I know this has been asked a million times.. I'm totally dropping the ball on feeding my son dinner. He eats a decent breakfast and lunch and we don't overdo snacks but dinners are the SAME thing- pasta, beets (?), frozen veggies (sometimes), Greek yogurt, toast.
(I cook ethnic food, spicy chili/ soups, salads and fish a lot so almost everything we eat is out as leftovers.)
He generally won't eat meat.
Any ideas? Halp!
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I don't have any advice but I can commiserate. My daughter only wants pasta, bread, and cheese. Sometimes she'll eat fruit.
It drives me nuts because I try to have a really healthy diet and DD won't touch meat or veggies. Her pediatrician just told us to make sure she has access to those foods at meals and maybe one day she'll eat them
It's frustrating.
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A couple ideas:
quesedillas, these can be cheese to start and you can experiment with flavors beginning from mild mozzarella to more complex cheddar. You can also introduce beans this way.
Look for things like broccoli fries in the freezer aisle (they are mostly potato, but have some broccoli in the mixture), the Dr Praeger's fish nuggets (mild tasting), spinach bites, etc.
Another idea is to do some food chaining, start with a food that is eaten and start offering variations. My son eats French fries and waffle fries, but not tater tots or mashed potatoes yet, but we're working on it.
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One other thing to consider is that she might just not be hungry. My son is a good eater but sometimes just doesn’t want any dinner. You may have better luck not stressing (especially if the rest of the day is good eating wise) and serving whatever you want in a good variety. He will get exposed to new things, see you enjoying it, and may or may not eat it. But being exposed to it is good and eventually he may surprise you. Especially if you see no adverse impact on his sleep/ growth, that may make you less frustrated.
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what about beans? my DD loves white beans in pesto, so that's my fall back when I don't have a protein to give her!
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@pachamama: that's funny about the beets. So random.
It's probably just a phase, especially if he samples the other food once in a while, but here are some suggestions... I've had some luck hiding vegetables in pasta. Sometimes the kids will eat yogurt with honey or cut-up fruit. And some salads go over well, but I never know which ones. Yesterday I made broccoli and mushroom salad, which would normally have them running away screaming - but this time they volunteered to help cut everything, ate half of the ingredients in the process, and then ate most of what did make it into the salad bowl. Go figure
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Just commiseration here. Our staples for DS are chips with cheddar cheese melted on top, eggs, cheese pizza, and PB and Honey sandwiches. The only "meat" he will eat is hot dogs or sausage links. He use to love avocado toast but recently he wont touch it, that was our only veg he would eat. I get the pasta "hidden veggies" even though I know it really isn't that great and even then he wont always eat pasta. I can get him to eat cinnamon apple sauce pouches, drinkable monkey yogurts, and a few green grapes a week. I always give the other food we are having too on his plate but he never touches it. Hoping he starts to branch out, but he has been limiting even more foods recently
I try to limit what I give of the foods he will eat on his plate and try to get him to try other things if he wants more of his foods. Hit or miss there, but mostly gags at new foods.
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@looch: I've tried the quesadillas and Dr. Praeger broccoli/ potato things and fried fish and they were a hard no
but I like the food chaining idea!
@jennlin821: he wont do beans, we eat a TON but he's been rejecting them for like 1.5 years. And won't eat avocado which kills me.
@pinkb: yes he will do processed meats like beef gyro (?!) and some meatballs. One of the most frustrating things is I try to make food for him like quesadillas or bland meatballs and he won't eat it and I HATE food waste so I just stopped trying ya know? -
@Mama Bird: another thing he randomly loves : mushrooms. We get pizza and he eats the mushrooms off and eschews the pizza. What a turd.
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@skinnycow: THIS is our son. Glad I'm not alone!
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@pachamama: Have you ruled out a mechanical issue? Is there some sensory thing going on? If you've ruled both out, then I say, don't worry. Follow Ellyn Satter.
If there's a mechanical or sensory issue, then the advice is different (as a mom of a kid with both, advice like just don't stress and let him go to bed hungry just isn't an option).
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@looch: it is probably a sensory thing but I categorize that under "2 year old eating habits". I tried to do everything right and every time he requests another ravioli or "toast with jelly" it breaks my heart
It's frustrating.
I try to limit what I give of the foods he will eat on his plate and try to get him to try other things if he wants more of his foods. Hit or miss there, but mostly gags at new foods.
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