need new food ideas

[Tattooed Hand]

I'm totally out of inspiration.

My DD has a really wide spectrum of food intolerences. She can eat all sort of beans, corn, any gluten but wheat (so she can have rye and barley), beef, pork, fish (no shell fish). Grains we give her buckwheat, millet, amaranth, quinoa.

Veggies she can have squashes, parsley, dill, basil, peas, green beans, bell peppers, white potatoes, onions, ginger, garlic. Fruits she can have pitted fruits (peaches, plums, etc), apples, pears, and all berries (though we are not sure about blackberries).

No seeds, nuts, coconuts, oats, sweet potatoes, root veggies, mustard greens/vegs, cruciferous vegs, citrus, wheat, dairy, soy, cilantro, bananas, eggplant, melons, poultry. And that's just what we know of. She won't eat eggs, so we don't know about that.

She is a picky eater and so I find that if I give her something too often she will reject it. My rotation is very limited though and I am looking for inspiration.

Any ideas? suggestions? recipies?

[SweetSilver]

Dinner and meals are mighty monotonous at our house.  Both DD1 and I have (competing) allergies.  We keep meals simple, and do experience boredom with something that was once eaten with relish.  So frustrating!

     I have no other recipes or advice, just massive sympathy.  You didn't mention her age, that makes a big difference.  DD2 (no food allergies) is a pickier eater than DD1!  But she is 4 1/2 and DD1 is 6.  DD1 just readmitted quinoa in her diet after several months of rejection.

GOOD LUCK!

[mytwomonkies]

I feel you! We are extremely limited on what we eat also. No gluten, dairy (casein), soy, eggs, citrus...no grains at all for me and the only grain the girls can eat is rice. We eat a lot of fruits and vegies, that's what we typically snack on. Meats and veggies for dinner. I guess I don't really have much advice, I'm pretty much out of inspiration too :(

What kinds of meals do you typically eat?

[Tattooed Hand]

We do a fish night (she can have and loves salmon, or did, last week not so much...), we also do bean mixes (just various beans cooked in an onion, garlic, ginger base with some tumeric and cumin). Lots of veggies are sauteed in olive oil and garlic (the garlic until its browned, which is really flavorful). We do soba noodles and snap peas (the SPs sauted first in ginger and garlic and the noodles cooked separately and mixed in later). She eats alot of fruit and bacon. We put ground beef into pilaf type dishes, like with quinoa (cooked spearately in mushroom broth), lentil and/or peas. I also make simple bean salads, like black bears with fresh chopped dill mixed in olive oil. We did ham and split pea soup too, but it's so hot that she's not really interested in those anymore.

My DD is almost 18 months and still nurses alot since she can hardly have any fatty stuff, though she loves food. These days she is in love with berries.

I have to transition to salads now, ones with no lettuce, since she can't have that either...

it's just hard because I feel like I always have to have a meal and a back up in the fridge because she may not want to eat the thing I offer her because she's sick of it.

[SweetSilver]

Our dinners are short-order all the way!  With two family members with different allergies, a picky 4yo old and DH who doesn't like to eat much meat, every plate has something different on it.  Also, in allergic DD1, new allergies reared their ugly heads at about age 4 and made our options even more limited.  Lots of meat, vegetables, and potatoes.  Again and again and again.  How I dream of lasagna!

[mytwomonkies]

I wish I had some advice for you but your menu is already way more varried than ours! I wouldn't be too worried about her not wanting to eat what you give her though if she's still nursing, she's still getting a lot of nutrients from you. They'll eat if they're hungry enough. Is she growing well?

My DD2 is 22 months old and still nurses a lot, sometimes she just picks at her food and other times she chows down. She's growing great though!

Hoping someone chimes in with some good advice, I know it is hard!

[Tattooed Hand]

Well, between her 12 month visit and 15 month visit she went from 30% percentile to 10% percentile. She's had a cold every 3 weeks since then. She feels really skinny to me too especially after stomach flu earlier this month and recent cold. I make different meals for her, but ingredients are often overlapping because she is so limited in what she can eat and what she will eat. I just wish I could come up with some new recipies that gave her more breaks from certain foods for several days at a time. As it is, she has alot of garlic, olive oil, rye, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat every day. She also has some kind of bean almost everyday and has begun to reject certain kinds (like no more black beans all of a sudden). And most veggies she will have only once every 2 weeks. So we go days at a time with no veggies.

Olive oil and bacon are it in terms of fat. any other ideas for fatty foods? We can't have dairy or avocados...

[mytwomonkies]

What about olives for fat??

You mentioned she can eat gluten but not wheat...has she been tested for celiac? Compared to my girls her diet doesn't sound that limited, it seems like something else may be at the root of her not gaining weight. I know this is totally outside of your questions but just a thought.

[mytwomonkies]

I know with DD2 if something bothers her it's like she automatically avoids eating it. Maybe the foods she's not wanting to eat are bothering her tummy??

[kjbrown92]

My DS does that where he eats one thing for a while and then gets sick of it. He did that with curried chickpeas (chickpeas, curry powder, olive oil) for breakfast. Now it's been about 6 months and this morning I said how about curried chickpeas, and he said "yes" like he was all excited. Can you vary the way you cook things - like steam vs. fry vs. bake? or different spices? we pick the fattiest cuts of meat to keep  weight on. we also deep fry a lot. Have you used chickpea flour? I make veggie fritters using chickpea flour (not a whole lot of ingredients in it either) and I've used shredded zucchini in it or cauliflower - other veggies may work just as well - and fry them. My son loves them (so does my husband!). Do you follow a 4-day rotation or can anything be eaten on any day?

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by mytwomonkies 

They'll eat if they're hungry enough. 

     This is typical, but believe it or not some kids (OURS) actually do not (or did not until about 4 or so) connect eating food with satisfying that urgent, sometimes awful feeling we call hunger.  Usually it happens in kids that have very early, negative experiences associated with eating, for example allergies that start at an extremely young age; bad acid reflux, or oral difficulties during breastfeeding; something that short-circiuts the usual connections most kids learn to make almost immediately.  So, crazy as it sounds, the eating/ hunger connection is not a given.  Thankfully our suspicions were confirmed by a therapist who specialized in physical eating troubles in kids.

     Your guess about why she is rejecting certain foods, I think, is pretty on the mark.  Plus, some kids do start pickiness at the onset of toddlerhood.  

     My DD's weight skimmed the 5% line (height I don't remember, but she was petite and pretty skinny) and her percentages dropped after every big change.  Dropped heavy nursing...down...dropped toddler soy formula for regular soy...down...and other times i didn't mention.  We were told "fried food!" and even "sugar, ANYTHING!" to get her weight up.  It perked up and steadied after 4yo, (after we got wheat out?).  Maybe it was because eating became a pleasure, and that most foods weren't prompting responses, I don't know, but she FINALLY FIGURED OUT THAT EATING WOULD MAKE HER HUNGER GO AWAY!