Stuck in a food rut

[veggiemomma]

My 14mth old daughter seems to be stuck w/food. She'll only eat certain things. She used to eat everything I put in front of her. Now she won't even try the food.

This is a list of the things that she will eat only
beans- she loves them all
peas
carrots
avacado
hummus
rare occasion some potato
vegan cheese cubes
all types of fruit

I'm just worried she's not getting enough variety. Do most toddlers go through phases where they only will eat certain things?

[Christa]

Having just recently left a job that dealt with this exact issue, I thought that I would respond - I left b/c of excessive travel & philosophical differences with others in the dept re my vegan diet, not the info that I am giving you :)!

In response to whether most kids go through a picky eating phase, the answer if definately yes! The scientific word is "neophobia" which means fear of new things. Most kids hit this phase at closer to 18 months-2 y/o but maybe your little one is precocious!

In any case, her diet sounds much better than many I have seen. Some of the recommendations to get her to eat a greater variety of food include:

1) Don't pressure her. She is more likely to eat food if she feels that she has some control over what she is eating. She is also more likely to eat it if you let her explore it - in other words 'play' with it. Just keep offering her small amounts of a new food (the same new food) up to 12 times. Let her smell it, ignore it, whatever she wants to do with it, but don't pressure her to eat it. Eventually most kids will get familiar with the food if they get to explore it 8-12 times & then they will try it. They may start eating it regularly after that, maybe not, but it will help them overcome their fear of new things in any case.

2) Make it fun. Let her select a new food to try. For instance, at the produce dept, look excited & say something like "wow, look at all of these vegetables. Aren't the ___ a pretty color? What vegetable would you like to try?" Let her help 'cook' it - stir, pour in ingredients, etc. Make it into fun shapes. Make a face out of different foods.

3) Give her foods that are not a big leap from what she is already eating. For instance, if she likes tofu, introduce tempeh & play up the connection to tofu - it has soybeans just like the tofu that you like! (I know that these don't taste anything alike, but it works for some kids b/c it makes the food less unfamiliar.)

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know!

[veggiemomma]

Christa thanks for the advice.

I think she's still too little for helping out cooking, hopefully soon. I definitely don't pressure her at all thats for sure. Since she was about 8 mths she wanted to feed herself, she rarely let me feed her by spoon, so finger foods it was. I'm always offering different things in front of her, but she won't even take it. Sweet potatos, she used to love- nope won't touch it. Pasta same way. I keep trying and trying. Oh but if it's a new fruit she grabs it in a heartbeat. She does eat a lot of fruit, sometimes I worry but then I've heard of those being fruitarians, but still I worry that she's not getting enough nutrition. I suppose her diet could be worse though. I don't feed her junk food at all.

I suppose I can understand the fear of new things, but why would she all of a sudden stop eating things she used to love?

[Christa]

Yeah, my 5 y/o did that too - stopped eating things that she previously liked. I don't think that that is too uncommon, either, although I agree that it technically isn't a "new" food if they have been eating it all along. I don't know if I have ever seen a good explanation for that.

They do say, though, that this picky eating stage can last until 5ish - hopefully she'll outgrow it before then! My older dd has gotten much better about adding variety to her diet in the past year, but my 3 y/o can still be a bit picky.

Although, after seeing some omni kids who refuse to eat any fruit or vegis, or who live on just white bread and peanutbutter, I can't imagine that our vegi kids are fairing any worse! Your dd's diet really doesn't sound that bad. Many fruits have some if not many of the same vitamins as vegis, so it it great that she is still eating lots of those.

As long as she is growing well & you keep trying, I wouldn't worry too much.

[jewels]

My dd is 19 mths and her list of food she will eat is:
yogourt....
That's it ,thats the list, and she only will it silk, I have tried other soy yogurts and she wont eat them. Actually she will eat other things too, but like a bit one little baby bit and then throw it on the floor. I have even gotten to the point of not picking it up right away and hopes that she might eat it later. I don't know how she is surviving! she is still nursing but like once a day. I am so frustrated and depressed over this. I thought about starting a simular thread. Even just thinking about this now makes me want to look up to the heavens ans scream out "WHY??!?!?".
But she is a toddler, its like riding a way with her, so maybe next week she will want to eat everything in site. But in the meantime does anyone know of any vegan liquid baby/toddler vitamins? The only kind I could find had D3 along with other 'could be' ingredients. I am told that vitamins can help make her hungry but even if it doesn't I feel she needs it anyways.

[alexis]

Hehe, why does this sound suspiciously like my 3 year-old cousin? He's turning four and right now, he'll only eat:
Rice
ketchup
processed meats(Ick!)
grapes
mangoes(which my aunt refuses to let him have because it's too 'heaty'. :rolleyes: )
Is it supposed to be normal?

[veggiemomma]

jewels- wow only yogurt? has it always been like that or does it seem like a phase thing? sorry don't know anything about vegan vitamins.

alexis- what does she mean by heaty? I know my neice only got chicken nuggets, fries and cheerios when she was my dd's age. Thats only cuz thats all my SIL would feed her :rolleyes: So I guess mines doing pretty good. I was very happy the other night I gave her broccoli and she ate it and even had seconds! I've been giving her broccoli for months now and she never even touchs it. I was so excited my dh thought I was nuts, lol :D