Very picky eater--do I keep offering, even though he never eats it??

I'm having a similar issue with ds, 19 months. He's become highly suspicious of fruits and veggies. Although he has his favorites that he'll always eat like bananas or applesauce, he's been sticking his nose up at all sorts of fruits and veggies that he used to gobble up just a few months ago! I usually end up getting him to eat veggies by mixing them in with the rest of his meal if there is a sauce to flavor them with. I'd keep offering them but not forcing them, just as you are already doing. Ok, I'm not much help. Just wanted to let you know I sympathize!

My DS, Pierce is beyond fussy. He is very leary of fruits and veggies. Although, I find if I am careful with his snacks, meaning I try to not offer anything within 2 hours of mealtime and when I am on top of my game it's a banana or carrrots, he is more likely to try new foods. I am ashamed to admit that we've tried force feeding and it always ends with the three of us, me, DH and DS reduced to tears. I don't want him to have a complex regarding food and I feel if i do force feed it's a guarantee that he will. The ped says one good meal every three days beleive it or not. And I notice he eats good every other day which is fine as long as it is indeed every other day cuz this mom gets too stressed :

I also supplement him with a whole foods vitamin and so far so good , he's not sick any more than most three year olds, in fact he's a pretty hearty lil guy.

I've been having this problem with my 16 month old DD. She will eat any fruits or veggies, for the most part. Thing is, they must be in baby food form. She used to eat lots of finger foods- peas, cut up green beans, cut up cooked carrots- then just suddenly stopped. Now the only self-fed foods she will eat are cereals, breads, cheese, Veggie Booty and cut-up grapes.

We're just waiting it out.

I have chunky milk drinker but food is another story. I'm so used to him not eating that I sometimes forget to even offer. :

I feed passively and it works. Ds just doesn't think about eating if he is involved. Yesterday we went on an outing involving trains and horses, He barely wet a diaper! I often think about starting the baby food passively as well. Now that spring is here there are strawberries in season with other things not far off that he ate out of control last summer.

I give bananna disks with peanut butter, strawberries, toast with cinnamon and sugar or nutella (yeah, I know, but he eats it). Yogurt goes over well. I tried smoothies this morning in a sippie - straw cup. It may be promising.

I'd be worried about the constipations and try to get carrots or peas or pears into dc. Oatmeal helps too.

Good luck!

One thing I tried with my toddler recently was to cut steamed broccoli and fresh fruit into small pieces and stick toothpicks in them. She loved spearing them with the toothpick and eating them that way (when she had been refusing them outright before). Maybe introduce a novel presentation now and then and see if that does the trick. Also, maybe a dip? Mine never tries the dips.

As you probably know, most toddlers go through picky phases. Some seem to stay in them forever. My DS was always a good eater, but he did go through some phases where it seemed that all he ate was cheese and cheerios. We just kept offering what we were eating, if appropriate, and offering healthy foods. We found that offering very small amounts worked best. A dab of mashed potato. A small slice of apple. A spoonful of casserole. He would sometimes eat it, and sometimes ask for more when it was all gone. But load up his plate, and forget it, he wasn't having any!

And if you offer small bits, not much gets thrown away. If I ate an apple, I'd offer him slices. I definitely ate more fruit and veggies trying to get him to eat them!

As they get older (at 31 mos. you should be able to have a bit of fun with dips, food cut into shapes, etc.) you can get more creative with dips and things, and having them help you shop and prepare food. Once we got into dips, DS was nuts for them and whatever he could scoop it out with. I also found he would eagerly eat a sandwich if I cut it out with a cookie cutter (the heart was his favorite )

Another thing that works is to NOT offer something once in awhile. Like put broccoli on your plate, but not his. We did this once and DS was begging for bites. But obviously you can't overuse this tactic.

My DS got over his phase (he's 38 mos.) and now eats everything that's not nailed down, including broccoli and all manner of fruits and veggies. I think the most important thing is not to stress over it in front of them, because they quickly sense a power struggle and this is one they will always win.

I agree with Starbarrett...toddlers will eat the crackers, bread, cereal and whatnot if it's available, and then they really won't have an appetite for vegetables. If only very healthy food is available at home, then only very healthy food can be eaten! Not necessarily an easy change to makes, since the processed food is often the convenient thing.

At our house, we like to keep fruits and veggies out on the table - in sight means we're all more likely to eat it! Grapes, cherry tomatoes, sliced peppers, carrots, celery, dried fruit, etc. So if I leave out some sliced bell peppers, dd is more likely to see them in the course of the day and eat some. No pressure, she'll just go for it.

If you aren't having any health issues, you can maybe just chalk it up to toddler pickiness and not worry about it. Like someone else said, don't make food a power struggle! I think I lived on popcorn and cereal when I was a kid, and I eat my veggies just fine now!