Teatopia

I'm lucky in that MrMan was quick to eat what we eat. Though he has recently hit a phase, (or maybe it's that I've hit a phase,) where what I make for dinner does not appeal to him. There are nights where he tries it, a few times, and spits it out, and then I scrounge something else for him.
Do you guys all eat together? I think for MrMan that's a big part of it - he's interested to eat what we're eating. In the earlier days of his eating solids, we would cook a little longer whatever we were eating, so that it would be softer, or puree it a bit. Same flavor, different texture.
My mom's tricks for my brothers were to hide dinner in their "go-to" foods: muffins for one, soup for the other.

Lila is a picky eater too. I actually dread mealtime with her when she's cranky, b/c I never know what it will bring. She stayed on baby food during the day until I quit work, which was until about 14 months. I just was afraid to send regular food to the babysitter's house w/ her for fear that she wouldn't eat. I knew she'd eat the baby food. Funny thing though, Lila would never eat the baby food with noodles or chunks, never, not one single bite. I've got many jars of that stuff sitting in my pantry. Actually, any meal made for babies or toddlers, aside from the regular old peas/carrots/fruits, she will not eat. After I quit work, I decided we were done with the baby food. It took a couple of days of grumpiness on both our parts to get it going really well. The key is finding things she likes. I try to make sure Lila eats healthy things, like non-fried foods, but she really tends to like the spicier stuff, and I figure if it's not too spicy and it's not upsetting her stomach then it's fine. She loves homemade spaghetti, burritos w/ sour cream, chili, chicken pot pie, chicken and rice, etc. Today, so far, she had a adult sized bowl of oatmeal (the instant kind in those little packets, she loves that stuff), half a banana, an Earth's Best cereal bar, about a piece and a half of chicken, about twenty grapes (cut into tenths...I'm paranoid), and milk....and it's 3:20...by this time on any given day she could have eaten a lot more than that or a lot less...I never know. We'll see tomorrow if she's gained any weight since her one year checkup.

Oh my gosh, Amelia has refused (like dramatically spitting it out!) baby food since she was able to eat finger foods. Actually, my mom and my friends all made me feel BAD for giving it to her at 9 months old, which in retrospect wasn't THAT bad! She will eat baby yogurt. She eats everything we do. Last night, we had spaghetti squash, chicken/scallion/mozzerella things, and green beans. I just dumped a pile of it on her high chair and she chowed down.

HOWEVER! When she is grouchy, she throws everything everywhere, it's a nightmare!!! She definitely goes through her picky stages, depending on her moods... it's so annoying.

I don't stress out about it though. Babies have a unique ability to perfectly regulate their caloric and nutrient intake naturally, so no need to hide food (which I've done a few times myself- hubby has to constantly remind me to calm down about it). It's common for them to go a few days not eating much, then make up for it with a "big" day of a lot of eating!

I actually just got back from Ava's 15 month check up and I had a bunch of the same questions for the doctor because Ava doesn't eat much, and I was worried about her. He said that babies are just picky sometimes and they will eat when they need to eat. He also said that they get REALLY picky by the time they are age 2, so I guess for me this is nothing.

As for baby food, I still give her some, actually I'm trying to get rid of what I have in the cabinets and then I'm done with it. With the exception of the Toddler Meals with the chicken and pasta wheels. The kid eats the crap out of it. Actually I think she just has fun picking up the wheels with her fingers. I also give her lots of bananas, lots of yogurt and alot of unhealthy things like hot dogs, pudding, chicken nuggets and french fries. She only weighs 20 pounds and for once in my life I'm trying to fatten her up a bit. And since she clearly has a preference for these things, I keep giving them to her. She does eat vegetables too though, and plenty of them. She won't eat anything spicy. I tried giving her spaghetti off my plate which resulted in bad, bad poo and extremely horrible diaper rash for the next 2 days. She definately doesn't have her daddy's love for spicy foods.

Okay I'm rambling, so I'll stop. Hope this helps!

Yes! I am nodding my head vigorously agreeing with your post and everyone's comments. My little guy, Cooper, is 15 months, and I was so worried that he was only eating baby food up until recently, that I made a concerted effort to get him off it. So I started out making three dishes I thought he might like (a tuna and veggie casserole-type dish, a chicken and veggie dish and a 'lasagne' style dish - most with cheese, cause he LOVES cheese), as well as vanilla creamed rice. I pureed the heck out of each of them, and he has taken them no worries - so I'm thinking it was the texture of the food I was making him before. Now, the food is a similar consistency to what's in the jar and he's eating it no problems. Very slowly, I am leaving more and more texture to the food and most days that works!
Coops has issues with sitting still when he's eating, so we try to get as much as possible in there as quick as possible before the squirming starts. Once that happens, it's a lost cause. So alot of the time, he is (what I call) a nomadic eater. He wanders around with his cheerios, cheese, crackers and fruit... so as a result, my house has quite a few crumbs on the floor! But hey, I figure it is a stage and he'll get to a point where he's happy to sit when he understands.
That also means we don't eat together at the table - Cooper eats really early, as he goes to bed really early (about 6:30pm), so I make separate meals for him and then for his dad and I. Sometimes I'm lucky and Coops will eat the leftovers of what we've eaten the night before...and if that happens, it goes on the menu for future Cooper-food ideas!
I think everyone's bubs sound completely normal. I've never met a bub that starved themselves and I think they get more in there than we think they do :)
Great post/ topic, thanks!

Lore has wanted what we ate since she was about 4m old... she does toss stuff on the floor but as soon as she is out she eats it... lol I don't care the floor is clean... But, I use a lot of seasonings on Lore's foods when she decides to be picky... try that... it works great!

Anna loooved baby food, but then once she discovered table food, she was over it. She still will not touch any kind of potatoes, but other than that she will eat lots of other stuff. It's amazing how they can figure out when you are trying to sneak them food...isn't it?! The way I got her to eat what I want her to eat is to not even show her the good stuff (fruit and veggies and cheese for her) and make her eat some of what i wanted (chicken, meats, etc) before she even knew the other stuff was there. I know sometimes it was really tough with the first few bites, but then once she realized how good it was, she was in. Also, try giving Olivia some "sauce" as Anna called it. Anna used to put EVERYTHING in ketchup. Ranch dressing too. It's gross, like you said but she would eat most any kind of meat I would give her. Plus, it makes it fun for her (messy for us though) to dip and taste. Good luck!!

Ava is a super pickey eater too. She's really stuck on eating hard boiled eggs, peaches, and toast. I struggle the rest of the time to get her to eat new things. I think it's just this age.

The bubby eats what we eat - but occasionally if we're having something that's tricky for him to pick up and put in his mouth, then I will substitute that with something especially for him. The trick for me - was to have him sit and eat WITH us for every meal. Not fussing over what he did or did not eat. Just putting whatever in front of him, and letting him get on with it. Sometimes he does the same as OB and eats one bite and feeds the rest to the dogs, but other times he cleans his plate. Hey - it's par for the course with a toddler - and he's a great weight for his age. So no worries.

We've had the same struggles with trying to get J to eat table food - he's really, really picky, and right now only eats grilled cheese, cheese, noodles (sometimes), peas, black olives, black beans, cereal bars, banana bread, fruit puffs, dried fruit pieces, applesauce, grapes, and melon. He also loved eating Veg.gie Booty, which I can't give him now because of the recall! I decided to put him on the toddler formula instead of milk just to make sure he is getting enough nutrients, because I don't want to encourage him to get used to eating too much baby food - and so I don't feel like I have to give him baby food as much now that I know he's getting some nutrients from the toddler formula. So every so often I'll give him one container of baby food, but I'm trying to just enourage more self-feeding. We try a new item at every meal, and present that same items for a few days in a row.

Anyway, I'm glad you posted this - all of J's friends eat really well and so it's hard feeling like he's not on track!

We've had the same struggles with trying to get J to eat table food - he's really, really picky, and right now only eats grilled cheese, cheese, noodles (sometimes), peas, black olives, black beans, cereal bars, banana bread, fruit puffs, dried fruit pieces, applesauce, grapes, and melon. He also loved eating Veg.gie Booty, which I can't give him now because of the recall! I decided to put him on the toddler formula instead of milk just to make sure he is getting enough nutrients, because I don't want to encourage him to get used to eating too much baby food - and so I don't feel like I have to give him baby food as much now that I know he's getting some nutrients from the toddler formula. So every so often I'll give him one container of baby food, but I'm trying to just enourage more self-feeding. We try a new item at every meal, and present that same items for a few days in a row.

Anyway, I'm glad you posted this - all of J's friends eat really well and so it's hard feeling like he's not on track!