Need some advice on a toddler who is a picky eater.

[reveriereptile]

My almost 2 year old son became a picky eater a couple months ago. He use to eat a lot of different foods especially ones we were eating but now he barely eats. He hasn't grown any heavier and has lost a few pounds during the winter.

Here is a list of foods he will currently eat:
peanut butter
corn
chicken nuggets
fruit gummy snacks
cheerios
Gerber puffs
strawberries
grapes

As you can see that is a small list. He has never liked eggs due to texture, never liked milk, and did use to eat yogurt but stopped that. I've been giving him vitamins if he will take them. Most of the time he won't. I even bought some of that Carnation breakfast but he didn't like it even if I tried to mix juice in it to make it less milk like. I've tried different smoothies with him but not luck on those.

He has an appointment on the 20th with his doctor which I was thinking of moving up sooner since he is getting more thin looking and did a decrease again on what he eats. I offer other foods with something he is familiar with but most of the time he won't even touch any of it. I have decreased his liquids back cause he was drinking so much that I thought he was filling up on it before his meal.

I believe one problem is my FIL. He tries to touch food to his mouth all the time to get him to taste it and I think that is making it worse and have mentioned it but he still does it. We live with my in-laws while we are finishing building our house so he is around him every day. I've been reading advice online about not doing that cause it can make it worse and not to mention food but just offer new foods with one item he will eat which I've told him that also but he still does it. I've told him to just touch his finger to it instead since he will usually lick his finger and then decide.

At this point I'm not sure if it is a phase or something else. He has texture problems with foods. He acts like he is teething all the time but I don't see any molars coming in. He has both his top and bottom first set of molars in. I think the chewing his fingers is due to him being hungry. We fixed food one time and he was antsy and couldn't hardly wait for it and once we sat the plate down he wouldn't eat any of it and screamed his head off cause he was so hungry. We had some food he had currently been eating at the time. We couldn't even enjoy our food and I had to offer him junk food just to settle him down. I hadn't seen him that hungry before and not eat something on the plate especially when it had foods he did eat on it. He hasn't done that anymore though but I still couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Another problem I'm having is brushing his teeth. I still use the rubber toothbrushes since he gags with the bristles on a normal brush. I use to not have any problem till he hit this eating problem. He will brush and chew on the toothbrush with his back teeth but when it comes to the front ones I try to tickle him to brush them since I want it to be fun and not be forcing his mouth open and possibly cause more problems. I know his front teeth aren't getting cleaned enough and I have horrible teeth, my MIL did, my SIL has soft teeth, and my father had bad teeth. I'm worried about him getting cavities. His teeth still look good so far when I've looked into his mouth but they do need cleaned better.

 

[3goodeggs]

We would tell stories and main character would love to eat whatever we wanted him to try. You need to start a week before introducing the food. And use the main character in your everyday conversation, "do you think Gerry the giraffe would like this TV show?"
"I bet Gerry the giraffe would be able to reach that."
and make sure when you tell the stories that they love... spinach like pope eye the sailor man, or what ever it is you want him to try.

I stumbled on this by accident. We were making up a story about a short giraffe that could not reach the leaves, and how he was sad, until his older brother bent a branch down for him so he could eat.
My son wanted to know if there were any leaves that people could eat. Off we went to the grocery store and I let him pick out some spinach.

He was never a real picky eater, he started when he was still one-ish and I remembered what my mother in law told me about what her doctor told her to do for her eldest son who was a very picky eater. The doctor said offer it to him just once, if he does not eat it, put it on the floor for the dog.
My mother in law thought that was awful and never did it. Her eldest son washed his plate between dishes so the juices would not mix...as an adult.

My husband has no such issues watching the drama at his house at meal time apparently cured him of any such foibles.


But, wanting to know if feeding it to the dog worked, we tried it. Our kid screamed 'NO!" and never refused again.
What he did not know, is that our dog would not eat it because she thought it was just awful of us to be feeding our puppy's food to her.
She was certain we were unfit for the job.

Good luck to you!

Oh, and about the teeth brushing. I do not know. We never had problems with that.
We used sparkly tasty toothpaste and fun tooth brushes, but he did not like them. He wanted grown up tooth brushes and grown up tooth paste.

He brushed his own teeth first, then we went in for the inspection, and did it for real.

I am sorry he is have such sensory issues.

 

[reveriereptile]

Thanks for the help. He is into the Jake and The Neverland Pirates and some of those Baby First tv shows. Maybe I can use some characters from them. I do have a stuffed toy of Jake that maybe I could pretend to feed him also. I'll give it a shot. I would try to feeding it to the dog but he loves to feed the dogs already. I don't think that would work. I have tried saying "Mommy or daddy will eat that yummy ___ if you don't eat it."

I've been wanting to get him eating better so that will be one less thing to worry about. I'm going to be potty training either at the end of the month or the beginning of next month. He seems interested in the potty. Going to make some training pants out of Jake undies. Wish I would of bought the bigger size since they shrunk but they aren't to tight.

 

[3goodeggs]

One of the baby doctors that was on TV when I had my son, gave the advice of not letting them wear anything. That they do not like the mess, so they will run up and tell you when they need to go.
That kind of worked. Except it was so he could let me know to open the door so he could pee from the tree house... but we got that under control. He does not do that anymore. He's 18, so that's a really good thing.

Don't get too flustered. There is a lot going on right now! And at two he is needing to communicate and he is getting frustrated because he does not have all the tools to be able to do that right now either.
Ask him a lot of 'yes' 'no' questions, use hand signals for things so that if he does not have the skills to say 'Bathroom' or 'potty' he can make a gesture -so that you won't be wasting time trying to figure out what he means.

I spent 10 minutes in the vegetable section of our store pushing him around the islands with him yelling 'Brrrody!" I finally picked up a head of broccoli and asked, ''Broccoli?" He squealed with delight and clapped his hands together and and bounced up and down. The rest of the shoppers who had been watching- I had not realized we had gathered and audience- started applauding.

We have all been there. The bonds of trust that you forge right now during these trying times will be there long after these times are over.

 

[heiditam]

Have you read 'french kids eat everything?" It is a great book with a very practical and easy approach.

 

[reveriereptile]

I'm going to do the commando and only cloth training pants at first. I'm waiting for the weather to get warmer.

Heiditam, I haven't read that book. I'll look for it.

I've been more stressed lately due to planning a Birthday party for him which the place only had the day of my Birthday available. I wanted to just relax that day but now I'm going to be stuck hosting a party. I'm not much of a party person. My family won't be there since I moved from IL to NY so with just the closest relatives of my husbands side and their kids will end up being around 70 or more people. Most of them show up to parties.

We've been building our house for two years and will finally move in at least by the end of the summer but my husband is paying as the checks come in instead of taking out a mortgage since he already has a college loan.

Just a little more than a week ago made it a year after my father passed away.

I'm thinking once I get past this month then I'll be more relaxed and wouldn't be worrying about his eating. I'm just real jumpy with everything going on.

 

[3goodeggs]

You do have a lot going on!
Enjoy his birthday, then relax on his.

My son will be going to college in Troy NY in the fall.
My little baby grew up quickly, so don't rush through any of these years!
Good luck with everything! being concerned about his eating is something to be concerned about.
You are a good mom.

 

[krista74]

You've had some fantastic advice already, and being that I don't have any kids of my own I probably can't offer up much helpful advice. I did just want to chime in and let you know that you are not alone though.

I remember when my Brother was young, he wouldn't eat much either. Seriously, your Son's list looks positively adventurous compared to my Brother's list! He would eat rice bubbles, cheese sticks, lollies, toast and milkshakes. That's it. Nothing else. No 'trying new things.' Nada.

He is now 34 years old, a farmer, a father of three, and bigger than all of us! Granted, he is a vegetarian - we never could get him to eat meat - but he's as healthy as a horse.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I know it's really worrying now (and yes, good Mums naturally worry about their kids), one day a switch will flick and he will change his ways. Then when he turns 15 you'll be taking a second job to pay for all his food!

I wish you all the very best. Hold tight, he will be ok

- Krista

 

[reveriereptile]

I figured it was a phase but I was hoping it would take a turn by now. He does have a check up on the 20th so I can ask about that.

My FIL did make some french toast and he actually ate it. We just told him he was bread with syrup. Before eating that he was gagging and heaving due to my husband asking me what kind of Easter candy I had and said it was a Reese's egg. Took only less than a second for him to trigger into getting grossed out by it cause I said egg. He has a true disgust of eggs even just the word.

 

[3goodeggs]

He may have food allergies. Sometimes there are reasons for children's dislikes. That is why I am against forcing a kid to eat something.
Trust is good.
But if he had no problem with the french toast,... try custard or flan. just do not sweeten it too much.
You want him to learn to enjoy the flavor of food.