A picky eater’s munchkin meals at 15 months

It’s been a long time since I participated in Brittany’s munchkin meals.

Since Wyatt was diagnosed with FPIES we’ve had a lot of eating challenges, and our goal shifted from raising a healthy eater to getting him to eat anything other than breastmilk.

Recently, I’ve heard from several other moms who are struggling to get their tots to eat, due to allergies or just general pickiness. So, I thought I’d share what Wyatt has been eating. Please know this is just what works for us. He doesn’t eat much, and his weight is closely monitored by his doctors.

Breakfast: When Wyatt wakes up, I nurse him for a few minutes. I’m still breastfeeding mainly because Wyatt won’t drink milk. We’ve tried milk alternatives, smoothies, different sippy cups and bottles, and even chocolate milk and he won’t take anything consistently. It has been a huge struggle for the past 3.5 months. His doctor thinks he may just be one of those kids who never drinks milk, and encourages me to offer him a lot of cheese and yogurt. I’m really nervous to stop nursing and just rely on dairy products, though.

His real breakfast is always some sort of fruit, yogurt, and a grain. Either toast with peanut butter, oatmeal, or egg-free cinnamon rolls. He rarely eats the grain part of his breakfast, but I continue to offer it. His yogurt is 2% flavored Chobani mixed with full-fat, plain Greek yogurt. He won’t eat the full octane yogurt by itself or even with fruit mixed in, so we use the Chobani to thin it out.

Yogurt, oatmeal, and pear slices. He usually eats 1/4 to 1/3 of this.

Lunch: Wyatt doesn’t always sit down for lunch. Sometimes he’ll just eat a bunch of snacks between his two naps and that serves as lunch. Lunchtime staples include cucumbers (his favorite), bananas, oranges, organic cheese sticks, black beans, graham crackers, and pouches (HappyTot spinach, mango, pear is his go-to combination). I also offer him spoonfuls of peanut butter throughout the day, and he usually takes them. It’s reassuring to know he’s getting some fat, even though this may not be the most ideal way to feed a child!

Around 2:00 pm, he has his longest nursing session of the day.

Dinner: I wish I could say that dinner is whatever we eat, but that’s really not the case because he’s so picky.

We alternate between the highchair and booster seat. He’s a little small for the booster, but he hates the highchair.

We do a lot of Amy’s mac and cheese with peas mixed in (side note: all Amy’s products are made in an egg-free facility), homemade pizza, Mexican “casseroles” with black beans, cheese, corn, and tomatoes, and grain bowls, consisting of rice or quinoa, turkey sausage, veggies, and goat cheese.

He does pretty well with a fork and spoon!

Before bed, I nurse him one last time.

There are several days where Wyatt eats nothing besides breastmilk and pouches. Sometimes he literally picks the peas out of his mac and cheese and just eats them. Who does that? And I can probably count one one hand the number of times he’s actually eaten more than a few of bites of all three meals. Dinner seems to be his worse meal of the day – often, he’ll just scream or toss his plate on the floor as soon as I put his food in front of him, or he’ll play with his food rather than eat it. I know this is typical toddler behavior and I try not to stress about it. I just continue to offer him food throughout the day and pray he’s getting enough.

Who else has a picky eater? Does anyone else have a non-milk drinker?