The McCaskie Clan published this post on 13 September, 2011...
From a mum of a toddler who WAS a fussy eater!!!!
I have spoken so many times about Isla's reluctance to eat. I mean, she went past being fussy and actually survived on nothing but milk, day in, day out.
It was embarrassing. I didn't want to go out with her anywhere because people would question why she wasn't eating and I didn't want to mention it to any health visitors as I thought I had failed as a mother somehow.
It got to the point where I just wanted to give up even making any food for her as I new 100% she would not eat it, not even try a tiny bit at all and it was being wasted.
In the end, I bit the bullet and spoke to our new health visitor. Someone fresh and new who wouldn't judge me.
I think with Isla, her problems with food stem from her silent reflux as a baby. She had it quite bad, as discuss here, but whilst she was on milk it was under control with medication. I didn't for one minute think it would effect weaning her as normally we are told they naturally grow out of it by weaning age. This obviously wasn't the case with Isla and it began bad habits and associations with food that seemed impossible to break.
The health visitor put my mind at rest about Isla's development and growth. The milk was making her full up and is full of fat but her development hadn't suffered and was told (as I already new) she is bright as a button and well beyond her age in ability. Her weight was also still on the correct centile for her so that was good. She simply said to put her on some multi-vitamins and get her off the milk as soon as I can, bearing in mind I had a newborn to deal with and it was going to be hard with a lot of tantrums and perseverance!
The main trouble with Isla being, she associates hunger with milk and also comfort for bedtimes. Even now she is eating normally, if she is hungry she will automatically ask for milk out of habit. We just know now that if we give her some fruit or a snack of some sort she will happily eat that and forget about the milk as that fills her up.
We tried 'cold turkey' on her but it was nigh on impossible with Samuel to deal with too so in the end I started to give her the toddler milk but I was giving her a full beaker of water and only one scoop of the powder so effectively it was 90% water. This meant Isla was happy as she thought she was having milk (it proved it wasn't the milk she wanted, it was the comfort but it does have to be milk coloured for her to take it, we did try just water to no avail) but it wasn't full fat milk that could fill her up.
A few days of this and her appetite soon started and she slowly but surely began to eat. It was a difficult process as we were in effect going back 12 months to weaning again although obviously she was much more able to physically eat foods now at least! But because of this, she did start to become a little fussy and want snacks over meals.
Here are some things we did to help her eat normally again. They worked for us and we now can't fill her up. She is eating constantly and eats anything we give her! In fact, given a plate with fish fingers and veg on, she will always go for the veg over the fish fingers!
TOP TIPS
1. Pick 'n' mix meals and snacks
Foods like filled pitta's and homemade pizza's are great for this. Basically just chop up all the ingredients; tomato/courgette/pepper/mushroom/cheese etc and put them into little bowls out on the table, then let your child pick and choose what they want to fill the pitta or top the pizza themselves.
This makes it much more fun getting involved and children love choice. This way, they think they are in control of what they are eating but really the only choice they are getting are vegetables which are good for them!
2.Helping you cook
Foods like meatballs, fishcakes and burgers are really great for kids to get involved in. They can do the stirring and mixing the sticky mess by hand and again its fun for them! Let them spread the butter on bread for a sandwich with a plastic knife and then add their own cheese/ham. As annoying as it might be for adults, cbeebies 'I can cook' with Katy Ashworth is a great programme for recipes and ideas of how kids can help in the kitchen. Please don't go as far as watching 'Big Cook Little Cook', nobody deserves to be subjected to that, especially not a parent in despair!
If they have helped make them, they are more likely to make them and it also encourages parents to make healthy foods from scratch too!
3. Serving food with dips
For some reason kids love dips so serving fruit skewers with a tiny bit of melted chocolate to dip into or vegetable crudites with a homemade salsa/guacamole/houmous to dip into makes it really fun. The dips for the crudites are also sneakily packed full of goodness too. Tomato salsa is high in vitamin C and guacamole is fresh avocado so getting more of their 5 a day into them.
4. Hide fruit and vegetables
You can pack a lot of vegetables into meals without your little one actually knowing. Curries, Chilli's, Casseroles and Soups are great for this. Also Pasta bakes can have broccoli/sweetcorn added or sweet foods like apple and raisin cookies or carrot cakes are good treats filled with 1 of their 5 a day.
5. Let them play with the food
Isla takes a long time to eat her food for playing BUT she does eventually eat it all up it just takes some patience. She feeds her toy cat some of it (and then puts it in her own mouth!) and puts some bits off the plate temporarily until she is ready for it. I just go with the flow and let her.
6. Make shapes from the food
Isla has a plate with a face on that we put mashed potato beards on and hats made of carrots etc and she loves it. She will also much more willingly eat a sandwich in the shape of a boat or heart than a normal triangle one.
7. Small portions
Its really easy to over load the plate with lots of food and lots of different foods but children find it overwhelming and more than that their stomachs are only the size of their fists so there is just no need. It's also better to put a small bit on the plate for them to eat it all up and then praise and reward them for eating them all than the opposite and remember they can always have seconds if they are still hungry!
8. Have food always available
Some children are just grazers or far too busy wanting to be into everything to sit still and eat a full meal so by having food constantly available you may find they eat a lot more without even realising it.
I have bowls of snacks like Apple chunks, sausage, Chicken, hard-boiled egg, Veg Pizza slices etc in bowls out in the lounge where she is playing. (Obviously not good if you don't like eating away from the kitchen or mess but most parents with fussy children will try anything!!!)
I find she will then keep going back to the bowl having chunks here and there, as and when she wants. This is obviously putting the choice back in her hands again which is a big thing. She is not being forced.
The key point reiterated through all of these tips is that Food is Fun!!! One thing I learnt over the past 12 months of issues with Isla I have learnt to keep calm, not force it on her and have faith to stick with it and eventually 'she will get it'!
I have some great recipes for the meals mentioned above so will be posting these over the next few weeks.
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