6 Strategies to Address Toddler Selective Eating
Hi! Today we’re talking about toddlers and their relationship with food. As you know, food has always been a top priority in my parenting journey, and I’ve been taking notes since the start. Here are some of my previous reports for your perusal:
How I Introduced Sushi to My Baby
When I first started solids with my baby, I had this grand vision of my daughter and I sitting out on a breezy patio in Barcelona, giggling and sharing a pan of squid ink paella. And with each day that passes, I am still lovingly steering us toward that vision.
At the 6 month mark I took on the “100 new foods by 1 yr old” challenge, and I shared a lot of the firsts on my IG story. It was fascinating and wondrous to get the first pure reactions to foods like strawberries and sweet potato. Week by week, she happily munched through just about everything I served — kale, branzino, all types of beans, and yep even squid ink paella! Every time I’d post one of our infant food discoveries onto IG story, I’d get a handful of responses from other moms with the sentiment, “I remember when my baby ate everything, now they only want X, Y, and Z.”
Wait what. I was shooketh. I thought I was doing all this shit to bypass the picky phase! But after some more reading, I learned that there would come a time in her relationship with food where she would develop preferences, moods, cravings, aversions, phases. It’s part of healthy development. Oh.
I adjusted my expectations of the food journey. BLW was about casting a wide net for the inevitable narrowing. Fine. And after that, well, I just waited for the dreaded day to come.
And it’s here, guys. Seemingly overnight, my happy, chubby baby was suddenly replaced by a slimmed down and very opinionated toddler who says “I don’t like that,” “Yucky,” and oh my favorite, “NO.”
Here are 6 strategies I’ve been learning and using to address the selective phase. Because NOW is when the real work begins. It’s on, kiddo!