Toddler refusing to eat

Hi Parents -

My 13 month old daughter is not eating properly these days. Even a week
back she was eating some things(which has to be her choice though) but
now she doesnot want to take anything more than 2 or 3 bites even the
things she used to like. She had a very small range of foods she liked

Sue...

Sounds like perfectly normal toddler behavior to me. Don't make food an
issue and your daughter will be just fine. Offer a variety of foods to her,
let her feed herself, and once she starts playing with the food and/or
throwing if off the table, then meal time is over. You have to look at the
foods she ate over the whole week and not just on a daily basis. Many times
toddlers go off the foods they love and sometimes they eat the same things
for many days on end. It's all normal. If you don't make an issue out of it,
she will resume eating. And remember, her tummy is still not very big. It's
the size of her fist, so she will need more frequent, but smaller portions
throughout the day. So stop worrying. :o)

so maybe she got bored. We have been trying different options but she
doesnot take anything more than 2/3 times.
We are worried about her nutrition and health.
She doesnot like any stuff she needs to chew a lot(she throws out peas,
chicken pieces) from her mouth but she used to eat rice, bread, banana
and other semi-soft things(no puree stuff or jar foods anymore.she just
will not take that). But now she will not take even her favorite food
like macaroni cheese more than two or three pieces.
Incidentally we noticed she picks up things on her own and eat but that
is too little..after a while she gets bored and prefers to move on to
her toys.

-L....

What kind of setting are you feeding her in? I would feed her in a
high chair or similar so that she doesn't have access to toys. Vary
your routine a little bit - offer different foods, cut in different
sizes and shapes. I know my son went from liking chunked meats to only
liking strips and wanting to "dip" them in catsup or ranch dressing. I
also switch between different preparations - his meat is grilled,
baked, sauteed, etc. and I add sdifferent pices as he seems to like
them.

Veggies and other things are varied too - boredom can sometimes lead to
him not eating as well. I cut small shapes (circle, heart, star) from
sliced veggies with a little cookie cutter and then steam them.
Different pasta shapes are attractive - fusili and radiatore are
popular here, and I also buy the "tri-color" variety made with
vegetables.

Also, make sure she is hungry at meal time. If she fills up on milk or
snacks, she won't eat her meals.

Sometimes I put his highchair in the front room and pop in a DVD, other
times he eats in the kitchen with me. Mix up your routine a little
bit.

I will highly appreciate if you can please share your
experience/remedies in similar situation.

Circe...

Unless you have reason to believe that she is ill or that she is not growing
adequately, my advice is "don't worry, it's normal". Toddlers your
daughter's age are notorious for going on food jags and appearing to live on
air for significant periods of time, but normal, healthy children don't
deliberately starve themselves. I'm going to assume that your daughter is
both normal and healthy and that she's just being a normal 13mo. And believe
me, this IS normal.

I know you don't believe that she's getting enough food from things she
picks up and eats herself, but she's at an age where if she prefers to
self-feed (and it sounds like she does), if you simply allow her to do so,
the chances that she will not eat enough to sustain herself are vanishingly
small. Remember: it's your job to provide her with a healthy variety of
foods to eat, but it's her job to eat them. Don't confuse her job with yours
and you'll do fine.

Good luck and HTH!

TIA.

dragonlady...

She's at a right age to be cutting down on how much food she needs, so
don't worry about that. Barring a medical problem, and assuming that
the food is available, kids always get enough calories.

Just put nutritious food out at meal times, and when she's done eating
put the food away.

Pay attention to the balance of her intake over a period of a week or so