Learning Curve: The Birth Of A Selective Eater

When I was pregnant with Amelia, I had big plans for her nutrition. She wasn’t going to be one of those kids eating sweet, processed cereal bars for breakfast, or hot dogs and French fries for dinner. Oh, no. She was going to eat only fresh or minimally processed, whole grain, organic foods. She was going to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables each and every day. Her diet was going to be naturally vitamin-rich and full of variety, to include everything from cantaloupe to quinoa.

And then she arrived, strong-willed and sure of her likes and dislikes. We started her out on rice cereal at four months, as recommended by her pediatrician, and had just begun to add fruits and vegetables when the rebellion began. For months she refused solid foods. She just didn’t like pureed baby food at all, period. Not sweet potatoes, not peas, not pears or apples. Nothing. Well, okay, she occasionally would eat pureed bananas, but only the jarred kind - never fresh. (Go figure.) I had even purchased a cool little baby-food-making kit, which I used exactly once. It was only when we began giving her finger foods that she started to change her mind a bit. Maybe she liked having some control over the food.

Now she was eating, but only a few limited things, and tiny amounts. Macaroni and cheese, rice, occasionally some diced pears. Most other things she wouldn’t touch. I tried everything; I even resorted to trying to offer ice cream and cookies in a desperate attempt to get her to eat. (She wouldn’t touch the ice cream… liked the cookies, though.) She refused to try the cake at her first birthday party, much to the disappointment of family and friends. I read all the tips and tricks I could find online; most didn’t work. I had what could officially be classified as a “picky eater.”

Now seventeen months old, she is still extremely selective and cautious when it comes to food. For example, she won’t touch anything red, be it strawberries, popsicles (I tried the natural fruit kind, hoping to sneak in some kind of fruit), spaghetti, or ketchup. She refuses pizza and most breads, although she will eat muffins as long as they don’t have any kind of crumb topping on them. She will drink only milk or water. This means I can’t give her fruit juices or smoothies, which rules out what would have been a fairly easy method of getting fruit into her. The only green thing she will eat now is peas, which leads me to hope that all nutrition to be had from veggies is contained in those little green globes. And yes, she does eat French fries.

Amelia is an enigma to me, because she is so different from me. She is an amazing kid, and definitely her own person. She has taught me so much, not least of which is not to judge other moms by what their kids eat!

by: Teresa Kolvek