My dd has stopped eating the healthy foods apart from fruit?

[sheepgomeep]

This has really stumped me as she has always ate really really well. She is dc no 4 and she is 19 months. The other 3 dc have been pretty good eaters and Ive been very fortunate that they have liked a wide range of food.

dd3 was going the same way or so I though. The last 3 months she has slowly stopped eating her meal;s and instead will only eat cheese strings, chips, weetabix, some spaghetti shapes (sometimes), the odd bit of ham, yoghurts and jelly and fruit like bananas, blueberries and raspberries, oranges. she wont touch veggies or bread or potatoes or rice

I have put lovely meals like cottage pie, fish pie, mash and beans, spag bog all stuff she used to tuck into with relish but now its met with a no and its pushed away.

Even the food she will eat, the quantity is so small like six or seven mouthfuls, sometimes less thens its pushed away and shes asking for fruit or a yoghurt.

Ive tried ignoring, I never force her and I dont care if she gets messy. Ive never hovered. She only has a bottle of milk in the morning (she will eat her breakfast though) and one in the evening and water throughout the day.

Its so odd and frustrating, she ate six chips for tea and a bowlful of blueberries and raspberries.

She has has a lot of runny noses lately and couple of colds though but nothing heavy with a temp or anything.

The phase lasted years with all of them -- to age 15 with DD1.

might try the vitimins actually, might stop me worrying. She putting weight on though. She's got a little belly and her little legs are chunky at the top.

15!

sorry the milk thing wasn't directed at you! It was the person next to you who said it.
A yoghurt is a portion of petite filous so 3 yogs = 3 portions of food. Meat is common to refuse because they can't be bothered to chew it. If you are vegetarian though it is even more important to ensure she eats well and gets the nurtrients from nuts, lentils, tofu, TVP etc.

My mum was the one who mentioned control especially once they start feeding themselves it's the one area in life that they can control and obviously the more upset mum gets the better (her words) I do think she is right ds always ate anything when i fed him the only thing he ever refused when I fed him was fruit both me and his dad have allergies to fruit so I don't push fruit but I would like him to eat veg. I do stay calm and if he doesn't eat I don't make a fuss but if later he says he is hungry I sometimes give in and give him sweets or biscuits I know, I know I shouldn't but I do worry if he hasn't eaten all day. Other peoples negative comments don't help either, I feel guilty enough, especially ex who will suddenly demand that ds sees a specialist which I haven't done yet as I don't think it neccessary.

toddlers shouldn't be too chunky, they mostly look like they have a pot belly because of posture though

Toody it sounds like you could have used a good HV who could have given you good advice regarding not giving in or giving sweets.

Also just because you and dh have an allergy? to fruit (you are very rare as less than 0.1% of the population have clear allergies to fruit and sensitivity is more likely i.e. lip tingling/ loose stools) it doesn't mean your child will.

I think your mum sounds very wise toody. And I think this may be part of the problem with my dd3.

Anxious She's not chunky as in big. Hmm she was 9lb12.5 born but never really put a lot of weight on, she's never been a big drinker and she never weaned until she was nearly 6 months as she just wasn't bothered by eating. But after about 10 months she just ate really well. She's still in 12-18 month clothes as she isnt particularly tall either. I just think she looks chunkier to me as i'm so used to her looking petite. I see what you mean by the potbelly though (it is cute though)

Anxious I don't always give in very occassionally and don't get me started on hv already posted on what is the point of hv. I know the right way to react but as the OP says it is worrying, I know it's a phase and hoped it wouldn't last long now mathanxiety says 15 yrs - help!

I dont give her sweets though, dont want her to have teeth like her dad by the time she's thirty. His are terrible, fizzy drinks and sweet stuff.. yuk

oops sorry I'm getting confused between posters, getting tired, off to bed ladies night x

Toody precisely ..........that is one of their points . Unfortunately you didn't have a very good one, because giving sweets if they don't eat just fills their tiny tums with empty calories and no nutrients! If you need to 'fill them up' give something healthy that they will eat.

Night sheep

Except he wont eat anything healthy and as I said it is very rare I give in think I will speak to dr or pharmacist about vitamins that would make me feel better if I knew he was getting vitamins while I wait for this phase to pass. I do give him veg on his plate so I am hoping one day curiosity will get the better of him and he will just try it. Other than that I'm at a loss what to do - interestingly I am a childminder and one of the other children has just started to feed himself and mum has said suddenly he wont eat his dinner at night and he has just started refusing some of his lunches with me.

toody they do go through refusing but if you give in and they are allowed to refuse it does become a habit and develops the fear. I am not saying they have to clear the plate but to get treats they must at least try a little of each thing. I was a CM for 3 years and worked in a network, we all had dc who did this but they had firm boundries about eating and it worked. They also didn't get away from the table to play until every child had finished because they then realise that they are rewarded for not eating by being allowed to play before everyone else.

out of interest what was your cm training like because in mine it didn't give any real instruction on dealing with particular behaviours.

toody have you thought that the childminded child may be copying your childs behaviour

Had holiday in Florida this year ds loved Mickey so for many weeks Mickey left present on door step when ds ate some dinner ( stickers, comics etc never sweets) this worked well until novelty wore off.
Sorry to keep you up - you had already said night xpost, so night thanks for your advise.

Bribery is always good Night

We are going through this. I just don't know how to get her to try something she doesn't want and I tried keeping her in her high chair tonight and she banged her head on the corner of it she had such a tantrum.

She also used to beca great eater and now just says yuk to everything I put in from of her. She is 21 months.

A former neighbour of mine used to put protein powder, oat bran, and finely grated veggies of all kinds into mini muffins, plus grated apples and pears. She hid nutrition wherever she could when her toddler started pushing food away. An aunt of mine gritted her teeth and introduced ketchup with all meals. Now I cast my mind back, I used to get DD3, the pickiest food refuser of them all, to eat eggs a few times a week. She liked a scrambled egg on toast at lunchtime and sometimes asked for a mayonnaise sandwich [bleurrgh].