Getting Food/protein into Toddler? - and - Getting 16 Mo. Old to Sleep Later?

I have the same problem with my 2 1/2 year old. It seems what we have found instead of giving her mac and cheese, we cover green beans with cheese and she doesn't know the difference. Actually, a little cheese on most things gets her to eat. It also seems if we mash things up she tends to try them more often.

On a side note, I was told by my doctor that most of her nutrients come from her milk at this age. Plus, a serving for her is the size of her fist. Kids are very picky and they go through statges where they eat really well and then don't eat hardly anything at all. I would try giving him vitamins as well.

Good luck. You are not alone in this battle!!

Hi there, I'm going to respond to the eating issue because I've got a picky eater in my almost 3 yo too. I'm not going to respond to the sleep issue because I'm extremely lucky and have no on going sleep issues with either of my kids.

My daughter is a carb junkie. If she had her way it would be sweets, bread and pasta all the way. Oh and chocolate milk. I'm concerned because she also eats very little per serving and almost every day goes without either lunch or dinner. I feel like the kid is starving herself and I have done a LOT of reading and a LOT of research, so I'll share a bit of what I've learned. Many many parents think their kids are picky eaters when in fact at this age, this style of eating is extremely common. Children will pick certain foods and refuse to try anything else. That's OK! Keep giving them the foods they like (and it sounds like the foods you cited in your example are perfectly fine except for sugary cereal-try Kix my daughter loves it). Keep offering SMALL amounts of other things and if he doesn't eat it, no big deal. Don't make meal time a battle ground. If he doesn't eat, he doesn't get any snacks later (sounds tough but it does work). One thing I've read is to limit milk consumption because milk fills you up and he may drink so much he just doesn't want to eat. I give my kids a cup at breakfast and a cup at dinner. During the day it's either 100% juice or water. A serving size of food for kids is very very small, between 1-2 tablespoons of most things. A lot of parents compare their portions to their kids. I'm concerned about my daughters intake of protein as well and have found some pastas and bread (whole wheat kinds) have a bit of protein. What I've read though is that the typical american kids diet is more deficient in iron than anything. So I have my kids on an iron fortified vitamin supplement to help.

I hope the info helps! My sources include Toddler cook books, babycenter.com, and USDA food guidelines for children as well as various other websites dedicated to parenting. After investigating as much as I have, I'm not so uptight about her eating style and realize it's a phase and eventually she'll outgrow it and try new things. Just keep offering what he likes, keep offering a little bit of new stuff everyday, keep good foods in the house and bad foods out, keep junk foods and sweet treats as that-just treats on special occassions and enjoy! Talk to your pediatrician too to see what he/she says.

T.

S.,
My 2 1/2 year old is also a picky eater, it's not unusual at this age. But, without sounding preachy you do need to be careful about setting him up for a lifetime of bad eating habits and even scarier, diabetes. If he eats well at school, then he is testing you at home. He knows if he complains you will give in. My son does this too. He screams and throws a fit until I give him more cheese! My son is also not a meat lover. But, as long as he is eating protein I do not worry about him eating meat. He also likes scrambled eggs as well as frozen turkey meatballs from Trader Joe's and sliced chicken from the deli counter in the grocery store. His favorite are 'the good dog' tofu hot dogs (Trader Joes, Whole Foods). They taste like hot dogs but are much healthier, and excellent low fat source of protein and 20 seconds in the microwave! With my son I think its a texture issue. He doesn't like the lumpy, coarse texture of meat, but loves the smooth texture of his tofu dog. I would remove the sugar cereal from the house, replace with cheerios, special K or rice krispies. My son is not great with veggies either. I have been sneaking frozen peas into his mac & cheese which has been working. Just keep trying!
Regarding your youngest son's sleeping I read Dr. Weisbleuth's book, "Healthy sleep Habits, Happy Baby". It's a bit strict, but worked. Sounds like you may just have to let your son cry it out for a few days to break him of the habit.
Good luck!

About protein, try peanut butter. My youngest son can't get enough of it and really doesn't like a lot of meat. But peanut butter...OMG. He is the PB kids. Anyway, your other child is definity sleep deprived. I put my kids on a sleep schedule when they were 4 months old and have stuck to it since. I was going crazy putting them down at seperate times and they would wake at seperate times which drove me insane. So, I put them on the same schedule and it works wonderfully (they are 18 months apart in age).

Hi! I have a 15 month old so I cannot yet help you with the food situation. I am starting to see some behaviors in this dept with my son so you may see me post here about this soon too!

In regards to the sleep thing, are you familiar with the book Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. Well, I went to see him (he is in Chicago) and he helped me out quite a bit. I saw him when my son was 7 months and I was so sleep deprived it was horrible. He turned it around and then we went back for our follow up visit and based on the stage he's at, he gave us further suggestions.

First, based on what I have learned from Weissbluth, your son is not getting enough sleep. Can you try an earlier bedtime? My son (15 months) goes down by 7pm every night, sometimes even earlier, I just watch him and see how he is, but lately it's been 7p. He will sleep til 6:30-7:00. I don't know if this will work for you, but I also had the 5am wakeup problem. Weissbluth suggested setting a soothing alarm for 6am and you don't go to the child before then (unless you know they are sick). The alarm should be music so it's not this scary loud buzzer. In my case, I put our alarm clock in his rooom and it plays CDs - so I put a Baby Einstein music CD in there. This will take a little time to click, but eventually your son will understand you will not go to him until the alarm plays music. It really works. I started it at 6am and slowly moved the time up. It's now set to 7:15am. I get up at 7am, get a quick shower in and then go to him at 7:15 after I hear it go off. My son pops up in his crib when he hears the music, he's happy. If he wakes up earlier he will talk, play with his aquarium that is attached to his crib. Once in a while he might complain (not crying, just a whimper), but I just ignore him. I have had a heck of a time getting to where we are at now, but we are finally there. In fact, his naps are 2 1/2 - 3 hours each day. Now that part I will admit took some doing as the whole transition from two naps to one was hell! Hope some of this helps. It will be rough at first and the baby will still cry loud and wake up the toddler, but in time it should get better when he makes teh association that the alarm (music) means it's time to get up.

I can't really respond to the food issue, because both my kids aren't all that picky. My 20 month old son doesn't eat a lot of meat either, but he loves chicken, so we tend to eat that a lot around here. Good luck!

As far as the sleep issue geos, my son went through exactly the same thing. He was hungry! Since he was weaned, and isn't always a big milk drinker, I fed him a banana, and he went right back to sleep. He soon grew out of it as he was able to go longer periods of time without food. I would try giving him some milk or a banana and see if that helps.

Good luck!

I will comment on the sleep issue, due to not alot of time to respond. He needs more sleep and should be put to bed earlier (in MHO). It may be a chanllenge at first b/c you are used to putting him to bed at this time, but you must be disiplined (sp?) to get him to bed earlier. I would say a 7:00pm bedimtime (in the crib at that time, so that means the process - bath, books et.) starts earlier. I have read alot of books on the sleep issue and I can't remember at that age, how many hours they should be getting, but I can guarentee it is more than the 10-11 hrs. he is getting now. You can do a web search on this to determine. He may still wake up at 5:00am (although with an earlier bedtime, this should push later too), but then you know he went to bed at 7:00pm vs. 8:00 or 8:30.

Good luck and thanks!

Hello S.,
I just want to reassure you that it is not just your child. I run a daycare out of my home and have had a lot of kids that are picky eaters. I even took a class on how to help kids eat healthier. It is not always that easy. Sometimes just having the kids help make the item helps other times just changing something slightly helps. Example you said your son like bagels with cream cheese, have you tried bagels with peanut butter. Some kids never change their minds about these things. My niece only eats tuna fish, Mac n Cheese and potatoe chips with BBQ sauce and she is nine. It seems like she eats the same thing for a couple of months and then she's done with it and goes to something different. My sister makes sure she takes her vitiamins and the Dr. said she is healthy. I have one child in my care that didn't eat any fruits or veggies when he first came. Now he is eating some veggies, but still won't eat fruits. In my class it says that kids need to see a product between 8-15 times before they will try it. I also learned in class that if I eat it the kids are more likely to eat it. If you want to try some receipes that your son can make, let me know. I hope that helps.
B.

I can't help you much with the food because thankfully we haven't had that problem. My 13 month old does the same thing with waking up at 5 or 5:30. With my oldest son, we used to just get up & give him a bottle of milk & sit with him and watch TV. Well, he woke up at that early hour for years! I'm trying with my 13 month old to give him a 4-5 oz bottle of milk and just put him back in bed & he's been going right back to sleep. Then, he'll sleep until 6:30 or 7. I know I've got to cut out that bottle since he really doesn't need it, but it seems to be enough to soothe him and he gets more sleep now. I don't mind getting up for 5 minutes if it means everyone gets to sleep another hour or two. I may have to use Julie's ideas for getting him to sleep longer though.

Hi S.,

As far as meat goes, it's not absolutely necessary that your children eat meat to get protien. At Whole Foods, in the bulk section there is something called "textured vegetable protein." It's pretty inexpensive too!! My daughter doesn't eat meat either but would live on pasta if I gave her the chance; so in order for her to get more protein I add this by the handfulls into the pasta sauce I make. It gives the sauce a meat-like texture and doesn't taste like anything. Or rather, it tastes like what ever you add it to. Seriously! I also sprinkle wheat germ on to her Cherrios or Kix for more of a vitamin and iron boost. The good news is that eggs have protein so keep making them, try to sneak in some spinach of even parmesian cheese (NOT the stuff in the can from the store either!!).

I highly suggest throwing the sugar cereal away. Your son will be mad but he'll get over it and learn to like healthier stuff if that is what he has. I'm sure because you work full-time and your husband travels that you are probably pretty tired (not to mention the other sleep issue) and it's just easier to give your kids what they want but sugar cereals have no benefit when compared to all the bad stuff that is in them.

You may think that as your kids get older that healthier eating will win out but I have relatives with kids who put tablespoons of either sugar (the 8 yr old boy) or salt (the 12 yr old boy) on plain pasta and will only eat it that way. They do this because their parents allowed it in the past and that they would grow out of it. Aside from the terrible health implications, going to restraunts as a family is a nightmare!!!!!!

Hi S.,
This is in response to your 16 month old. A great book is Dr Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Babies. I have been working with my 1 year old since he was born and at 8 months he became a good sleeper. We have a strict routine with closing the bedroom door, dimming lights, changing into PJs, reading books and then bed. I suggest a routine that winds him down and then put him to be at 7:00. An earlier bed time can help. Dr. Weissbluth recommends this and believes "Sleep begets sleep". Try putting your 3 year old in your room for 3 nights and see if the 16 month old will sleep until 6:00. If possible, don't go to the 16 month old until 6:00. It is tough. But persistence will pay off. Good luck!