17 m/o only wants to eat fruit and starchy snacks!

[Amandala]

...and sometimes lately I feel like that's all he does eat. Sure he nurses a few times a day still, and he will eat sweet potatoes without a fight most of the time.

Avocado, bananas, cantaloupe, kiwis, peaches, nectarines, plums.
Those Happy Baby rice puffs (the "Greens Puffs kind) and dried yogurt drops, PlumTots Fiddlesticks, and Annie's bunny crackers whenever he poops or pees in the potty. Wheat crackers, Terra Chips, blue corn tortilla chips, Whole pieces of bread (12 grain). Seemingly a ton of Nature's Path Heirloom Whole Grains or Millet Rice cereal nearly every morning.
I am hating myself for giving in to convenience.
And eggs in the morning - I slip spinach into them and he only rejects the big pieces - yogurt, and cheese. Sometimes I manage to get him to eat something that has quinoa and lentils in it.

These are the things that we have that he will eat without A) a huge fight or B) us resorting to sabotage*. And I feel like increasingly, these are the things he's eating.

He used to eat any vegetable you softened up just enough for him to eat. Any soup, pilaf. Carrot sticks and celery sticks. Sauteed medley of root vegetables. At 11 months he was a veritable black hole for food.

Now it seems like we're letting him eat nothing but fruit and snacks, just because we need him to eat or he'll become monstrous, and he refuses to eat anything else. I'm all concerned about it. Am I going to destroy this child or what?

But if he refuses to eat anything else, what do I do besides just feed him what he'll eat? Do I withhold the convenience foods, hope he'll get hungry enough to eat vegetables, and have a complete meltdown on my hands if he still doesn't, and gets too hungry? Then give him some rice puffs to calm him down, then lather, rinse, repeat?



*which I do, whenever I have the energy, the time, and it's not 100 degrees outside because sabotage often requires cooking.

[Marsupialmom]

It is your responsibility to provide nutritious foods his to decide how much. Kids go through phase of carbo-loading. It is their growing bodies and minds.

Now saying that - if you notice mood swings with eating offer more fats an proteins first. Beans and legumes, but at that ages they need a lot of carbs.

[Amandala]

Heh. .. reproducibility is what got me into this situation in the first place.


Sorry I couldn't resist.

[dividedsky]

one of my 17-month-olds is like that. he'd eat cereal and crackers and pretzels all day if i let him! and fruit, of course.

my deal is that i won't allow the snacks at mealtime. and fruit comes after food-food. i try make things that i know he likes, so that he doesn't look at the food, do a mental BLECH and look for a snacky thing. he likes veggies if they're done a certain way... like... if they're plain and steamed he's not interested (my other son would subsist on this, though!), but if i put a smidge of butter on steamed carrots he will destroy them. have you tried different preparations? maybe you'll hit on a winner. i try not to make anything too plain... i serve the kiddos what i would want to eat! spices, herbs, etc.

usually when i deny the snacks @ mealtime he's pissed for a second (pointing @ area where i keep it all, ughhhhhhh!!!-ing, lol) and then he just starts to eat what i've offered him. if he is really jonesing for a snack thing i'll give him a little bit but that's it.

you can also make a meal of healthy snacks... just be sure to include all of the food groups KWIM?

[ssh]

Being picky for awhile is really normal at that age. My DD stopped eating green vegetables for abit over a year. She was still breastfeeding so i wasn't really worried. At about three she decided she loved broccoli and zucchini. Just continue offering healthy foods and let your DS choose what and when to eat. Some relatives that also had picky eaters took a more controlling approach and their kids are still picky at 5 and 7.

I have read that picky eating in toddlers developed because eating sweet and familiar foods was safer for newly mobile LOs when humans spent more time outside. Sweet means safe to eat when dealing with plants and savory or bitter things are sometimes poisonous.

[mckittre]

My 17 month old is similar. Fruit, starch and dairy are some of his favorites, though he also loves fish, tomatoes, and beans. Carrots and beets are hit or miss. Not a fan of green stuff except for peas (he thinks they're berries, and I'm not about to disillusion him), and sometimes things directly picked from outside.

I just serve him some of what we're eating each night and don't worry about it much. Usually there is either fish or a grain as part of the meal, so he has something he likes. If he eats only the salmon, or only the rice, so be it. I think they'll grow out of it eventually if you don't make too much of a fuss.

Interesting about the poisonous plants theory. We do spend a lot of time outside, and there are some poisonous wild plants, so I'm super grateful he doesn't just eat all the green leaves in sight!

[blessedwithboys]

went through this with ds1!

at this age, its all about what you offer. a baby cant get food out of the cabinet themself, and you're not at the stage of classmates them sneaking junk food. those days will come! LOL

at 17 mos a baby needs way less food than you may think and your dr may tell you, esp if still bf'ing. only offer the foods you want the LO to eat and forget about calories and quantities. trust me, he'll eat when he's hungry. just stop offering convenience foods. your baby wont starve, i promise. mine didnt.

[Amandala]

Thank you so much for these responses!

I was in a very frazzled state when I wrote my post before, feeling like a failure. Reading your responses really helped clear my head and remind me where I'm at, and make me feel empowered to take control of the situation.

And then he took a 3.5 hour nap, which I decided to just let him do because today I think we both need it, and I thought over what I'd written and read while he was sleeping.

When he woke up I took the vegetable soup he refuses to eat, put it in a blender with some peas (he loves peas, actually) and some ground oatmeal and red lentils to thicken it up. Then I sat him in his high chair and instead of giving him some snacky bits to keep him occupied while I was whipping up his lunch, I told him he could have a banana, a kiwi or a plum after he tried the soup. I had to cajole a little to get him to take that first bite, but then he just picked up his spoon and ate the whole bowl.

Listen alla y'all, it's sabotage!