How are fussy eaters created?

[luna moth]

Maybe every 2-3 days have a "just give in" day. What a child eats over 48 hours is more important than 2 x 24 hour periods, and I think you're less likely to build bad habits.
If you're worried about sugar, can you go for a sugar free yoghurt and mix it up with a bit of a sweet fruit puree?
For iron, put a little bit of iron fortified rice cereal in with the yoghurt-puree mix. Value add, if you will

One little girl that I used to nanny for came across as a fussy eater when I first met her, but it turned out that she was just having too much milk at the wrong times of day, so she was filling up on that and then not eating. By adjusting her daily bottles, all of a sudden she was eating huge amounts of anything we could give her. So could it be that as well?

It's great that you're conscious of not creating bad habits. You're already doing the best just by being aware of it.

[~Kim~]

In my experience fussy eaters aren't created they are born that way and can be coaxed (quite successfully) into being adventurous eaters.
Neither of my two were great at the start either. Heck DS chose to only eat frozen peas for a fortnight a while back, and my DD was a yoghurt lover too. Neither of them ate well until well over 1. I have the only two children i know that will eat a laksa or butter chicken or garlic prawns. There will always be wasted food while they're learning. They will only eat to satisfy themselves - gluttony is a learned behaviour, so often their definition of enough is markedly different to yours. Food isn't their main source of nutrition until after 1 so as long as she's still BFing /drinking her bottles don't worry about her levels. Food is a discovery as much as filling a need. The texture/smell/tactility/taste is all new. Try giving her a piece of meat to suck on (a decent sized piece if you're worried about choking).
SOme things I have discovered in my years of trying to get children to eat
don't make it a battle - if they are hungry they'll eat and won't starve, but the second they smell a fight- they'll be itching to take the side opposite to yours
offer a variety all the time, but also offer what they like as well. I know it's a bit hard with yoghurt but I offer what my DD calls a 'picnic plate' when they're being a bit fussy with chopped up vegies, fruit, crackers, sandwiches cut out with a biscuit cutter, savoury muffins etc, but only a tiny bit of everything so it doesn't look too hard to eat.
roll model good eating habits
make it fun, let her eat outside/on a towel on the floor etc and have her help you make it. Pop her up on the bench and pick out what she'd like
often eating off your plate is far more exciting than their own

[Barb Glare]

I agree with Kmn,

Fussy eaters are born, not created. all children will go through periods of fussiness. As the parent, set your face to neutral and plough on. Don't take food refusal personally. Don't think it's something that's *your fault*, be flexible, but staightforward about it - it could go on for a number of years. With 4 children including 2 teenagers I can usually be assured that some-one will tell me loudly how much they hate what I just dished up.

[Arimeh]

I say don't stress so much - your bub is only 10 months old!! Plenty of time to get interested in other stuff. Is she teething? My near 10 month old is more reluctant to eat things when her mouth is hurting. And she's a yoghurt lover too!!

However my 3.5 year old and 2 year old are fussy eaters. Very fussy. But we don't give in to their fussiness - they get served what we are eating and if they don't eat it - their loss. I tell my kids that I'm not running a restaurant, and if they don't want to eat the food (not usually cos they don't like it, just cos they like to get mummy mad) then its them that goes hungry - not me.

My 2 year old was eating everything and anything when she was 10 months old, and I was sooo over the moon, thinking that I had got a kid that wasn't fussy (DS has always been fussy). But nope - she got to about 20 months, and then turned fussy. Now we are lucky if she bites a piece of carrot of a night time!! DS was the same, but has gotten slightly better, we can mostly bribe him to eat his dinner... LOL

I definitely agree that they are born, not created.

[deletedit]

often eating off your plate is far more exciting than their own

How true. DD#2 eats anything she can steal And given that she can open the fridge, the amount of food she can steal is rather substantial.

DD#1 was a great eater as a toddler, then went into fussy eating mode for ... oh, 7 years ... and will eat a lot more stuff now. In fact, she tells us all about it - "I LOVE chips! I used to HATE chips!" Yes, we noticed. I think she's just got old enough for peer pressure to kick in, and every other kid in the universe (especially her little sister) likes chips

[turtleschell]

My 30yo BIL still picks out all the veges in his meals. :/ Not sure what my point is.. just saying for shock value I suppose.