Toddler - does not eat breakfast - cereal issue?

Classy · Sep 9, 2007

[FONT=arial,helvetica] I need some help with my toddler's eating habit and will really appreciate any help. My 14 mo. old toddler is now under 3 times solid feed with breakfast of rice cereal (5 spoons plus some fruit and formula 3 oz) and lunch of rice and dal or curry and dinner of either ragi or some sweet or curd rice. Have a snack around 4 pm of yoghurt and fruit. And 2 feeds of formula 6 oz at noon and at night before bed. The thing is the rice cereal feed in the morning for breakfast takes a long time 1 hour plus. He just keeps it in his mouth and swallows only after 10 mins or so. And he cries after sometime that he doesn't want it. We trie to feed milk early in the morning and let him go to sleep and again feed the cereal little late after he wakes up, but either way the cereal feed he doesn't seem to like it. He is ok with lunch meal , formula. Dinner again is sometimes fussy. The thing is he got into the habit of keeping the solid in his mouth for a while. I want some suggestions on what I can do to help this. He does not like food very spicy so cereal should actually be fine, but not sure if he is bored. I try to give cereal since it is told to be very good for health.. are there any other suggestions or choices?

Another qn. is on yoghurt. Since he likes yoghurt, sometimes when he does not eat lunch or dinner fine, my mil just mixes curd in the food, even if its dal or curry and she says he eats it fine if she mixes curd. There were days where he eats dal with curd mixed for lunch , yobaby yoghurt in the afternoon and again rasam with curd mixed for dinner. I stopped my mil bcos I was afraid he will eat only curd rice in future. Am I right, or is it okay to mix rice since my mil says anyways the dal and veg.s is also going with curd. Please advise.
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rajmiarun · Sep 9, 2007

Classy,
I think your kid is unable to chew the food with his teeth. So better mash the food so thoroughly (dont use a blender or mixie to make it a paste), just let it be like Vennai Madiri Pesainju, (hope you understood my Tamil, if not it should be in the consistency of butter). He should be able to swallow it so easily. Also give him water in between spoons of food.

Regarding curd rice, or having any food only with curd there is no need to worry. I think he likes the taste of curd and if he is able to take any food just with curd it is well and good for he will definitely finish it fast. Dont worry about him eating only curd rice at the later stage, because when they grow up their tastes change and they when sit with others to eat their food will know how to balance the food.

To be very frank with I was taking my food with lots of curd and infact my morning drink itself was curd and not milk for almost 10 to 12 years. I had hated the site of milk it seems. So my grandfather suggested in giving me curd and I took it. Also for any food be it Parrupodi saadam, rasam or sambar or vathal kulambu I def need some curd to swallow the food. Though now I have changed, when thinking of it I remeber my father commenting (oosi thondai), a throat with the size of a needle.

naazneen · Sep 9, 2007

hi there,
About the rice cereal, my 16 month old gets bored of same old food too, so now I am not so particular about feeding her rice cereal in the morning only. I mix in Gerber rice cereal with her afternoon soup and she really likes it. For breakfast I try to give different things like quick oats with mashed banana, cracked wheat, rawa, small pieces of whole wheat bagel(moistened with butter and honey). Basically my pediatricain said I don't have to worry about her vitamins and minerals intake from formula or rice cereal since she was 1yr old. We switched her to whole milk then and he said to concentrate on giving her healthy amount of different fruits and veggies and protein.
So I try to give her different stuff that she can eat easily also with her own hand-like steamed peas,beet, greenbeans(tried broccoli but she won't take it).fruit like cantaloupe, cut grapes, berries.
About the curd thing don't worry about it. I follow my mums advice "if the task of eating is made pleasurable then eventually the child eats all sorts of stuff". As long as its not unhealthy like candy or choclate give them what they like. I think children have a biological need in them, just as the refuse food when they have had enough, they also want certain foods more than others. Hope this helps.
~ Naazneen