Mummy Confession: I was an overwhelmingly picky child when I was growing up. Now, I have a daughter who may be more picky than I ever was.
Hi, my name is Amanda, and I’m a picky eater. That was probably my mom’s biggest struggle with me growing up-getting me to eat. She tried expanding my variety of foods, and getting me to try new things. I would have none of it.
I remember from a very young age, I would even taste things, and after I had my mind set on disliking something, I would refuse to admit I liked it-even if it was delicious. I don’t know why. I just remember that this was the way it was for me. I often wonder if my daughter has the same issue. Nowadays they seem to refer to them as sensory issues, but I’m not entirely sure if that is the case yet.
For me personally, it didn’t register until around college that I could try new things and they might actually taste good. I tried cherries and strawberries for the first time in college. Yes. College.
Since the age of somewhere around two, my eldest has started to limit the foods that she accepts. She used to eat nearly everything we offered to her-especially those pouches of puréed food. At some point she decided to make it especially difficult and seemed to limit her foods to mainly starches and dairy with the occasional vegetable and protein. It’s become too much, and I’m concerned for her health. Her food selection is limited and probably contains a massive lack of vitamins her growing body needs.
She’s often offered foods at various events, home, and outside of the home, but always refuses. She acts like someone is trying to torment her when they show her something they would like her to try. No, I’m not kidding. We’ve tried various ways to get her to try new things, from helping with the shopping and cooking, to making it a “no pressure” deal. I’ve even done an online course to help picky easters. Nothing has helped.
We’ve recently gotten a referral to various health practitioners including a dietician and speech pathologist to try to make sense of her issues and hopefully improve her response to foods.
I want you to follow us on our journey as we struggle with this picky eater, and hopefully find some answers, and strategies that will work for us, and in turn, maybe you, too!
Wish us luck, or pray for us! We could sure use it!
We are starting out young as if mine is already picky. I had so many problems eating food too even until college. So, no “just one more bite” “finish your ____”. We are offering all the foods we eat and always at least one is familiar. And she can choose what to eat from that. If she only wants strawberries and nothing else that is what she eats and I have seconds for her in steawberries. In the beginning of the meal she often won’t try any of the new foods, but towards the end she tends to taste everything. Granted she is also only 15 months old. Yesterday she finally liked peanuts butter and got excited about a cup of milk for the first time. We’ve been tasting and offering peanut butter for months to no avail. And milk for 3 months and Shen just sips and smiles and throws the cup to the table. I know our issue is not as extreme as yours but I hope we are avoiding how bad it can get because I was pretty bad at eating as a kid.
Good strategy! We didn’t have any problems with her trying new things, or liking a variety of foods until around 2. It seemed to slowly creep in after that.
It’s so strange, because now even things she liked before, she now doesn’t eat, and cringes at us just offering them. It seems nowadays, she’s even more limited than what she was at two, which is why I’m concerned. Her sister has no issues trying things, especially when they are on my plate ??