Happy Eater to Mr. Picky

I am not sure when it happened, but sometime in the last few months my super fantastic eater has turned into Mr. Picky.  I really feel I gave the nutrition battle all I had in those early days of weaning, to set this kid up for success. I made all of Rory’s food myself and offered it in a colourful variety... In fact, bottled food never touched my child’s mouth until about 9 or 10 months when we stayed for  an unplanned dinner in Peterborough, and I had to run out to the local grocery store. He ate it that night, but when I offered it again, he flat out refused.

As we have turned the corner into more baby and eventually toddler led feeding (small pieces of food cut up on his tray that he picks up and eats on his own). The large variety of fruits and vegetables this kid used to devour has seriously started to dwindle.  Recently it’s gotten to the point that all he is eating is cheese, bread, cheerios, oatmeal cereal, pasta, hummus, avocado, bananas, yogurt, apple sauce, mum mums and formula.  

So Terrible.

And, I really really don’t want to raise a picky eater.  So what to do?

I have spent the last couple of weeks reading about dwindling appetites as kids approach one.  There are lots of theories.  Too distracted, too much formula/filling up on liquids, asserting independence, emerging sweet tooth, offering too large a variety at one meal... Blah blah blah.  My real fear is what the heck is this kid going to eat at daycare when he refuses lunch? Because they certainly will not be offering multiple choices at the dinner table like we are?

So here’s a few things we’re doing. We’re weaning him off the bottle.  It's apparently easier at one than it is at two, and I want him to start eating better anyway, so why not?  And actually, it is going super well.  As of this weekend we're down from four to two. He only has a bottle when he wakes up in the morning and one before bed and everything else is sippy cup. Total side note here, but sippy cups have been the bane of my existence for a few months now. I have easily spent $75 dollars (at 5 or 6 bucks a pop) on different kinds of cups trying to get Rory to just drink even a little bit, from one.  To no avail... Until I found this one.  

Actually, until one of my mom friends found this one.  It’s amazing. It’s a sippy cup sensation. We now have four of them, and Rory will pound back entire bottles of water AND milk out of them.   HOORAY! And so awesome that he won’t be dehydrated all summer. Right?

If you’re interested, you can get them at Marshall’s for like 3.00$ on clearance (regularly sold for 12.35$ each). We were there today.

The other “break through”  we had this weekend (aside from Rory trying Watermelon and him LOVING it), is such a simple idea I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself.  My suspicion about this food regression with Rory has been he doesn’t like the texture of a lot of the fruit and veggies I put on his plate for him to pick up himself.  He squishes most of his dinner in his hands and makes this "yuk" face. But he LOVES the same dinner if I puree it, so it’s definitely not a total food revolt.  So, I read on line that rolling fruit and veggies in a cereal (like corn flake crumbs) might help.  

So we tired it out and guess what?!!!  HE DEVOURED his entire tray!!!  YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I even got him to eat raspberries. Which, is pretty much a fruit miracle in this house.

Anyway, if you’re ever having similar issues, give it a shot.  The dip and feed technique has helped us round a major picky eater corner. My happy eater just might be back!