As long as she's eating something and is staying within weight she's probably fine. Kids are weird, some days they will eat nothing but crackers and then will hate crackers and just want turkey meat.

By solids do you mean baby food or real food? Even at my son's first birthday we were still grinding his food up. (bad case of first child hypochondria about choking) and he will eat just about anything now.

I think you're doing fine and your idea of the buffet table is a good one so as to not turn eating into a power struggle this early in the game.

I'm Not a Slacker

I think that you are putting way too much energy into making a problem out of nothing.

My son Ryder is below the 2 percentile mark and has been for a good part of his life (he is now 19 months old). At first it bothered me, but I quickly realized that he ate perfectly fine, and he remained on a consistent growth curve for his percentile. Remember, the percentile charts are based on averages. Therefore, SOMEONE has to make up the bottom 50%, and SOMEONE has to make up the bottom 10%. Between 10% and 25% is perfectly healthy as long as she is growing consistently on a curve appropriate for her. My pediatrician made me put Ryder on Pediasure (which is VERY expensive) to ensure that he was getting the proper nutrition (my son eats EVERYTHING), and she made me get some very painful metabolic tests done for him to see if anything was wrong with him metabolizing any nutrients or minerals, etc. All because he wasn't in the above 10% area. I kept telling her that my wife and I were VERY skinny children growing up (read "skin and bones") and that both of us had huge appetites when we were kids. She just basically ignored me. Needless to say, the tests all came back negative, so I immediately took him off the Pediasure and got a new pediatrician.

About the food and your daughter... Infants will not starve themselves. That is a known fact. They will eat if they want to, and they will not eat if they don't want to. As a previous post stated, an infant's appetite can change radically from day to day. My son on any given day can eat so much that I wonder where it is all going. On other days, he barely touches anything. That is perfectly normal. Infants instinctively know how to manage the amount of food they need. They don't really need our "guidance". Changes in appetite can be due to illness, teething, a headache, a growth spurt, feeling bloated, etc. Therefore, if she doesn't feeling like eating at a given time, don't sweat it. She will most likely be VERY hungry for the next meal and make up for it. You might also notice that some of the foods she supposedly doesn't want at some times will seem mighty tasty when she is hungrier. Also remember that infants can be notoriously picky eaters. Luckily, my son happens to not be one of those kids. He eats everything...fruits, vegetables, breads, meats, etc. I attribute some of the supposed "pickiness" of some kids' eating habits to being forced by the parents to eat. They just stop eating to test the limits. Just keep trying the same foods over and over consistently for a couple of weeks and you may find that a food "grows" on her.

I wouldn't be concerned about the loss in weight at this point. The only reason I say that is due to the fact that she was having 30 oz. of milk a day before switching to a more solids-based diet. 30 oz. of milk is a whole lot of milk, which equals a whole lot of fat. After abruptly switching her off of that large milk-based diet, I can almost fully guarantee that the amount of fat in her diet dropped considerably. Losing that consistent source of fat in her diet would lead to a loss in weight. Also, if she is almost solely eating grains now such as Cheerios and bread, remember that grains alone do not provide the essential fats and protein needed for healthy growth. This could also be definitely leading to a loss in weight, since her body is using the fat and protein stores it has to provide energy.

I would go with the buffet idea. I feed my son in courses so he doesn't make as much of a mess and so he gets to eat the better stuff before the "dessert" foods. Either way you choose to do things puts more control in the hands of the child, which is what they really want. They want to control how much they eat. Let your daughter decide what is right for her growth requirements, and then supplement some foods with proper nutrition if needed to round out her diet. I bet that her loss in weight is more in tune with her true growth curve, and you will see her level off on that curve as she gains more control over her feeding habits.

I look forward to hearing how things progress, and I hope that this note lets you know that you are not alone! Hang in there!

I have started giving her cheese, but so far avocado is a no-go. I picked up a bag of combined shredded cheddar and Monterey jack cheese, she seems to like that OK. I'm certainly not anti-fat; one of Audrey's favorite foods that I failed to mention earlier is salmon (specifically, wild Copper River salmon) - which has a high fat content but is also loaded with healthy nutrients.

She has totally rejected most fruits we've tried to give her - the nurse at our pediatrician's office almost guaranteed that she would gobble up canned fruit cocktail, but she spat that out almost on sight. So we were very surprised the other day when my wife was eating a nectarine and then offered Audrey a bite, she sank her teeth right in. Made a slightly perplexed face, as though she was thinking about it - but proceeded to take a few more bites. So maybe she just wants to eat like the grown-ups.

One other thing I forgot to mention - if she is distracted, for example looking around in a restaurant - she will generally eat just about anything we give her, including cauliflower, broccoli etc. So I've tried giving her a toy or something to play with when we're sitting down for our regular meals, sometimes that helps, and sometimes it doesn't.

I guess deep-down, I know she's not going to starve. It's just that sometimes this seems so much more difficult and frustrating than it should be (the solid feedings, I mean) - especially when I talk to other parents who either think it's bizarre that our pediatrician has us doing this very deliberate transition from formula to solids, or others who just find it unusual that Audrey is so selective about what she eats.

Thanks for all your helpful advice, and if anyone else has anything to add, please feel free. I appreciate it.

You also have to remember how small their stomachs are, it doesn't really take much to fill them up.

I'm Not a Slacker

Well, she's having her lunch now, and I'm nibbling on some leftover lasagna. I don't know if she is eating any more than before, but it's definitely a less stressful process. (And slower. And messier.) Last night, my wife actually ate her dinner with the family! She usually feeds Audrey while her meal, which I painstakingly prepared, sits on the table, getting cold. Then she collapses on the sofa after putting Audrey to bed, only having had a few bites of dinner. Which frankly is what I'd been doing for breakfast and lunch too, except I didn't even attempt to eat anything...

Yes, Audrey's food is already prepared. Every 3 days or so, I steam a little batch of diced carrot, yam, sweet potato, peas, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, apple and pear. Then I just have to spoon a little bit of everything onto a plate, along with 1 or 2 of those chicken sticks, pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds, add half a slice of wheat bread and maybe some cheese and Cheerios, maybe a little banana, and we are in business.

One thing I still can't figure out is why our "first year" baby books seem to say that at 10 months, our child should be getting something like 5 servings each (between a tablespoon and 1/4 cup) of fruits, veggies, grains plus a healthy source of protein (egg yolk, meat, cottage cheese) in addition to her milk/formula. I seriously doubt she is eating anything close to that. And also, when I told our pediatrician about how little Audrey is actually eating, she seemed genuinely surprised, as if she has never heard of this sort of thing before. Which I doubt can be true.

I guess I just have to take all that with a grain of salt, and keep on keeping on. Lunch is almost over now; there does seem to be quite a lot of green and orange food left on her tray and on the kitchen floor, while the brown foods get snapped up and devoured. But, I guess you guys are right - I can't force her to eat anything she doesn't want (although I have been able to trick her from time to time). And just regularly letting her try all these different foods will probably eventually pay off. Thanks again.

My nearly 4 year old is still incredibly picky. Wont eat meat of any kind, loves plain hamburger buns, loves peanut butter on spoons, but not on bread, wont touch a cheerio if you begged him to, but eats gerber bananas in the jar like there is no tomorrow. Will only eat yoplait lime yogurt, no other brand, no other flavor. He's fine. He's tall, he's healthy, and at his physical last week, the bloodwork came back as he's not anemic, he's in the 95 percentile for height and weight, and he's a normal kid.

Sounds like yours is normal too!

Except maybe for the salmon thing.

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