My toddler the picky eater

Raffaele is a picky eater.  He just really has not had the desire for food.  Up until his 2.5 year appointment, he was still consuming about 6 bottles of formula per day.  It was the only thing he would readily agree to consume!  Plus he was getting all those vitamins, minerals, and DHA.  He's been really healthy.  Besides a slight cold once, he's never been sick; he's never had a fever.  We've been really fortunate.  So, at his 2.5 year appointment, the pediatrician told us that it was time to stop those bottles.  (Believe me, I have about six different sippy cups here plus all the cups with tops and straws in an attempt to get him to drink formula out of a cup, not a bottle, but bottle is the only way that he will consume formula.)  So, the Saturday morning after his 2.5 year appointment, I explained to him, "Raffaele, you are a little boy now.  No more nooks."  ("Nook" is his word for formula in his bottle.)  He repeated to me, "little boy."  He looked at me.  He said, "Little boy, no more nooks."  "That's right, Raffaele," I said, "you are a little boy.  No more nooks."

And that's all it took mostly.  No more nooks.  The first week, every now and then he would ask for his nook, but we would remind him that he was a little boy and no more nooks.  Once, just to be sure, he asked, "no more nooks?"  "That's right, Raffaele," we replied, "no more nooks."  And after the first week, there were no more requests for nooks.

I did pour his formula from the bottle into a cup in front of him several times and showed him that he could still have his formula via cup, but he would have none of that.  For him, he wants the full experience of formula in a bottle.

After the first week, he was still barely touching food.  By barely, I mean that for the first two years of his life, Raffaele has received 90% of all his intake from formula.  He simply refused to eat food.  It was as if he would rather starve than eat food.  Finally, at 2.5 years old, it means that he has a nibble here, a nibble there, and that's basically it.  To my eyes, he lost weight the first week of no nooks.

Two weeks post "no nooks" his eating picked up.  Now, he has between 1.5 and 2 waffles everyday for breakfast plus a cup of orange juice.  As a mid-morning snack, we offer banana, but he doesn't always take this; at least he'll eat a few crackers.  For lunch, and I'm not totally proud of this, but it's something, my husband takes him to McDonald's where he can run around and play while eating some chicken McNuggets and some fries.  (And by not proud I mean that I am aware that McNuggets are not the healthiest chicken, but at least he will EAT it.  It's that or he may simply refuse to eat altogether, which is how it went until he was about two.  So, we decided, let's get him to eat something, and we can work on more nutritional eating later. I hope this makes sense.  Besides, sometimes he barely only eats ONE McNugget.)  For a mid-afternoon snack, he'll have a yogurt, sometimes bread, sometimes crackers, lately he likes cheez-its.  (Just to interject here, YES, we have offered grapes, apples, mango, avocado, smoothies, puffs, cereal bars, pears, watermelon, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, ETC., and he won't eat it.  These are all yucky to him.)  For dinner, there we go again -- I offer what we're having, for example, grilled chicken with spinach and rice.  However, he has his own agenda.  Sometimes he'll skip dinner altogether.  I have comfort in something that I read from Dr. Sears once that it is not uncommon for toddlers to skip dinner.  The other day for dinner, I was finally able to get him to eat ice cream -- well, it's something!  That's why we buy good ice cream.  He will drink apple or pear juice during the day, so that's good.  We've offered him cow's milk in a cup, but this is yucky to him.  I've offered almond milk as well, which I prefer, to no avail.

For added nutrition, I bought liquid droppers that have multivitamins, and I've ordered droppers with DHA -- I add these to his orange juice in the morning, and he can't tell that there's something added.  I tried to get Raffaele to eat a Flintsone vitamin everyday, but that only lasted one day.

Raffaele also has peculiar eating ways -- I offered him macaroni and cheese and I put bread (which he wanted) on the same plate, but he refused to eat the bread, because it was on the same plate as the yucky macaroni and cheese.  (For the record, we've made three different kinds of macaroni and cheese for him, and he is repulsed by all of them.)  So, I had to get the bread off the plate, but that wasn't enough, because the bread was "tainted" by having been on that plate, so he refused to eat it.  His habits change everyday too -- one day he wants his waffle with butter and syrup, and the next he wants it absolutely plain.  We have to ask, "how would you like your waffle today?"

Don't get me wrong!  I'm not writing this to complain, but rather to explain!  I think we are doing well now.  He's not drinking from a bottle anymore.  He's eating food.  The food that he eats may not be the most nutritious meals of grilled chicken, fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. that I would like for him to consume, but at least he is eating and he cooperates with eating what he does eat.  He's getting his vitamins and DHA now via the dropper that I can squirt into this orange juice.  I think he'll be fine.

Like someone said, Raffaele isn't going to allow himself to simply starve.  He will eat something.  It might end up being crackers and ice cream for dinner, but he will at least eat it.  As he grows older, we can guide him towards different foods and one day someday he'll eat what we eat for dinner.