FUSSY EATER - need advice!!!

kittytulip

Active Member
Hi mummies and daddies out there

My son is around 2 years old and he is very fussy abt food. He dislikes meat and veg and fish, only takes soup, and the rice must have raisins or honey stars. Have tried to introduce Pediasure to him but he disliked the taste too and feels like vomiting after drinking just a bit.
I have been preparing soup with meat and veg. At least he drinks though he rejects the ingredients, but very worried abt the effect on his growth and health due to lack of proper food.

Anyone can provide advice/give suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

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Hi Hello kitty,

hianz my son is also a fussy eater at home. Rejects porrige with fish, too much corn, meat(cannot acertain the reason) because he will eat them sometimes and not on other occasion. He eat the porrige at child care though so I don know what is the real reason.

I tried to introduce all sorts of vege and sometimes can get him to eat if I mix cerels to mask the smell of the food. He also eats more is every thing is mash into glue form. Tried to give him milk, cerel and other food he likes like bread and cookies to make up for his lack of intake of other food.
 
gals,
at least ur son still eat something. my gal coming 1yo simply refuse to eat leh. she reject cereal and porridge totally now. cant get her to eat much other food also. give her bread and bao skin, potato and cheese and egg yolk and sometime what we eat we give some also if it interest her. but most of the time she eat a few bite then refuse to eat liao. so we also give her some cheerios and other biscuit lor. i can say she is terribly fed on solid...only rely on milk solely...no meat no vege also.

i been worrying since the day she refuse solid 1mth ago till now. i also really dunno what to do. bring her see PD, PD says let her take pediasure once she turn 1yo. now i crossing my finger hopefully she like pediasure lor.

how i envy those bb that willing to eat. everytime i feed till wanna cry leh
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Hi

Looks like we are in the same boat. 99mm, how old is your son? My son is already 2 years + yet still rely mostly on formula milk. Every time feed at home have to let him watch TV, sometimes when he is too focused on the tv can take the opportunity to feed him potato.

HAIZ!!! Really really hope other mummies will notice this thread and offer us some advice.
 
Hi Hello Kitty/99mm/smileyface,
My DS has prob since 2.5mths. Drink one bottle of milk can take 1 hr. *Faint*

Now, he is 20 mths and he'll spit out his food (rice with vege and fish) if he doesn't want them or if lazy to chew. And eating really depends on his mood. What I do is, if he doesn't take his food properly, I'll use time-out on him. So hopefully as time goes by, he'll know that eating is a serious thing, not something to be played with and no choosing of food. However, for porridge and mashy food, he'll eat. Think cos these food don't require much exercising of their jaws. By the way, I don't practise the watch while you eat to get him to eat more.

And yes, I give him Pediasure. At first he refused too. It took quite some time to get him like it.

My neighhbour's grandson who is 27mths live on mainly formula milk. Occasionally will eat some bread and porridge. He doesn't eat biscuits at all. And he's very skinny. Frankly speaking, if I'm the mother, I'll use time out cos I'll be worried about the nutrients. I rather be harsh to him for a while than see him so skinny.
 
hi purin,
What time-out method u used? pls explain a bit.
at least ur son still take porr n mashy food but hor my gal no lei....she dun take porr or mashy food anymore.... she see the porr run so far away. force her eat she cry n yell n scream.
sometime i starve her for 4hrs+++ lei but ended up she also refuse to eat
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Sorry mummies... but can I ask if you add flavour to the food you give your toddlers? Like using salt?
 
I have two kids aged 2 and 4.
For kids above 18 months old, how about letting them eat adult food e.g. rice and dishes...

In fact, sit them on the dinner table and eat with adults, with someone feeding them...

I have good and bad days feeding the kids...you should also check their height and weight, if its fine, then they could be going thru a "food refusal" phase...

Also, my older kid improved when she started N1, and they eat teabreak in the class by themselves, no one to feed them...children like to learn from watching other children...
 
fairyprincess,
actually sometime when we eating, i got give a bit to my gal but i keep worrying whether would it be too saltish for them. adult food she seems to be more interested thou. at least she willing to eat some spaghetti and bak ku teh with rice. but she dun eat much also....a few mouthful she will reject liao. hahaha....

her height is ok but weight is abt 15percentile only lah. tat is y i am v worried lor.
 
hi,

I have a similiar problem too. My son is now about 28 months. Refused porridge too. Actually you can say he is very special. From young, he will never put anything into his month, hence we felt safe to let him played with small items. He is also never interested in food and don't actively try out new food. We will offer him anything and everything from the table be it adult food or sweets and will be happy if he decide to take a bit.

The only thing that as parent we are still quite happy is that he don't have a sweet tooth. For example, he like Oreo without the white cream and plain pocky without the chocolate coating.

Currently, we just allow him to eat whatever he fancy. So for a typical day, he will consume about 500ml of prediasure, Marigold apple juice with no sugar added, a piece of Kueh Lapis, a few piece of biscuits or plain crackers, some soup, KFC wipped potato and one cup of Meiji yogurt. For KFC wipped potato, we try to give him once every few days.

Read from books that if left alone, a toddler will self regulate and consume whatever his little body need. My son is adding one new food item a week. I am looking forward to the day that he will eat everything and anything. Maybe at that point in time I will worry that he is taking too much junk food.
 
Hi Hello Kitty,

My son also don't like Pediasure when I first gave it to him. He said "Not nice" after just one taste.

So we mixed it with Gain IQ and once again it is not nice. We keep on trying. Now he is refusing plain Gain IQ.
 
red tulip,
seems like ur son same as my gal leh. except my gal SWEET TOOTH. give her anything sweet she will eat. apple pear....
she like yogurt too. adult food she take sometime too if tasty. now i just give her junk food lor cos at least something inside her mah.
i be starting pediasure soon for her. hopefully she will like it.

how's your son weight? ok?

I am also waiting for the day she will eat everything and anything.
 
red tulip,
y give KFC whipped potato? y dun steam fresh potato n give? kfc whipped potato is not those fresh potato leh. its from powder form. and the gravy is made from chicken fine,.... not v gd leh
 
My son now 18mths.......he's a good eater
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normally i gave him blend rice which i firstly cooked soup mixed with fish, carrot, potato, celery and sometime mixed with fishball. Once the soup is cooked, I will take a few scoops of rice and mixed with the soup & the ingredients and blend using the Kenwoood Hand Blender its will look like porridge too but not too fined. I will feed him for lunch & dinner
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HEINZ food also he likes the most.

For my 3yrs old son, he's very fussy. Must ask him what he wants to eat then I have to prepare or else he won't eat. Veggie & fruits out of question he don't eat at all. But he likes to eat custard/porridge/fruits mixed from HEINZ.
 
hi smileyface

did yr gal drink milk more than eat. Like my first son, he drink milk alot and always poopoo hard hard leh. Is it bcoz of dat?
 
my gal milk intake not say a lot lah. 5-7oz each time nia. when meal time come, we give her normal meal. its only after she reject then we no choice then make milk for her. if she no intake solid, then her milk intake abt 5x a day. not much mah.
 
Hi Smiley,

We tried home made whipped potato before, he knows the different and refused to open his mouth. We know it is not exactly the most healthy food to give hence we limit it to once every few days. It come to a stage that we rather KFC whipped potato then nothing at all.

I think my son wants the food in the exact same packaging. Although he likes yogurt, he only take Meiji coconut flavour. Bought some other brands for him to try before, end up I am the one eating it cos he will tell us it is not the same.

My son weight is about 12kg.
 
red tulip.... ya ya... i fully agree that it come to a stage that we rather something goes to their tummy even thou its not healthy.
me too lor....just try and give my gal whatever she wants to eat. most of the time she will reject lah..its v worrying and tiring.

12kgs is still quite a gd weight.
 
Smiley... have you tried not to feed your girl unblended food? My boy enjoys food... but it must suit his taste before he will start eating. He stop enjoying pureed or blended stuff at around 9 to 10 months old. He is 18 months now and eats like an adult. Rice must not be mixed with soup (like his father!) and must be dry. He doesn't like the dishes mixed with his rice either... so it must be separated. I don't blame him... cos even when I look at pureed stuff I don't have the appetite. Sorry to say this... but when you mix everything together it looks like food that got puked out =p Sometimes we really need to be flexible and accept the fact that our babies are growing and when their tastebud matured (some faster than others) we cannot keep feeding them blended things for fear that they cannot digest or no seasoning at all until they are like 2 or 3 years old. Moderation is afterall still the key to everything.

Could your girl could be teething and hence the lack of appetite?

Red Tulip... have you tried adding in more butter when you make the whipped potato? It actually tasts better. My boy hated mash potato until I added butter to it when I mash them.
 
hi odie,
i giving unblended food also. such as marcoroni, rice and etc. but she is not interested either.
this weekend i would be cooking adult spagetti and minestrone soup for her. see whether she wants or not. she is only 11mths...still cant swallow v well yet cos sometime she eat bread still will get choke even it is a small pc and she will vomit everything out
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yes, i can feel her taste bud matured faster in the sense that she prefer stronger taste food but i try not to give her too salty food.
 
I am wondering if there's any mummies with kids who are fussy eaters , but when they reached 4 or 5 or older, do they eat more and can sit and eat on their own?

Any mummies can advise?
 
Fussy eater - My daughter used to be a fussy eater too. I dun know did i try everything stated on the book to make her take more.

I realised if she doesnt like i cant really force her to eat. It will just make her refuse to eat more.

So i just encouraged her to try. Sometime i will pop in vegetable and meat when she is in good mood.

My patience does pay off, she started to munch on meat and vegetable. From many cooking, i get to know that she love braised egg.
 
Wendy, Smiley,
she is 3yr. I dun expect her to take alot of meat and veg each time. A few mouthful for each meal is gd enough.

I do it slowly. As for now, she love her lotus root soup and black bean soup.

I try to introduce other soups so she wun just stick to these two.

Mummies, Jia you!
 
Smiley... you can try and exaggerate chewing motion and show it to your girl. At this age... she should be at the "monkey see monkey do" stage. My boy choke on the Gerber fruit puff when I gave it to him the first time and when I demo to him how he should chew... he actually mimicked my action. After that he got the idea and had no problem with handling coarser food. Sometimes they are too used to eating all the blended food and assume that everything can be swallowed wholesale. Good to start encouraging the kid to chew.

End of the day... it is still trial and error. Every babies have different peference. So we need to be creative.

I know some babies are more Asian and prefer porridge etc... but some go for bread, potato, pasta, cheese and yoghurt (like my boy =p).

Good luck! =)
 
Fussy eaters normally don't like to eat on their own, is it true? Can mummies with fussy eaters share a bit more? Fussy eaters need to be fed, and they will not sit down to eat a proper meal, agreed?

My son can never sit down on dining table or restaurant with us to have a proper meal, will always want to get up and run about. Unless is biscuits or fries or ...etc favourite snack but not proper meal.

At home, will need to on TV or his favourite prgm or favourite toys , in order to be able to feed him. My son is already 2 plus(30mths old), and I am still spoon feeding him.

Like to hear a bit more from mummies out there.
 
Wendy,
I am still feeding my ger but she show sign that she wanna feed herself now. Somemore the school encourage the kids to be more independent so i guess it constribute some factors too.

When we dine out, she never eat much. I will be very pleased if she can finished the tiny bit of food place in her bowl/plate.

As my ger started chubby (she took her porridge very well when she is younger) so i didnt really force her to finish her meal if she refuses cos i think she has enough to burn. hahhaa..

Ok just to share.
Some parents/old pple will judge the kid by the amt they had. They may insist that the kids must finish the food on their plate then they will be full else they will starve.

I dun really agree, it come to the stage like 2 - 3yr where the kids are able to tell u if they are hungry or full.

If the kid is not sick and he only finish half of it and wun want another mouth after much encouragement. I will let him be. I will ask and feed him again during tea break. It can be simple food like bread, cake, milo or milk.

My ger when young was place infront of the kid program during her meal. This is not encourage cos kid shld concentrate on meal & chew their food but we cant deny that it is much easier to feed them with the TV on.

If u really want him to eat on his own. U can let him dine with the family. Get him his favourite character cutlery set. Praise him when he tried feeding himself. A small reward of his favourite fruit after the meal (dun tell him beforehand).
 
hi odie,
oh yes. i got do chewing motion for her to see as well cos initially she choke on the gerber puff too. hee.... now she is better in chewing.
but sometime still will choke n vomit....then i super heartpain cos hor she ate so little bit nia n still vomit.
 
Hi all, here 's an article on fussy eaters. hope it helps!

Hello kitty, my son is 15 months plus. Sometimes he also don want to drink milk.
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but sometimes he respons to peer pressure...when there are other babies around he will eat. realise he just don want to try new stuff or things or things he haven't try for a while. Sometimes I just dap a little on my finger and force him to taste it. Sometimes he will decide he likes it and eat may be half a cup of it.. most of the time I resort back to bread or baby bites so at least he will not go hungry Just have to keep on trying... n remember its just a phase he is going through(hianz)
 
hi 99mm,
ur son also dont like to eat? but he still take his normal meal such as porridge or rice with meat n veg? ur son dont like try new food but my gal like try new food such as biscuit or other food we eating. problem is she dont eat normal meal such as porr or rice or even noodle.
ya, me too... sometime i dap my finger with the food n let her try...if she decide she like the taste then she will eat some. and i find feeding food using finger is much easier than spoon cos she run away when see spoon and bowl. so most of the time we feed bread and bao and mantou lor. then on n off give biscuit or potato...
 
hi,

One good piece of good news to share.

My son started to take porridge again for the past one week. In the beginning, only half a bowl of porridge a day, yesterday he can finished one bowel each for lunch and dinner. He prefers plain porridge with pork floss, MIL will be adding eggs etc today, hoping he will take it.

Not sure whether it was because I started giving him a vitamin syrup from Appleton (correct spelling?) to help increase his appetite.

So we just have to keep trying, they will get tired of their limited diet after a while.
 
hi red tulip, so glad for u leh....
my gal been taking junk food lah. now she past 1yo liao so i more lenient in her food.
she ate adult food most of the time....
last week she ate half a small pizza w/o the hard base and crust lah and we take out all the ham and mushroom and pineapple as well....she enjoy it. and last nite she ate rice soak in Si Chuan Cai soup...a bit salty but i no give her drink the soup, just feed the rice. and this morning she ate a piece of pandan cake. i also make some french toast for her but she dun really like it and ate 1/4pc of toast only.
those plain bb food she all reject liao...hence i have no choice but to start giving her what we ate. but not all the time she eat lah...still need to see her mood one. she happy will eat if not happy wont eat any too.

i tried giving her applelin(a kind of appetite enhance + vitamin) also...but not much improvement n worse she too heaty after taking and have fever.
 
Hi Smiley,

Actually, your gal not too bad. At least more adventureous than my boy. He still stick to limited food type. Don't even want to taste ice-cream when i tried to offer him yesterday night.

A lot of relatives were amused by him cos they never come across a kid who don't like chocolate, ice-cream and sweets etc. One relative mentioned that he will grow up smarter than the rest. Hope it is true. Hee hee.
 
Hi

My son is finally taking something other than soup! Now he wants pork floss for dinner every day. The day before let him try nuggets and he actually ate one!!! I know it is unhealthy, but quite happy still as finally he is eating meat! Not yet try the 2nd time though.

Anyway, eating something unhealthy is at least better than eating nothing at all right??
 
red tulip,
ya. she is adventurous...in fact too adventurous till i v scared leh. my mum says never see a bb so young totally reject porridge and go for adult food. actually v headache wat to feed her sometime. cos afriad too sweet or salty for her. hmm...when my gal see us eating fruits or ice cream, she will run over n try to snatch ah... even potato chip she will also make noise want to eat. only porr n rice she run away so fast.

hello kitty,
ur son alr 2yo liao. can take food like nuggets all these..should be no problem. yes...i totally agree with u that eating something unhealthy is better than not eating anything :p
 
red tulip,
ya ya... some parents may think y we give junk food to our bb/kid...but we really desperate for them to eat something
 
Smiley, Red Tulip
Ya lor, only we who went through it can sympathise with one another.
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When I first try to introduce rice to him, I have to put a small piece of french fries on top of each spoonful to make him take the rice!!!
 
hello kitty,
my gal need v v tasty soup to go with rice. and she dun take much also. at most she take 1 tablespoon rice at a meal. but i am happy already cos at least she is willing to eat.
 
Smiley

Ya...their willingness to try the food is the most important thing! As for the quantity can gradually increase over time.
 
hi hi,

my son is taking plain porridge everyday but with pork floss. He still can tell me he eat porridge so that he can have muscles.

Mmm french fries with porridge is interesting. A pity that my son don't like french fries.
 
Hello kitty,U can prepare nuggets at home with some added nutrients which ur gal won't know,which will not be unhealthy as buying the frozen one or from fast food outlets.
I will tell u how to make it.
200 gm fresh chicken fillets
1/2 cup of finely grated fresh veggies(carrot,cabbage,cauliflower,pumpkin anyother u wish)
little salt
2 pepper corns(optional)
1 beaten egg
bread crumbs

First mince the chicken fillets finely,I usually use a blender.(Dont add too much water,just 1 or 2 tspa should be ok)
Then add pepper corns and veggies and salt
And run the blender until they mix very fine.
Then shape them into nugget sizes.
coat with egg and then with bread crumbs.
And deep fry in oil.
Vary the veggies so that your kid doesn't identify them.
Hope this helps
 
Hi red tulip

Haha my son also said the same thing!!!

You can try putting other things that he likes on top. I have tried raisins and honey stars too.
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SahaMum

THANKS A LOT!!! Will try the receipe. But is it possible to oven-bake it? Deep frying too oily right?
 
kitty,
Have not tried oven bake,May be if you try one and if the taste is ok,convey me too,So I will also try. :)
 
Hi Smiley,

He don't like rice. We tried before and he will make those kind of vomit sounds.

Hello kitty,

Can't think of anything else to put in the porridge cos if you read my previous postings, he eat very limited kind of food. I am not very worried as the food he likes are still quite healthy. Not much junk food. At least nowadays, when my ML put veggie or fish in the porridge he also take.

We are really a group of mummies who will celebrate when our kids eat junk food.

There are a few times, we tried very hard to get him to taste ice-cream but of course he kept his mouth shut. I have also tried going through the whole row of chocolate and sweets in the supermarket with him hoping that he will say yes to one of the items.

Will keep trying until the day he take a bite, then i can be like the rest of the mummies can say NO when he asked for sweets.
 


red tulip,
ur son dont like to chew huh? u put soup to the rice n try. initially they will make the vomit sound cos they not used to the texture. try 1 small teaspoon 1st while u r eating. slowly coach. my gal start to eat rice when 11mths....she practically skip porridge stage. jump from cereal to rice. initially make the vomit sound or even really vomit out. after many times of trying she ok...but occasionally she will still choke n vomit. i got no choice cos she reject porridge totally. reason i dont know y.
 

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