Welcome to YTF Community, a place to safely share in the challenges and joys of feeding our families. And make all of it easier! This is a weekly members post with timely advice and encouragement that I hope helps offer a little reassurance.
This week we have three questions that cover a mix of common issues to help provide you with practical information you can put into action and also, more generally, to help calm anxiety about feeding kids.
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“My five year old son suddenly seems to have decided he doesn’t like a long list of foods he used to love. Berries, yogurt, any kind of chicken other than nuggets, all kinds of pizza…all out now. I didn’t see this coming and I’m not sure what to do about it!” —Mandy
This is such a common (and frustrating) scenario. It often happens around the 14-19 month mark, when growth in toddlers typically slows as compared to the more rapid growth patterns seen in babyhood. This means that what can appear as pickiness and refusal to eat foods the child used to love is simply reduced hunger.
With an older kiddo, as mentioned in the question, there is often more going on. The first thing I recommend (and try to remember when this happens with my own kids) is to consider the context. Did something change in their routine? Is there recent illness or a family change that might throw things a little off the normal?
If you can consider things that may be contributing stress, anxiety, or just a change in schedule or their norm, it can be a little easier to empathize with a child who is eating less predictably. (And start to talk through whatever is going on.) Because often, reaching for more reliable foods—and by “reliable” I mean how each cracker in a bag of crackers always tastes, whereas berries can be sweet, tart, sour, firm, or mushy depending on the berry—is actually quite normal.
And is simply a desire for more reliable comfort.
In this situation, and actually whether or not you can pinpoint a cause or correlation, here are a few things you can do to help your worry and the child be able to eat enough:
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