Food allergies and picky eaters

[NYCVeg]

My dd, who has very extensive food allergies, is going through a picky phase. A looooong picky phase. She's 3 (almost 4), so I know this is age-appropriate, but I do find it worrisome.

We're far from perfect, but we try to cook reasonably healthy meals. Tonight, for instance, we made meatloaf (all our meat is from a local farm--grass-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free); mashed potatoes; steamed broccoli; and a big salad with lettuce, cucumbers, and carrots. Cantaloupe for dessert. Dd ate two helpings of mashed potatoes and her cantaloupe, and that was it. The other things she ate today were: homemade corn muffin for breakfast; fresh strawberries, a brown rice cake, and some veggie booty for school snacks; organic turkey and cheese on brown rice bread, fruit salad, and a couple of nibbles of cucumber for lunch. She gets a small treat every day, and today it was two miniature gluten-free cookies.

She's eating less protein than I'd like and is completely turning her nose up at veggies. She'll eat lima beans, and take maybe a bite of broccoli or carrots, but my former veggie-eater is mostly uninterested. We make lots of veggie-rich homemade soups, for instance, and these days she won't touch them.

We give her a multi-vitamin, as well as probiotics and some extra vit D. Other than that, is there anything to do except stick it out? Because of the extent of her allergies, it's VERY hard to come up with new recipes or to "sneak" things in. It's taken us a long, long time to come up with a good rotation of dishes that are safe for her and healthy/tasty enough for us.

[bluejaunte]

For the past two weeks, my 2yo wants nothing but dry gluten-free cereal. All. Day. Long. And when he doesn't get it, there is Wrath of Toddler.

Nor will he touch soups. Or smoothies. Or sandwiches. Or anything requiring a spoon. Or anything with sauce. Or any kind of dip. (For "touch" read "eat" -- he's perfectly content to use it as finger paint.)

And he was just dx with multiple food allergies on Saturday. Quite ready for him to outgrow the pickiness YESTERDAY.

[tuscany123]

It's so hard when kids go through stages like that. I try to remember to see what they eat over the course of 1 or 2 weeks rather than day by day. If they are eating healthy over the long run than they are doing ok

You eat much better than we do! Some of my short cuts are to hide veggies in the foods my kids do like. They love spaghetti and tomato sauce, but will tolerate meat in the sauce too. I steam up broccoli and cauliflower, puree it, and add it to the spaghetti sauce. When I use whole wheat pasta, they are getting a well rounded meal and don't even know it. If she's turning her nose up at meat, would she eat spaghetti sauce with meat that you puree up all together when it's cooked?

I shred carrot extremely fine in my food processor and add LOTS of it to my meat loaf. I use the leanest ground beef I can find, but also grind up a breast of chicken to lighten it up further.

Your muffins sound simply delicious. How about some zuccinni, or carrots, either finely shredded or pureed and added to the mix?

It's a stage, and it will pass. My 2 yr old DS used to love strawberries, but now if you offer him one he'll sling it across the room! I am sure in time he will love them again, but for now it's irritating!

Good luck

PS My ds was just diagnosed with multiple food allergies also, so I share your joy (JK!)

[NYCVeg]

Originally Posted by tuscany123

It's so hard when kids go through stages like that. I try to remember to see what they eat over the course of 1 or 2 weeks rather than day by day. If they are eating healthy over the long run than they are doing ok

You eat much better than we do! Some of my short cuts are to hide veggies in the foods my kids do like. They love spaghetti and tomato sauce, but will tolerate meat in the sauce too. I steam up broccoli and cauliflower, puree it, and add it to the spaghetti sauce. When I use whole wheat pasta, they are getting a well rounded meal and don't even know it. If she's turning her nose up at meat, would she eat spaghetti sauce with meat that you puree up all together when it's cooked?

I shred carrot extremely fine in my food processor and add LOTS of it to my meat loaf. I use the leanest ground beef I can find, but also grind up a breast of chicken to lighten it up further.

Your muffins sound simply delicious. How about some zuccinni, or carrots, either finely shredded or pureed and added to the mix?

It's a stage, and it will pass. My 2 yr old DS used to love strawberries, but now if you offer him one he'll sling it across the room! I am sure in time he will love them again, but for now it's irritating!

Good luck

PS My ds was just diagnosed with multiple food allergies also, so I share your joy (JK!)

Dd is allergic to tomatoes, which is one of our major stumbling blocks. So many of the foods into which it's easy to sneak veggies (pasta, lasagna, pizza) are pretty much off-limits to her. The meat thing is hit or miss. She does pretty well with turkey sandwiches, but won't eat ham or other sandwich meats. Dinner is tougher--if we make steak or roast chicken, for instance, she often eats some. But we haven't had luck with much of anything else lately, and you can't have steak every night! It's really frustrating because we get all this beautiful meat from the farm. We do a CSA, so you don't get to choose what cuts you get; so we pretty much just to have find recipes to fit whatever we get. We invest a ton of money in getting the good stuff, and put in a ton of time preparing it, and then she won't touch it. Toddlers.

But honestly, the lack of veggies is a much bigger concern to me. The only saving grace where produce is concerned is that she eats a decent amount of fruit.

She does pretty well with whole grains, at least compared to most toddlers, largely because of her food allergies--so she eats brown rice, brown rice pasta, brown rice crackers, etc. Quinoa sometimes. Oatmeal very occasionally. Millet very occasionally. She does eat lots of less healthy flour as well though (largely corn, some white rice).

[kjbrown92]

What are the restrictions, maybe we can brainstorm....

One of the things my kids liked to do was dip veggies (for us it's in gravy if they're hot veggies, or coconut milk yogurt turned into dip or mashed avocado for raw veggies). I also make mustard so that they can dip meats into honey mustard or maple syrup mustard (DD2 can't have honey).

We use coconut milk (in baking, smoothies, millet porridge, etc.) for the extra fat. And we make veggies all different ways. Saute spinach or steam it. Raw carrots, cooked carrots, roasted carrots. Turkey soup with celery, broccoli and turkey meatballs in it. My kids like meatballs so we have Swedish meatballs, meatballs on toothpicks, meatballs in soup, meatballs in gravy, etc. DS likes hamburgers but not steak, DD1 likes steak but not burgers. Pot roast is nice and moist, and gravy with the drippings is a good fat. Zucchini muffins, zucchini-chickpea fritters, carrotcake muffins... Just keep trying and changing it up. Sometimes we hit on a winner.

[FireWithin]

My youngest is almost the same exact age as your lo, who has extensive allergies, refuses to eat many veggies. I juice veggies and add a safe fruit to sweeten it. Apples would be best but he can't eat apples. Whatever is not finished gets turned into ice pops.

[lil_miss_understood]

I'm another one that purees or shreds veggies and adds them to meatballs, meatloaf and hamburger patties. I do the same with lentils and beans (usually more my meatloaf than the other two, although DS1 really likes black beans in his burgers sometimes).
There's also a company called Nomato which makes tomato "substitutes". There are probably knock-off recipes on the web and I believe some of the ladies here have come up with some tomato-free pasta and pizza sauces.

[NYCVeg]

We should definitely try some smoothies. For awhile, dd wouldn't eat them, but it's been a long time since we tried. In general, she only drinks water, but I'd certainly be game for trying some fresh juices. As for sneaking veggies in: the moment we add anything to anything, she won't eat it. So if there's "texture" to the hamburger, she won't touch it. And she rejected the meatloaf completely. She will eat carrot muffins, but they're not exactly "healthy," except for the carrots. She does like guacamole, but won't eat avocado on sandwiches.

Today's dinner: ate half her pork chop (after a short, age-appropriate lecture on the various macronutrients ), her corn muffin, and her strawberries. Took one nibble of broccoli, made a face, and excused herself from the table. Ate all of her lunch except the carrots and the honeydew (but did eat the cantaloupe).

Here's her complete list of allergens. I appreciate the brainstorming!

*wheat
*gluten (rye, barley, spelt, etc.)
*peanuts
*tree nuts
*eggs
*fish
*shellfish
*coconut
*lentils
*peas
*soy (mild--can tolerate small amounts, like lecithin, or small amounts of Bragg's liquid aminos)
*tomatoes (also mild; can tolerate small amounts, but won't touch anything is she can taste the tomato-i-ness; I think there's some physical "memory" of how she used to react to them, if that makes sense)

[NYCVeg]

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo

My youngest is almost the same exact age as your lo, who has extensive allergies, refuses to eat many veggies. I juice veggies and add a safe fruit to sweeten it. Apples would be best but he can't eat apples. Whatever is not finished gets turned into ice pops.

What veggies do you juice? Just curious what the 3-yo palate will tolerate.

[lil_miss_understood]

oh! my step-dad used to make what he called "Mennonite" meatballs that had pureed raw onions and pureed potatoes in them. Occasionally he'd put pureed carrots in them as well. They were SO GOOD!! Of course, they were practically deep-fried but...

[baby-makes-3]

Anytime I make a soup or stew (base of beans/lentils/veggies) I use an immersion blender to disguise some of the veggies DD will not otherwise eat. It gives it a nicer texture she seems to prefer as well.....