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One Year - Bottles/Feeding Question
by cantwait4baby, Jul 23, 2008 07:22AM
My 14 month old is a horrible eater. She never ate baby food and due to a health scare she was only on formula for the first 9 months of her life. Then on to baby food which she rejected. At 12 months I started table food. She only has two teeth so this is not easy. She will not allow anyone to feed her she has to feed herself. Ms. Independent like her mom. Anyway, the more I push veggies the less of them she eats. It seems like the only think she will eat a good amount of is Spaghetti or Grill Cheese which is not giving her all the "colors" she should have. No greens at all. I tried hiding them in the spaghetti and everything. I give her pedasure on days when she is not eating good. Has anyone else had these issues and had success?
Now on to bottles. My dd is off the bottle – she drinks from a sippy but at night I still give her a milk bottle. That is my time and I enjoy feeding her during this time and if I were nursing it would be ok so I am not worried about the bottle. My worry is the milk on her teeth? How do I put her to sleep without a bottle? I want to stop due to the milk hurting her teeth? Should I just put her to sleep with Water? Suggestions please?
Now on to bottles. My dd is off the bottle – she drinks from a sippy but at night I still give her a milk bottle. That is my time and I enjoy feeding her during this time and if I were nursing it would be ok so I am not worried about the bottle. My worry is the milk on her teeth? How do I put her to sleep without a bottle? I want to stop due to the milk hurting her teeth? Should I just put her to sleep with Water? Suggestions please?
How about pureeing veggies and making meatballs....can she eat them.
Jerry Seinfelds wife wrote a book about eating healthy for kids. Pureeing a lot of veggies, fruits and hiding it in regular food.
I think it's called Deceptively Delicious....Something like that.
I use some recipes on Abby, but of course she can eat anything now.
She has had 2 dental visits and has perfect teeth.
I would always brush her teeth morning and night.
Now - I don't know if it's different but Abby didn't get milk...she got that Enfamil Next Step Formula until 18months because she was such a poor eater, I thought that was more beneficial to her than milk....I thought she'd get more vitamins and nutrients if I gave her the Next Step.
I'm not saying I'm right or wrong...that's just what I did
Thanks for the advice ladies - Deanne - What you said makes perfect sense - now if only I could cook. hahah I guess I need to start doing things more domestic now that I am a mom but I always took the easy way out of eating and cooking. I was going to do the Similac Go and Grow but the Pedasure is the same thing so I give her one of those a day. Not at night. How did Abby react when you took her night bottle away? I think I am going to still give her a bottle but before bathtime and then brush her teeth and lay her down after bath. I read and rock her to sleep at night.
It helps relax her. She drinks it, then we go upstairs to brush our teeth, read a story and go to bed.
it's not ideal, but lots of kids go through life hating veggies. i was one. unfortunately, they were forced on me, so to this day i resist trying something new and eating green things. i would just keep offering only a small bit on her plate. eventually she may taste it. if she genuinely doesn't like it, there's not much you can do. (i WISH veggies didn't make me gag. dieting would be sooo much easier). or you can take deanne's suggestion about hiding purees in foods. we do that for me sometimes :)
as for the bottle thing, i got her off falling asleep with it a couple of months ago because i was afraid of your situation. it was easier than i thought it would be. we started to do the last botttle downstairs where there's regular stimulation- tv, noise, us chatting, etc... we started it a little earlier than we normally would to ensure that she stayed awake. then i take her upstairs, put our lullaby cd on, and rock her for a song or 2 to help her settle. plus, we still get our snuggle time. while still awake, she gets put into her crib. she usually rolls around for a bit, puts her aquarium on, plays with her glowworn, etc... for a little while but 90% of the time goes down on her own with me downstairs. we did have to transition a little to this. for example, at first i started by giving her 1/2 the bottle downstairs, and finishing the second half upstairs. then we'd give most downstairs and save just an ounce for upstairs. i am not a believer in CIO or dramatic change with little ones. even getting her to stay in her bed was a gentle transition. the first days i would have to keep my hand on her back, or stand next to the crib. if she got up and cried i would move to the other side of the room, sit in the dark, and firmly remind her it was night-night time. if she sat down, i used a soft, gentle voice and said good girl, night-night. if she laid down, i went next to crib again, gently stroked her and softly said night-night. this never took more than a half hour, and after a couple days and she went down all on her own. of course, she's a pretty easy kid and was younger than your dd.
She never fell asleep with it. But Abby has always chugged her milk...gone in 30 seconds or less.
She would drink it during story time, but after brushing her teeth (not ideal, I know)
Once she hit 18 mos, she would drink her milk downstairs before even heading upstairs.
Abby would be in heaven if she could play with Eva....she just asked me for a new baby for Jake...'This time, a girl would be nice, Mom'....That is her quote.
i forgot to add that i also have an extremely picky eater... my almost 3 yr old. even as a baby she HATED the baby food vegies! ever since i still give them to her but she won't eat them. every once in a while she'll say "ok, i'll try one but if i don't like it then i won't eat it!". and seeing how she won't eat anything my oldest who is almost 5 will sometimes not eat hers (and she's always loved vegetables). my youngest dd eats them too... well, most of the time anyway!
i'm not real good at adding vegies to other foods... if there are simple recipes for that can someone lead me in that direction??? :)
Check out this link.....
but my problem is this... not only does dd not like vegies... but she simply doesn't like "real" food! when she started eating table food, we would give her things that we ate just like we did her older sister. the difference was that her older sister liked everything we gave her and she did not! so we started to accomodate to what she liked... BIG MISTAKE!!! once we started doing that, her older sister started wanting those things too and started to steer away from some of the things that she had always eaten b/c she saw that her sister wasn't eating it.
now today if one hears the other say something negative about a food we're giving them, then the other won't eat it either. my kids won't even eat quesadillas...come on!!! they want chicken nuggets, fish sticks, pb&j, hotdogs, corndogs, etc... basically unhealthy junk! oh, and they love mac n cheese... but the younger one won't touch it unless the kraft kind that you add milk and butter to!
i am in such a food rut w/ these 2 its unbelievable!!! luckily they both LOVE fruit! and they take vitamins