HELP... Need some ideas on how to get my 23mth old to eat different foods..

[TaRhLi.]

O.K so DD is now 23 mths old and has become a very fussy eater. She was always really good with her food and was willing to try anything but recently she has taken up the habit of having to smell everything she eats and if it doesn't smell good then she won't try it or if I put food in front of her she will taste a small amount and leave the rest.

I'm stumped as to what other foods I can offer her, so any ideas would be fantastic. At the moment all she seems to eat are Bananas, Apples, Muiltigrain Vegemite sandwiches and of course any treat ie: tiny teddy biscuits, Ginger Nut biscuits and White chocolate. Recently she has gone off of sultana's and dry cheerios's cereal (my stop gap snack) and her favourite vegetable broccoli.

In the evening I will always serve her up a meal with either fish or chicken (she will sometimes eat mince meat in spaghetti bolognese) and vegetables or on those lazy nights fish fingers/chicken nuggets and oven cooked french fries but she will only pick at these things and then push the plate away. However after every meal of this happening she will then go to her food cupboard looking for bikkies, luckily it has a lock on it and she doesn't get anything until her bottle of milk before bed.

So I need ideas on what to offer her as either snacks during the day or meals, she refuses to eat any type of berries (weird huh) and we have tried carrot/celery sticks as well. No go to Yogurt, cheese etc... I am seriously running out of ideas and patience and also as we are a 1 income family with DD and the twins I hate seeing food being thrown away.

Please help...

[Rivlas]

When you cut up the vegies for dinner/tea get her to 'help' you. I have found they will graze on what you are cutting up not realizing it is good for them.
Growing cos type lettuce, peas, beans, tomatoes etc that can be picked out of the garden is another way. All of these can be easily grown in pots

[ElleJay]

Wish I could help but DS is just as bad
Good luck Hun! Xx


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - even though I should be cleaning

[TaRhLi.]

It seems tonight she decided that her dinner wasn't to her liking, but when DH got home from work and had his dinner (exactly the same food as DD's dinner) she had to share with him and ate probably 3 times as much as she ate from her own plate.

Maybe for the time being I need to create one big plate at dinner time for everyone to share from and she just might eat more food that way. I just need to get more food into her.

[onthefly]

Two things that help us: Let DS steal food from us or pretend we are going to steal his.

If she prefers snacking, that's olk, just make them small versions of meals - so she's still getting good food. Really try to avoid bribery or rewards for eating - they learn to manipulate you into giving them junk and will hold out for it.
It is normal for them to go through stages, so the important thing is to ride it out. She won't starve herself. Just keep putting good food in front of her and she will eat.

[RhiChiChi]

I read an article somewhere that said it can take up to 10 times for a food to be offered before a child will eat it - perhaps keep offering a the same 'new' food for 10 days in a row??