Please Help! 22m old will not eat protein

[vivs]

I have a very strong willed 22m old who will not eat protein. This is becoming more and more stressful and making meal times a real chore.
He is my 3rd child so there is any type of food available that he wants to eat, he simply refuses to put anything other than the things he likes in his mouth. The food he likes are vegetables, fruit, plain pasta ,potato latkes and bread. He has never even tried any processed foods like pizza, fish fingers or anything that may provide some protein even if it's not in it's purest form.
Non of my friends can advise me as he will not open his mouth so there seems little we can do. Although he understands i feel that "starving " him if he refuses to eat the meal I provide is somewhat punitive at this age.
Any suggestions please, (before I lose it!)

If he likes bread, make paninis - toast two slices of bread, stick cheese, ham etc inside, and toast again.

Also, bread eaters tend to eat whatever you put in pastry. I cook meat, cut it in small pieces, roll it up in small stripes of pastry, & cook in oven. DD eats it all. She doesn't eat meat in any other form.

Does he drink plenty of milk? Remember there is protein in that. Also, could you grate cheese into potato latkes before cooking? Or add chopped cooked meat?

I used to make vegetable fritters for my little girl - one egg, a few flattish tbsp of flour, a little milk and mix in any veg and some cheese. Grated courgettes are really nice. Or even add finely chopped ham or similar. They take just a few minutes to make and not much longer to cook.

And how about lentils? Some children who don't like meat but do like vegetables seem to like lentils better - I think it's partly a texture thing. I do a nice lentil recipe with lots of veg if you want it.

He does eat an Annabel Karmel lentil thing, but that is the only thing he will have. It gets me down that this is the only thing he will have and I'm still blending food at this age.
He won't even put any of the other foods suggested in his mouth. Tonight tries making interesting shaped sandwiches with cutters for dinner. Both and then the plate were thrown off the tray...

Any other suggestions for the behavioural management of this?

At this point, your options re behavioural management are limited, I'm afraid.

In another year, you will be able to say "Daddy reads three stories at bedtime when DS eats all his food", for example.

But is it acceptable to give him one option (that he won't try) and then say, that's it, there's nothing else? Or do I give in and every meal is cucumber crackers and fruit for dessert?

My take on it is that it's better to leave the battle of wills to a bit later, when he will actually understand why you are not giving him what he wants.

At under 2, I would just try different formats of passing the same food under his radar. As I said before, pureeing stuff and hiding it wrapped in pastry is a great way to get them to eat pretty much anything.

I don't see why it has to be 'nothing else' or 'cucumber crackers'.

If you make sure the meal that everyone is having includes one thing he likes, it doesn't matter if he eats only the carrots at one meal and only the pasta at the other. Eventually he'll try the protein.

Like CA says, if you are worried about him protein intake, you can sneak it into things.

At that age the only protein my DS would eat was the yolk of a soft boiled egg on soldiers.

He is not a big meat eater now but he relishes steak because it gives you muscles and he is going through that whole wanting to be big and strong like Daddy thing.

Well DD can be fussy and has been off "protien" for a while now. Tonight we had pork chops. She would not eat the sliced meat on her plate but when she saw me pick up the bone and nibble at the meat (very ladylike I know!) she suddenly wanted some. So she ate what was left on mine and then ate DHs as well. We were careful to hold it so she didn't get bone in her mouth.

SHe still wanted more so I held a bit of sliced meat against the bone and she pulled it off and popped it in her mouth.

I suspect the novelty would wear off after a while but we will be having Pork chops again very soon

Also - have you tried plain white fish? Flaked so he can pick up small bits. DD likes Undyed smoked haddock or cod. She won't eat the plain fish but likes the smoked flavour - salty I supose.

My ds was a bit similar at this age.

He had a tummy bug that left him intolerant to dairy which had been his main source of protein at that point, so i was a bit worried. I had been hoping to hold off giving him nuts until he was three (allergic family) but at this point started letting him have peanut butter which he loved. I also let him have other nuts for snacks too.

Would he take something spread on bread? Pate, peanut/cashew nut butter/spreading cheese/fish paste?

How about baked beans? Jacket Pots with baked beans? Or, could you grate some 'secret' cheese into the lentils?

My 21 month old DD does not many carbs to speak of, never eats more than a mouthful of breakfast and if there is ANYTHING more interesting than food going on then she is there is a shot.

I am sure she is more than aware of the power of saying 'no' to food. I have tried many things and now I am just going with the flow. She will eat a wider food base at some stage but in the meantime I put Dalivit in her milk at night to make sure she has a wide range of vits going in (long running battle with immune system due to reflux until 14 months.)

Good luck, i am sure once your DS hits pre-school and the other kids are eating a wide range he will munch them down.

Pasta is made from eggs = protein.

If you combine a grain with a pulse you get protein. E.g. rice with lentils or broad bean pate with bread.

Am not sure what potato latkes are but they sound like they have the potential for hiding egg in them...

Does he like cheese sauce? You could hide fish in that.

Peas - very high in protein!

"The protein in peas is of poorer quality than protein in eggs, meat and fish however if peas protein is combined with various other plant foods it produces a complete protein source. An example would be rice and peas. The two foods go well together because pea proteins lacks certain amino acids necessary for growth, these are present in the rice making the meal a complete protein source.

If all essential amino acids are not present the protein in peas cannot be used for growth or maintenance of tissues. In this case the protein in peas is often burned as fuel or may be converted into fat and stored.

Pasta with a good handful of peas - job done!

There is some protein in bread - not much, and not in an ideal form, but some.

Egg stirred into pasta? What about picnics? Occasionally when ds is being picky, I put a rug down and put little bowls of food out and they graze. Or (bad mother confession coming up) I put him in front of the tv...not something I like to do, but it means he gets some nourishment into him.

I do think strategies to manage/improve his eating are limited - trickery, maybe, but certainly not coaxing/cajoling/threatening. It's really about you finding ways to cope with it - if you spend ages making something that is rejected, that's disheartening and is going to raise your blood pressure. So go for low stress options - give him what he likes plus one protein-based thing, and if he eats it, great. If he doesn't, you've tried. I understand (I really do) the frustration of serving the same thing over and over again, but if he likes Annabel's Lentils, why not just give him those every other day, and something else the other days? If he likes it, great, and at least he's getting the nutrients. Crucially, don't turn every mealtime into a battle of wills (easy to say, much easier to do in practice - I speak after a fairly fraught tea time where ds refused to eat anything at all).

Good luck!

Doodle - i was unaware to be honest that rice was so good with veggies to give a protein source. Rice is the only carb DD will eat hence she has it at most meals in some form or other. no wonder she is growing like a bean, the staple at the moment is chicken risotto!

how about involving him in preparing food, eg baking cheese scones - pretty much like bread, rolls with nuts inside them? maybe he's then feel he had more control over what was coming as he helped to make it?

Eggy bread?,Cheesy mashed potato,Egg fried rice?
Just keep putting a bit of protein you are having on a plate for him with something else he likes and he may try some one day just to surprise you.Don't try to canjole him to eat anything

It is probably a texture thing.Ds only likes his meat with gravy to soften and fish with mashed potato.He loves lentil moussaka and puy lentils with rice which are like vegetables.

It is really hard when they don't eat.

Had to go out last night and have come back to some great suggestions, Thanks!
I will continue to try giving him the food I give to my other 2, the problem with all the suggestions is that he simply will not put anything new in to his mouth, he'd probably love it all if he'd just try. That's where the battle of wills begins which, I know is less than helpful.
He was the easiest of my 3 to wean and loved all meat based things, but would never eat anything in a cheese sauce and flatly refuses to snack on a babybel, (which my other 2 love for the novelty value of the shape and wrapper) or any other cheese.
I think it is more to do with stubbornness and not getting caught in a cycle of bad behaviours on both our parts....

He's still quite young. I have never been able to insist DS tries anything new. Forcing them makes it worse IMO.
DS is 5 now and we have got past him freaking it out if we put it on his plate, and most times he will try one mouthful.

ds2 is exactly the same (20 months).
He likes fishcakes, though.
I just keep offering him bits of meat/fish with his rice and carrots. One day one will go in his mouth instead of bouncing off the floor...but am prepared for it to be a while...
bolognese sauce vigourously pureed so no "bits" of mince is also OK.