check this out for crap food intake!!!

[Evita]

I know I've posted here before on this topic but it really is getting more and more beyond a joke. My daughter's food intake that is. She's 14 months and so incredibly fussy. This is all she's accepted to eat for the last 10 days, the same EVERY day:

Breakfast: 2oz baby cereal with formula. 3oz formula to drink.

Lunch: half a potato waffle and half a jar chicken and veg casserole, 2oz water.

Mid-afternoon snack: 2oz formula, half a vanilla soya dessert.

Tea: 4oz baby rice, fruit and formula. 3oz formula.

Bedtime: breast feed.

I don't want to give her jars or rather jar as she'll only eat one type but she won't touch anything different. I certainly don't want her to have the tea she does but again it's either that or nothing. Occasionally she'll eat a piece of pasta (dry) or a quarter of a piece of toast (also dry) and apart from that she won't even attempt to put anything different in he mouth. She picks it up, pulls a face and throws it on the floor. If I'm trying to feed her she stares at me with a clamped mouth. Does anyone else have this sort of problem? Any tips? Should I just be very hard about it? Will it end? She's very small for her age but has lots of energy (though does tire quite quickly) and sleeps generally well. I never show her how stressed I am and as soon as she starts fiddling and fussing I end the meal.

It honestly could be worse. It really, reall8y could. PITA, but she isn't going to die of starvation or malnutrition...I think

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I do give her vitamin drops in the hope it'll help a bit. The thing is she's been on this diet for months and months but she's just suddenly cut the quantity and I'm sure she must be bored with it but just won't try anything new. I'm forever shopping and cooking and it's all rejected.

Does she feed herself? Does she want to?

Will she eat fruit? it's sweet and cut into fingers it's easy for them to have a go. Melon was a favourite of dd at that age.

could she be teething? - my dd also went through a similar phase and it turned out that she was chewing her tongue with emerging molars (back teeth) and poor little mite had mouth ulcers!!!

I used teething gel/bongela for a while, something not too acidic to drink / eat, keep up with the vitamin drops.

Once they had cleared up her appitite retured (though still quite repetitive)

I agree it could be worse. I don't think there is much you can do apart from carrying on offering simple food choices at mealtimes - eg a slice of bread, some chopped fruit, a flapjack, a square of cheese, raisins etc. Really small quantities. Also maybe eat with her? It does sound like you are doing everything right and it will probably be a phase.

salt, she does feed herself things she likes like potato waffle and the odd bit of dry bread. But she won't eat things she doesn't like the texture of in her hand. That includes fruit and salad things because they're cold and wet. She won't eat bread or potatoes with anything on them either because they're 'slimy.' AGH!!!

Debl, she is teething but not molars and I can't see anything in her mouth. She's just incredibly fussy and I'm running out of ideas for warm dry food to give her as that's the texture she seems to like best. So long as it's potato of course.

aloha, I do try to eat with her whenever I can. Can't tell you how sick I am of potato waffles. She's got this weird habit of trying to feed me whatever it is I'm trying to feed her. In fact she's always trying to feed everyone from strangers to toys. No idea what that means.

How do you get the chicken jars down her ? Would she try dipping her potato waffle toast breadstick etc in a puree of other things. What about like strips of chicken or fish in breadcrumbs, even homemade potato wedges. Can she manage a spoon yet, even if a bit cackhanded, practising on yogurt or cereal perhaps. Are you eating with her as we found that the fastest way to encourage them to try proper food. You are doing the right thing not making a fuss but I know from experience that is little consolation when you are going through it.

Evita - I'm a bit phobic about slimy food too. Pasta - eek! And I too prefer toast to bread. I can't stand sandwiches. Anyway, enough about my bizarre hangups. How about rice cakes - ds loves the baby Organix apple ones because they are slightly sweet, biscuits (digestives or rich tea etc), flapjacks, bits of crumbly non-slimy carrot cake, crumpets (though they are on the slimy side for me ) breadsticks with stuff to dip them in (my ds calls hummous/taramasalata/guacamole etc 'dip dip' toast with a smear of marmite? And keep those waffles coming.
My ds likes to feed too. At 27 months he likes to pretend feed everyone - offering us imaginary cakes all the time. It's very sweet.

My ds does the same. If he has decided that he doesnt want to eat that is it. He just stares at me tight lipped. Sometimes if I distract him by playing or putting a video on he forgets himself and will take food.
My ds often rejects new food - but if I try it again he will eat it. I often sit him in his highchair with plasic bags underneath (to catch the debris) and fill up his highchair tray with lots of things - raisins, strips of cheese, cereal things lke this. And he finds it fun playing with the food - and this intices him to eat.
He is always much worse when he is teething. The way to look at it is she is eating a fair amount looking at your list- children can live on a lot less food than we think. she will eat if she is hungry - so try not to worry.

My ds does the same. If he has decided that he doesnt want to eat that is it. He just stares at me tight lipped. Sometimes if I distract him by playing or putting a video on he forgets himself and will take food.
My ds often rejects new food - but if I try it again he will eat it. I often sit him in his highchair with plasic bags underneath (to catch the debris) and fill up his highchair tray with lots of things - raisins, strips of cheese, cereal things lke this. And he finds it fun playing with the food - and this intices him to eat.
He is always much worse when he is teething. The way to look at it is she is eating a fair amount looking at your list- children can live on a lot less food than we think. she will eat if she is hungry - so try not to worry.

My ds does the same. If he has decided that he doesnt want to eat that is it. He just stares at me tight lipped. Sometimes if I distract him by playing or putting a video on he forgets himself and will take food.
My ds often rejects new food - but if I try it again he will eat it. I often sit him in his highchair with plasic bags underneath (to catch the debris) and fill up his highchair tray with lots of things - raisins, strips of cheese, cereal things lke this. And he finds it fun playing with the food - and this intices him to eat.
He is always much worse when he is teething. The way to look at it is she is eating a fair amount looking at your list- children can live on a lot less food than we think. she will eat if she is hungry - so try not to worry.

My ds does the same. If he has decided that he doesnt want to eat that is it. He just stares at me tight lipped. Sometimes if I distract him by playing or putting a video on he forgets himself and will take food.
My ds often rejects new food - but if I try it again he will eat it. I often sit him in his highchair with plasic bags underneath (to catch the debris) and fill up his highchair tray with lots of things - raisins, strips of cheese, cereal things lke this. And he finds it fun playing with the food - and this intices him to eat.
He is always much worse when he is teething. The way to look at it is she is eating a fair amount looking at your list- children can live on a lot less food than we think. she will eat if she is hungry - so try not to worry.

Apologises for the multiple messaging below - my computer went on a go slow and I got impatient and kept clicking!

LIZS, I do sort of what lyndsey 66 says, i.e. have to completely distract her, usually by playing a video she likes and spooning food in while she's watching. If I don't she doesn't eat. And what she does eat isn't much to write home about!

lyndsey 66, I've tried all those things you suggested like biscuits, cakes, crumpets etc. No joy. She's so-so with rice cakes and bread sticks. I will try giving her things to dunk bread sticks in. And I do try giving her the spoon. She doesn't put it anywhere near the food but sits chewing on it, watching t.v. If I turn the t.v. off she chucks the spoon.

It's enough to turn you into a loon isn't it?

evita
i have had a bad week with my fussy eater, i have numerous threads on her!
she will not eat savoury bar pasta and its got to be M & S star pasta (they told me its discontinued today because of christmas, i nearly collapsed in the store, whats she going to eat for the next 2 weeks)

she refuses anything new,
got her on crackers last week, but half a cracker in the mron could be still there late afternoon. we are in no rush,
fruit - pear/apple. banana NOOOOO
i get in to terrible states and panic.
reduced her milk to make her hungrier - didnt work.
starve somedays so shes really hungry by 5.
just give her a light lunch so maybe she'll try something different a teatime.
i gave up making stuff because the freezer got full of it! and i need room for christmas.

oh its really heartbreaking and frustrating.
i end up getting cross and annoyed over it and my dh gets the brunt of that!

My ds is 3yrs old now & a terrible eater.He was really good as a baby but around 18-24mths began refusing everything served in a bowl & eventually only eating toast & a few dry cold finger foods.He has autism & Im told this is quite the norm for autistic kids but its still worrying.He has times when he will only eat toast for weeks,he will not eat anything healthy,fruit & veg etc.Ive tried talking to many professionals about it but they all say the same thing"keep trying him with new foods but if he doesnt eat them dont worry as long as hes growing".So thats what I do & give multivits in his juice(he wont drink milk or water either,only weak orange cordial).Aaaarrrrgh!!!

hermykne I know exactly how you feel! Maybe we should swap email addresses and let each other know if we find anything they'll eat. How old is your daughter?

SPACLINE, when did you find out your son is autistic? I wonder if there's a problem with my daughter quite often.

Sorry Im so slow replying,I just cant seem to find time to get online with all the xmas panic.
Anyway,both my kids are in the process of being assessed for diagnosis but with ds2 its pretty obvious its autism.I noticed problems or differences around 18 to 24 months which usually when autism begins or begins to be noticed.It seems to have taken forever to get this far,ds1 is 6 now!but noone wants to put a label on your child which can be a bad thing as you cant always get the support you need without it.I started by mentioning things to my health visitor anyway & it all led from there but I had to really push it at first.

My sil's dd only eats yoghurt and occasionaly crisps. It is stange that you mention a link with autism spaceline as she doesn't interact very well IMO and repeats lots of things without understanding. I have wondered before if it was just her personality , I hadn't thought about the food issue.
It is difficult as there are other things but her mum hasn't mentioned anything and I put the food faddiness down to the fact that if you offer a child something sweet they will always prefer it.It is difficult when we visit as there used to be terrible food fights(like force feeding) and my dd got a bit upset about it. Food is such an emotive issue.

Offering food to other to you and other people is a normal development of social routine. Offering it to toys shows early development of imagination. Children with autism tend not to have these skills.
I have a two year old that lives on milk and very little else. So long as your daughter is thriving try not to worry. Some children improve greatly as they get older my ten year old is still picky, but my seven year old eats like desperate dan.
maddie