Anyone else have/had a new food phobic toddler? Would love to know how i am supposed to get him to try new foods......

[sannie]

my ds's diet is very limited - he likes pasta pesto, tortelini,omelette etc....

I would love for him to eat a wider range of foods but he completely freakes out if I put anything new in front of him. Take yesterday for example, I gave him spinach tortelini and instead of the usual tomato sauce (just sauted chopped tomato) I gave him some homemade tomato sauce made with tinned tomatos and lots of veg - v tasty. However, it had a slightly different shade of red to the usual sauce and he refused to eat it. He will also only eat pink yoghurt, only pasta spirals, only one variety of chocolate, only veg when it is in a veg omelette - I could go on....he will also only use a particular spoon and fork to eat with...

This has been going on for some time now .... all attempts at new food, even when combined with stuff he does like, remain untouched and my toddlers tummy remains empty.....All of my friends kids look at me wierdly when I tell them all this and their kids eat anything put in front of them....

I remove myself from mealtimes just in case I overfuss and just leave him to it....

So, sorry for the rambling :-)

Anyone else been through this with their dc? Is it just a phase? Should I bother trying to introduce new stuff?

Oh, I'm going to see if he wants to bake fairy cakes with me for his birthday to see if that will help ....he's 2 btw...

thanks if you got this far

You need to keep calm and not freak out.

He is at least eating all of the food groups so will not die of malnutrition!

My ds (now 3.5) ate egg and beans and toast for 3 weeks in a row!

I didnt freak out but wanted him to eat and just put a little bit of what we were eating in front of him too. He just had to smell it or lick it.

Now he is a bit older and wants to be a big boy like ds1 (6) he gobbles up all foods inc chick peas, squid, all vegetables and polenta!!

Just persevere.

my 20 month won't eat anything at all!! Except a biscuit. He has steadily got worse over the last two weeks. I am at the end of my tether with him. I took him to the doctor and she checked him over and said don't worry he won't starve himself. Of course I am worrying.

Friends child ate chips and ketchup for a whole year. No breakfast, no lunch, just chips and sauce. My DS will only eat Dolmio with pasta. Wont touch my homemade sauces, or ragu. Nad my DD will only eat green edges off cucumber, not the nice white middle part. Its hard not to give in to their indulgences. Only give them a choice of 2, so I've been told. Not "what would you like?" just "Which one do you want? blank or blank"

exactly the same in this household! ds is 3.5 . Every so often I panic and flap about on here for a bit, and each time I am given the same great advice: keep the faith, don't panic, if they're healthy thriving and happy all is well, give vitamins if worried, many toddlers are narrow minded when it comes to new things especially food, and best of all: ignore any mothers who roll their eyes making you feel as though your ds is odd and you're a bad mother for "only letting him" eat 3 or 4 different things. Odds on theirs doesn't sleep as well as yours, or is/will hate potty training or something, every child is different.

and of course the one I hang onto fervently: This Too Shall Pass. I bloody hope so!

Also, if someone tells you that you should only offer 1 thing and if he doesn't eat it not to worry just remove calmly and don't offer a substitute because he won't starve himself....hmm tried that, didn't know ds could be so stubborn and in hindsight wish I hadn't tried it as it traumatised both of us plus reduced his appetite due to eating practically nothing so we had to build that up again as well, having well and truly put him off food altogether. SO - if he's happy and healthy try not to worry!

My dd is fussy also. Will only eat certain foods. I put things on her plate that are new (and I know she wont eat them!) along with her normal meal, and once in a blue moon she will shock me by having a bit. But I keep trying, if only to stop her being freaked out by something new being presented to her.
I don't offer her an alternative to a meal I know she likes, by the time I've finished preparing, cooking and serving I'll be buggered if I'm doing it all again cos she isn't eating it! Eventually she will usually eat a decent amount, if not we bribe with lolly / fruit / pudding / yoghurt and she will normally eat some more. If she just doens't want it, fair enough, it's never long until her next meal and she has a supper too. She is a lean little thing tho, bless her, but thats mainly down to her 'favoured' foods consisting for the most part of fruit and salad. If it weren't for yoghurt, chips, roast potatoes, burgers, sausage and crisps, she'd be a twig. So try not to worry!

You don't...apparently

They just get to an age where they don't try new things...then it will eventually pass...then they will leave home.

I keep giving the 'poisonous things' and I keep throwing them out to the hens.

My ds 3.5 went through a 'phase' like this from about 2 to the age of 3. He ate anything and everything when he was weaning, never spat anything out or refused anything. Then it seemed to change overnight and he had a very limited range of food for what seemed like an eternity. However we perservered with putting new foods on his plate, alongside his familiar foods, every mealtime, without even mentioning them or expecting him to eat them. Every now and then he would eat a tiny bit and now he eats a much wider range of foods and tries new stuff without prompting. I now have a child who proclaims his favourite foods to be carrots and broccoli!! I found it incredibly worrying but it seems all the advice I was given about him 'growing out of it' is coming true I hope!

thanks for all your replies :-))

He's not underweight so I will try not to worry and fuss so much :-) Hopefully he will grow out of it and will also love to eat carrots and broccoli!

I had a very fussy toddler - now I have a very fussy 6 year old

He refuses to try anything new but, fortunately, the stuff that he does like is all quite healthy and balanced.

I have given up trying too hard as it just led to a load of stress and lots of shouty tea times

any hope for a 21m that's like this? from having grreat diet up until 18m because she feeds heself will now not eat any veg at all no matter how presented, nothing with a sauce, no red meat. she lives on fruit & cheese. I'm satying calm & only offering her what I've cooked but her likes seem to change daily - what she eats one day she doesn't touch the next & its driving me MAD. rant over, sorry.

Hi Sanni, I once went on a family day where one of the speakers was a dietician. She told us that children can take up to 30 attempts at trying a food before they can actually say if they like it or not. She advised us at each meal time to give them a meal with food they like and then put a small teaspoon of something new (like a veg) on the side. At first they won't go near it as it is strange but by doing this at every meal they get used to seeing it and it loses it's strangeness! If they touch the new food or taste it you should give them loads of praise. No comment or reaction for a negative response. You have to use the same new food each time (she advised us to cook a batch and freeze it) and then once they have cracked one move on to another. A lengthy process but you never know it might work. Good luck

My DD now nearly 17 months has always been neophobic, have had real struggle weaning her - she hated mush, did BLW but still has a very limited variety of food. I find that if she is teething it comes down to mainly pasta and pesto. What is it with pesto (think they lace it with some toddler addictive drug). I continue to offer a new food with old food - definitely don't do give them what you want to eat and then take it away again and eventually they will eat - doesnt work if you are still BFing.

I served DD rice and carrots for at least 8 months before she even tried it - she now likes them both. Don't think its 30 tastes of food for my DD more like 100. Mashed potato still rejected only been serving that for 11 months. Have found no method of getting salmon into her - she has rejected cheese sauce since she got rotovirus 8 months ago.

It has got me depressed at times to be honest throwing all that lovely home cooked food away. DD hates food mixed up she needs to see various component parts - she has always refused cottage pie, fish pie etc..

If one more bl**dy mother says oh they all go through their fussy stages again to me I will scream. I've never had non fussy stage - then often they say my child didn't eat this week I was so worried how have you managed for so long...

I posted a similar thread to this last week.

Agree with sweetie66, keep trying new things with them. Its very easy to get into a habit of giving them what you know they want, but then they get even worse because not seeing new foods.

Also DS has been teething on and off for the last year which totally effects his appetite.

I count a success if DS doesn't take it off his plate.

However am in cloud 9 right now as sat down with DS for lunch ( eating same things at same times highly recommended) and DS started playing with his homemade veg lasagne, then put some on his breadstick, then ate about 6 forkfuls of it. I was almost ecstatic but had to keep really calm about it.

It is hard work, but small victories make it worth persevering.