Along the same lines of Jill and her post about popcorn poop, I’m just going to go ahead and tell you that this post? Is about poop. Mostly.
But no pictures.
Because ew.
And this post today is as much for me to throw it out the Universe that I need some HALP from the more experienced and to organize my thoughts about this. Okay? Let’s talk poop.
Something is not right with my kid, y’all.
Nearly all of my toddler’s poops, and especially the majority of them over the past two weeks, have been…runny. And plentiful. And they are all the colors of the rainbow. He almost NEVER has a solid poop. Sometimes they will be semi-solid like they started out solid but there is always non-solid poop riding shotgun.
I know this is probably related to his dietary intake. Which is nearly non-existent.
My kid is a picky eater who lives off of a diet of beige carbs.
But now that I’m home with him for the summer, I’m paying attention to his poops. And I can’t help but wonder if this poop predicament is related to what he will, or rather won’t, eat. And the fact that these poops are giving him a diaper rash and are bordering on poopsplosion territory? I can’t help but sit up and take notice of them a little more closely. Because this just cannot be healthy or okay.
What he will eat/drink:
- peanut butter
- cheese
- crackers (saltine, Goldfish)
- tortillas
- bananas
- cereal bars
- Cheerios
- black beans (but ONLY from Moe’s, and ONLY in the restaurant)
- french fries
- junk food (chips, cookies, popsicles, ice cream<–Basically all the things he should never have. Ever.)
- apple sauce
- biscuits
- yogurt
- milk (2%)
- apple juice (1 part juice, 2 parts water)
What he will NOT eat/drink:
- anything not on that list
He doesn’t eat vegetables. Or meat. Or even bread. Unless you count the biscuits. He will eat both cheese and tortillas, but he will not quesadillas. Occasionally, he will eat a grilled cheese sandwich (and this actually makes up the majority of his meals) but he will ask for a spoon so that he can scrape the peanut butter from the peanut butter sandwich and leave the bread on his tray.
His daycare’s daily reports say that he’ll eat corn (but I’ve never seen any evidence of this, if you catch my drift), green beans, peas, chicken nuggets, even stewed tomatoes (blech!) but here? At home? No. I could go to the grocery store and buy the EXACT. SAME. THINGS. they serve and he will not eat them. When we bring leftover black beans home from Moe’s, he will not eat them.
I’m beginning to think that his diapers are a result of the lack of…something…in his diet.
Meals with him are not fun. At all. And maybe that’s my fault. Meals with him have always given me anxiety so I’m quick to give him SOMETHING to not have him scream/whine/fight/cry through dinner.
Maybe I’ve somehow created this picky eating monster by asking him what he wants to eat instead of just putting a plate of food in front of him and expecting him to eat it. Or by not trying to force him to eat things.
But when I put a bite of something new on his tray and he refuses to even touch it, even to move it away from himself? What am I supposed to do with that? Shove it in his mouth and hold his jaws shut and rub on his neck like I’m medicating a cat??
And seriously. He does that. I put a bite of something new on his plate and he refuses to touch it and will sometimes cry until the offending bite is removed. Every. Single. Time.
He’s always been this way for as long as he’s been eating solid foods. He’s never been the kid who demands a bite of whatever I’m eating, and I’d gladly share with him. But he never, and has never, asked.
And now I think he’s losing out on nutrition because he’s a picky eater and I’ve allowed him to be this way. And because he will not even attempt to TRY new things, there’s no way I can do the “hide the veggies in his other foods” thing.
So I need help, y’all, because this is stressing me out. Again.
mummy@bodfortea
Saturday 11th of June 2011
My life. Your life. Snap. We're in the same place as you and everyone else on the comments who has a fussy eater. (Which reminds me - can you link this post up at the fussy eaters support club pretty please? It's SO perfect for it! http://bod-for-tea.blogspot.com/2011/05/fussy-eaters-support-club-mayjune.html)
DD has just about the same list of foods she'll eat. I do the fruit/veg smoothie thing at dinner time when I know she just doesn't really want to eat. We went down the route you're going to start with the 'eat what I give you' approach and it failed miserably with tears on both sides. So we're giving it a rest until we get back to the UK and then I'm going to start again. Hopefully a change of location will cause some sort of miracle to occur and she'll start to eat normal food. Because I HATE prepping two meals, ya feel me?
Mucho courage coming your way hun x
Miranda
Saturday 11th of June 2011
Linked!
And I'm giving it a shot. If he asks for something healthy-ish, like cheese, I won't NOT give it to him. But he's going to get a plate of whatever we're having first. Which means I'll have to get off my lazy assets and cook early enough to feed him what we're eating.
Dawana
Saturday 11th of June 2011
A. You are NOT losing me as a follower. B. I almost wrote a post about yeast infections and hemorrhoids... yeah... C. The Pea is also an uber picky eater and does that SAME thing where if she has something on her plate that she doesn't want? And you don't remove it pronto? Meltdown city. As an example I am now trying to coax her into eating Macaroni & Cheese... not happening. Other days? She'll request it til her face turns blue. Her eating habits are horrible, the only meat she will eat is chicken and on occasion meatballs with her spaghetti. I pretty much have to do a rain dance to get her to eat. And her poop? Pellets. Always pellets or rock-looking things. Probably not normal either. And in all shades. Green, dark brown, light brown, mustard yellow. Ugh. I feel your pain girl and have no advice for you because I'm makin' shiz up as I go along.
Miranda
Saturday 11th of June 2011
1. Good. 2. Write on, yo. 3. The meltdowns are enough to break the resolve of any living, breathing thing. Perhaps we should use them as torture devices for prisoners from whom we need information.
MamaRobinJ
Saturday 11th of June 2011
Mine isn't a totally picky eater, but he doesn't eat nearly enough as I would think he'd need based on how active he is. But I just don't worry about it.
I know this is probably not helpful, but remember that a LOT of kids are like this. And it's a phase - he won't be like this forever. Plus, think about him getting nutrition over a week or 2 - if he doesn't eat well every day or even most days it's okay.
Some ideas: - frozen fruit - will he eat frozen blueberries or something? C loves those. Same with frozen peas. He won't eat much if cooked, but frozen? Gobble 'em down. - Make popsicles that have good stuff in them. There are some recipes if you Google - I make some with juice and yogurt so he at least gets dairy and some protein. - Will he eat something like edamame (sp?) - if you boil them he can pop them out of the shells himself. Fun! - If he'll eat noodles buy the kind made of veggies. - Will he eat noodles and cheese sauce instead of pasta sauce? That's something else. If so, I have a good recipe for butternut squash/cheese pasta that tastes like cheese (and is yum!).
Miranda
Saturday 11th of June 2011
I know he's not wasting away and the pediatrician always tells us he's healthy. It was really those poops over the last two weeks that got me thinking that something wasn't right.
I like the idea of making popsicles because I can almost always get him to eat those!
Tiffany
Saturday 11th of June 2011
i didn't read through all of the comments so, forgive me if i'm repeating things.
though, i did see the comment about hiding vegetables in spaghetti sauce (chop them in a food processor) and add it to the sauce. can't even tell.
the other thing i do for vegetables is smoothies. target has these little organic smoothie packets (if you want the brand, just email me, i can't remember off the top of my head and finding out requires me to get up). My son loves the mango spinach and my daughter one with bananas, blueberries and radishes. also, i make smoothies for myself a lot and add spinach leaves. the kids will drink that too. OR, since he likes popsicles, you could make the smoothie and freeze them in those plastic popsicle things and he could get vegetables that way.
My daughter (4) is a super picky eater. I used to give her a choice too but lately i put whatever i've made for dinner in front of her. it takes an hour, but if she's hungry enough, she'll eat it. the other day she ate broccoli. couldn't believe it. and though it's terrible, sometimes i bribe her. whatever.
another thing i did with her though--Ensure. She drank one every other day. It's expensive, but made me feel better that she was getting more nutrients than she was from say, an Eggo. :)
Miranda
Saturday 11th of June 2011
He won't eat spaghetti sauce. He'll eat noodles, but not sauce. But only spaghetti noodles. Come near him with a rotini and he will scream your face off.
Smoothies are a good option because he's way more likely to try a new drink than he is a new food, especially if he can use a straw. This kid loves a straw.
Our gameplan is to only offer him what we want him to eat and see what happens.
Alison@Mama Wants This
Saturday 11th of June 2011
I think it's a phase, this picky eater thing. They just want to see how far they can push it. I read somewhere that you have to offer the offending item to them at least 10 times before you give up.
My Monkey was very picky. It came to a point once when he'd barely eaten a thing in 3 days. But we just kept offering him food. Eventually (I guess he was hungry), he started to eat again, and he was suddenly into vegetables! He'd decided that green was his favorite color! Now he eats peas, asparagus, carrot, tomatoes, pumpkin, spinach, mango, watermelon, pasta with tomato sauce, bread (he LOVES bread), rice, muesli, pumpkin seeds, soya bean seeds. However, he doesn't eat a lot at meals, he's more a snacker and a grazer. We find that he's less interested in eating in the evening, so he gets most of his calories in the daytime.
He also didn't poop well, and we started giving him flaxseed mixed in with pureed fruit+veg (my MIL makes a big batch and we freeze it - it's a mixture of pear, apple, pumpkin, carrot + dates). It really works!
Good luck!
Miranda
Saturday 11th of June 2011
I don't expect him to eat three meals a day. I'm a grazer, too. I'd much rather just nibble when I'm hungry than sit down and eat three times. The pediatrician told us at his 2 year WBV that it's totally normal for kids to not eat dinner because they eat when their bodies need fuel, so most of that is during the day. Which probably explains why he eats better at daycare than he does at home for me.
I'll do some digging on the flaxseed! Thanks for the rec!