Not eating veggies or meat

Amy has decided she only wants to eat cheese and sultanas. She will reluctantly eat some veggies sometimes and has Weetbix for breakfast. She is still getting 3 cups of milk a day and we were thinking of decreasing the milk feeds. She has never liked meat and doesn’t eat it much. I will look for some recipes to hide veggies and meat in and she eats muffins like Zuccini & ham and banana that I made her. I’m sure it is just a phase as she used to be a great eater. She is really good at flinging the food on the floor from her highchair. She is a healthy baby in the normal weight range.

Should we be concerned? Should we consider giving her vitamins?

Matilda went through this phase for oh... 6 months. She just refused all meat & veges had to be hidden well. I would offer her dinner and watch it land on the floor & we would try heaps of different ways to encourage her to eat. I'm pretty sure its an age & developmental thing.

She ate heaps of omelettes... cheesy ones with zucchini or carrot grated finely through. And muffins and bolognaise with vege's hidden in it. I made sure I had at least 3-4 meals a week that had hidden veges & then the rest were normal meals as I felt she had to "learn" how to eat them again. Matilda ate heaps of fruit as well so I just let her have that fresh too.

Now she eats 80% of the food thats put before her & that makes me happy. She may decide one day she doesn't like something, but she generally will leave it alone or eat around it and then may eat it the next day. The only thing she definately hates is red meat that isn't minced & I can live with that ;)

I posted a recipe the other day in the recipes section for pikelets which are healthy & you can add in a range of veges.

My DD#1 at around 18 months of age refused to eat anything. I attempted to go back to work for 2 days per week, and my mother looked after her. I remember days when i would pick her up and mum would say 'she only ate a biscuit today' . YOu wonder how they survive, and what they're insides are doing !! But you would be amazed at what children live on. She has just turned 3 and is a good eater. I suppose your concerened with the nutrional aspect. Your daughter is doing well - milk, weetbix, zucchini. My DD isnt a big meat eater either..... I read somewhere that toddlers can become very lazy with food, especially with meat; meat can often take too long to chew and swallow - there's more important things to do - for them anyway. I now cut up a lamb cutlet or a chop into bite size pieces. She seems to enjoy that.
I know its not very reasurring, but i found it was a phase my DD went thru.

gemma

arhh welcome to my world pmsl - sorry don't mean to laugh at you just with you.

lani is now 2 and i swear she is almost as bad as my first with eating - i can guarantee you that she goes to bed without dinner most nights - she just simply refuses to eat it, and i refuse to cook her a seperate meal.

anyway what i have started doing is giving her something on her plate with her meal, ie she will have a serving of everything we have and little servings, i mean 1 pea and 1 carrot etc, she also has on her plate something that i know she will eat - at the moment it is either apple or bread. now of course she eats what i know she will and then will push her plate away and say all gone and patiently wait for everyone else finishes - hopefully one day she may just put a pea in her mouth lol. last week she accidentaly got a smidge of pumpkin in (it was stuck on the bottom of the apple lol)

i have also put her on pentavite liquid vitamin, so i know in my heart that at least she is getting something and dinner times i don't seem to feel so stressed about it.

the only times she eats her dinner is when i make chow mein - but hey we are not eating that every night lol - once a week is bad enough and as i said before I REFUSE to be cooking different meals for everyone, that may be harsh but that is me and my ds who was also quite fussy is now 6yrs old and has the best appetite and will try anything new (even brussel sprouts he didn't like them by the way but will try them) so i do know that it will get better, just gotta keep reminding myself everynight.

good luck

Gemma, Maddy went off meat for about a year maybe more, but she devoured big bowls of veggies, slowly she has come back round to earing meat, but now isnt keen on fruit... Its' just phases really!!

I guess all you can do is just keep offering and hope that this phase will pass. Sammy doesnt eat meat (as we dont either) at all but he loves most everything else and sometimes will go through cycles of eating a particular thing..right now cheese, sultanas and mandarins. The girls have all had fussy periods but have always pulled through. Goodluck

Jo

I hear you loud and clear! Miss M won't eat vegies either. I attempt to give them to her every night - usually covered in baked beans as this is the only way if there is any chance at all that she will eat theml! Luckly she will eat meat and most nights it's just meat and pasta - plain pasta, no sauce - yuk. I'm a vegie and love my pasta too but 7 nights a week - please no. I spoke to the MCHN and she said not to worry, we do give her fruit after her dinner everynight and I also make a banana smoothie after dinner if she hasn't eaten much to try and fill her up. She was a great eater up until about 8 months ago and now i wonder where my vegie eater has gone! I don't worry too much, like Amy she has weetbix, sandwiches, yoghurt, fruit etc during the day so I'm hoping she will grow out of it. Someone once said to me it is our job to put the food on the table and their job to eat it - I try and remind myself of this everynight as my wonderful (not) cooking is rejected! No answers just letting you know you are not alone!

I read a great way to get meat hidden into dishes is to freeze largish pieces of cooked meat and then grate it - it is supposed to flake (I haven't tried it myself though so don't know how easy it is) - gets it smaller than mince and no lumps.
Also, maybe they could pick at the small pieces and no chewing required :)

Thanks everyone for your replies, it is good to know Amy is not the only one. She has started eating her vegies again and DH even gave her some mince under cheese on toast which she ate for breakfast. She still stands at the fridge door and asks for cheese but at least she is eating more than cheese now. Thanks again.:)

Gemma - don't stress too much. Gab has just come out the other end of a super fussy stage where she wouldn't eat anything! No fruit (unless it was puree'), no meat, would only each cheese if it was grated. She would eat weetbix, toast (but not sandwitches... oh no!), snacks like rice crackers etc. She was driving me batty!
I just kept offering and offering and offering.
Finally she came out the other end! She suddenly decided she would eat the sultanas instead of piff them around the room. She also started eating sandwitches and fruit and all the handy food that I wanted her to eat!
Last night she ate a whole bowl of lasagne! Something I never imagined she'd ever do.
Just stick to your guns. Amy will eventually start eating more things. It's frustrating but all you can do is keep offering (never assume they won't eat it because that might be the day they change their mind!).