?? It's so disheartening giving him food after food that he spits at me!

[BellyBelly]

Introducing solids for the first time is all about tasting and learning - its not about replacing meals or milk. So you don't need to offer a massive variety and frequently, at 6 months of age his primary food source is still breastmilk and it should be offered before solids. So I wouldnt stress too much on offering him a smorgasboard of foods. They do say it takes at least 10 time to try to eat something new!

[Olive]

was goint to say the smae as kelly about it taking many times before they accept food, DD still screws her nose up at some vegies,(not many) but i still offer it and if she leaves it then so be it!!
its all about tasting and texture! such a learning experience!

[Barb Glare]

Hi,

Put your hard hat on and bunker down! You have years of this ahead of you - I would choose now to gracefully clean up the mess, accepting that this is part of babyhood and not let yourself be stressed about it.
Throughout their whole life, when you dish up the thing that was their *favourite* last week - they will leave it untouched declaring that they never liked it, then steal the thing you *knew* they didn't eat off your plate - declaring that it is their favourite now.

Good luck
Barb

[MantaRay]

Ezz, I agree with all the advice you have been given. But I would say that sometimes it is more like 100 times than 10!! But one day, they do eat that food they have refused at least 99 times before.

I can only say that from my experience, stressing over it makes it worse, as they pick up on that. Just go with the flow. As Barb said, you have years of this ahead so don't let it get to you already! Big hugs hun, I do know how frustrating it can be.

[Liz]

LOL Barb. Completely agree.

My DS isn't a fussy eater by any means.. but i can never tell what he's going to scoff down and what he's going to leave on his plate. And why the brocolli off my plate is better than the brocolli on his plate.. I'll never know! hehe. It changes all the time. I've never forced him to eat it if he doesn't want it.. but he doesn't get anything else either (altho I will let him eat as much fruit as he wants later on).

I've read that toddlers/children are actually very good at regulating what they're eating, and will feed themselves a very balanced diet over a timeframe (not necessarily each day, but say within a week) provided they are offered healthy foods and not filled up on unhealthy alternatives. And I think it's true, from observing DS.

This first year is definitely about introducing different textures and tastes, and not so much about nutrition - that comes from milk.

Screwing up the zuccini in his hand - that's all part of learning about the food. It's a good thing! Try not to worry about it. He's exploring and learning

[Olive]

sophie still gets great delight out of squesing the life put of vegies!! mind you she is an excellent fruit and veg eater!! they love to explore everything through all their senses!!

[Ezz]

Ok, so if I give him a vegie for breakfast & he won't eat it, should I...
a) chuck it out & consider the meal over?
b) chuck out the uneaten veg & give him some fruit that I know he will eat?
c) mix the veg through the fruit & give it to him?

[Liz]

Personally, I consider the meal over. And then perhaps next meal make it something that might appeal a bit more by adding fruit or something.

Perhaps it's my laziness LOL.. but I don't want to get into the habit of re-preparing meals just coz they won't eat it. They'll eat if they're hungry hehe. (maybe I'm just mean!)

ETA: re creating a fussy eater.. I think catering to them each meal if they don't eat what they're given can create fussiness, coz they'll keep refusing until they get what they want. Not that I force that meal, they just don't get anything else if they don't want it. I guess that applies more to a toddler than a 6 mth old, but it's a habit I certainly don't want heh.

[sunshine_sieben]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As the others have said, at this stage, solids are more about the experience than the nutritional value. Squashing vegetables between your fingers and drawing on the table with them seems to be lots of fun. I would often give DD one thing to play with and while she was distracted, I would shovel food into her mouth
Just don't let things like cereal dry on the table - it turns into concrete. I've learned that the hard way

It is true that it often takes them a while to "like" a new tatse. And they have a natural tendency for sweet things as breast milk is sweet. So it's not something you are doing to him. DD now has a habit of putting things inot her bowl. So if there's some pasta still on the table from her mains, but I've already brought out the yoghurt for dessert, she decides to have tuna vanilla yoghurt pasta. I don't care, as long as she eats it.

I think you're doing a great job at offering variety for him to sample. But I wouldn't "force" him to eat it as you don't want anxiety to build up around meal times. That would create even more fussiness. I agree with Liz, I do the "ok, this is what is for dinner, take it or leave it". My mum did that with us while growing up. My brother was a little fussy as a toddler. But she would say: "Alright, if you don't like the lamb, that's fine, you can just eat the potatoes" so she wouldn't let him go hungry, but she also wouldn't indulge his fussiness. Not getting attention for it quickly put a stop to it and both my brother and I eat pretty much everything these days.

I found with DD that she was much happier eating a "meal" rather than individual veges IYKWIM. For example she was happy to eat minestrone with all the veges mashed up in it, but she would not like mashed up potato by itself. I guess she's like me, she likes a bit of flavour.
I know the common advice is to introduce foods by themselves and see if there is a reaction. But I decided to ignore that advice and just offered DD what we had in a more mushy form.
So, if we had tuna penne for dinner, I would cook some risoni for her and serve them with the same sauce. If we had Thai Green Curry Chicken with rice, I would give her the same just with extra coconut cream and more rice to dull the spicyness. If we had Cottage Pie, I would feed her the mash, mince and gravy from my plate.
As someone else said, they loooove to eat what you eat.

I also found that DD would eat more and with more pleasure if we all sat down to eat together. So I tried to have dinner ready the minute DH came home so that we could all eat together. We don't always manage to do that, but we try to do that a few times a week. it's a nice habit to get into as a family. But it can also get a little stressful in the afternoons when you have to get it all ready. Pre-cooking really helps here.

All the best, Saša

[Ezz]

I tried a bit of a mega-mix for lunch today (apple, zucchini & carrot) & he was happy with that. So, I think I'm going to try mixing things up a bit more - not worry so much about the single vegies (because, let's face it, I don't eat single vegies either - they always have sauce, salt, or other vegies with them)

[sunshine_sieben]

great to hear he was happier eating.
I just remembered that I got given a vegetarian baby cook book when DD was born. I'm not vegetarian and I think the only reason I was given that book was that it was the only German kids cook book our friend could find in Sydney.
When I introduced DD to solids, I initially used one og th "recipes" in there. Her first meal was pureed steamed carrot with a dollop of butter and a little fresh pressed orange juice. The butter (you could replace this with olive oil, sunflower oil or any other of the good oils) is supposed to help with the digestion of the fat soluble vitamins and the orange juice adds Vitamin C. Carrot is naturally sweet, so not too big a shock when you're used to sweet BM. DD really liked it. She ate that for a few days after which I added some potato mash to it and then we just took off from there.
And I second the ice cube tray. I still do that to this day. Some days she eats 2 cubes of food at one meal, some days she eats 6 or 7. So I usually start with 3 cubes and then see how we go. I can always defrost more. But I hate throwing it out.

Saša

[Ezz]

I do the icecube trick too! - that's how I can mix the vegies. I make separate cubes of each type of veg, then mix them up when I heat them up.

[BhoysGirl]

Hey Ezz,

My DS is a little older than yours, but for the last 3 or so months I've been doing a mega-mix all in one - pumpkin, zucchini, carrot, beans,broccoli, parsnip, corn, peas, cauliflower - all pureed up together in the blender, and then I hand mash through some potato at the end. I do it like this cos my DS has been really fussy, and it's been a way to get him to eat a broad range of vegies in a way that he wouldn't have done otherwise. All frozen into ice cubes. I also do a pumpkin/steak or pumpkin chicken puree mix to add the the vegies, so that he gets some meat into him occasionally too, although you're maybe a couple of months away from introducing meat yet. Doing the vegies in one big mix i reckon saves me time, as the all get cooked together in the one pot, although I stagger the cooking process a little, as obviously things like peas & corn cook really quickly, whereas pumpkin & carrots can take a little longer to soften. And I have to confess that a couple of times when I've had freshly cooked up vegies, DF & I have had a spoonful or two on our plates for dinner, surprisingly tasty....

[sunshine_sieben]

To be honest, DD had meat from about 7 months. I had never heard of having to wait to introduce it... and I don't think there is an issue with it if you wait until 6 months to introduce solids...
Saša

[BhoysGirl]

absolutely, that's why I used the word "maybe" in the sentence about introducing meat. I certainly wasn't trying to imply that there's a strict rule about these things - every baby has their own pace I reckon, the trick being to work out your baby's pace. My DS has been really slow with taking to solids, so it's been important to me to read & listen to people's advice, and then to choose the path that felt the best for DS & me. Depending on what literature you read some say no probs for introduction at 6 months, other opinions are that it gets introduced at 8-10 months. I guess if you're doing BLS these things will take care of themselves.