What am I going to do with this kid?
She has texture issues, wet and dry issues, taste issues and smell
issues! Of course it goes without saying that breastmilk is still her preferred
food. Seriously though, this kid has almost no variety in her diet
and what I can manage to get down her throat STILL comes out of a baby food
jar.
In the beginning I made all of her baby food but as we got into newer foods it
got too difficult and time consuming to keep up with steaming, pureeing, and
then storing them so we started using those Earth's Best, or whatever the heck
they are called, jarred organic baby foods. And now, unless it's grilled
cheese, breaded fish fillets, crab cakes, Kix, Cheerios, dried apples, bananas
and strawberries or pizza, she won't eat it. Well, she'll eat green beans
and fruits out of a jar and sometimes she'll even deign to eat one of the
larger jars of chunky baby food. Her only other "consistent"
are those no-sugar-added little 4oz tubs of applesauce.
This is really frustrating because when we were letting her use those mesh
safe feeders the kid would eat ANYTHING we put in there. Heck, I probably
could have put Brussels sprouts (just the thought of those makes me gag) in it
and she would have gnawed it to death. We put apples, bananas,
watermelon, blueberries, you name it, it went in the mesh feeder and she would
pulverize it. But try putting sliced apples or strawberries in front of her
now and she won't touch them. She picks things up - but ONLY if they
aren't gooey and wet...then she sniffs it and if and only IF it passes the
sniff test will she put it in her mouth! Rarely does anything new ever get
beyond the sniff test.
A few months ago she was even eating ground sirloin and grilled chicken but
now she won't touch them unless we're at a restaurant. Grrrrrrr. This is
totally and completely frustrating. Last Sunday night she devoured some
roast turkey breast we had for Easter tea. But the other day she threw it
on the floor. Uhg!
I've even made sure she watches us eat a variety of foods thinking that
would entice her to try something new. Nope. Doesn't work.
Believe me, I have read everything out there on picky eaters and trolled the
message boards that deal with toddlers and picky eaters and we've tried it
all. I've even done something I said I'd never do...give her juice.
I don't like juice because it's just fruit flavourred sugar water without the
satiety she'd experience, nor the fiber, if she ate the fruit itself. But
I was desperate. Nope, she really doesn't like it. Same with cow's
milk. The cow-milk thing doesn't concern me so much because of all the
crap that they give the cows, and the damage that homogenization does to
milk. But it does kinda make me wonder if I'm still gonna be a milk-mama
when she's 5!!!!! Oi!
She will drink organic smoothies that I "water-down" with either
soy or rice milk and sometimes cows milk. But that's about it.
What's a mom to do when her 15 month olds dietary repertoire is so limited
and she can't get the kiddo to try anything new?
