DD recently had a 2 week period where her top 2 teeth were coming through and she was in a lot of pain. I offered the same food as everyone else as usual but she would only pick at it and eat the things on the plate she liked (i.e. pasta, fish, chicken, yoghurt, rice pudding). She seems ok now, but her eating has gone to pot over the last few weeks. Beforehand she would eat most vegetables and a fair amount of fruit, and a wide variety of protein and carbs, plus lots of different flavours, i.e. most things I put in front of her. Now she will sometimes eat carrot but all other veg is ignored or tossed over the side of the high chair. She has even gone right off tomatoes and oranges which were her favourite things (I guess because the acidity was hurting her sore gums and now she is a bit scared of it hurting again?).
I'm loathe to do that hiding veg in sauces thing as I want her to eat properly how she always has done, but she will not touch any veg I give her, be it steamed on the side or mixed in to things like curries and risottos, and she won't eat much fruit other than grapes and blueberries (she was always a bit fussier about fruit). Because she always ate a broad range of things we didn't mind her having rice pudding, cake or biscuits occasionally but I have had to start rationing those even further so she doesn't get into a sweet stuff only mode. She was BLW and is incredibly independent - she has been spoon feeding herself for the last couple of months too but point blank refuses to be spoon fed by anyone so there is no way I can even shovel anything in quickly without her noticing.
Any tips on getting her to eat a wide variety of food again? Is it just a matter of putting everything on her plate and hoping that she just picks them up at some point? Do I have to start making pasta sauces with 20 different veg in? She has always eaten whatever the rest of the family eats, with the occasional exception, and she eats all meals with whichever of the family is around so I'm not sure what else to try really. Do you think a sticker chart would work for a 1 year old? :o