Showdown with the "Picky Eater"

Yes, the "Picky Eater" is still lurking in our home... it always appears at dinnertime... usually on the face of my littlest one:(

It seems like Lydia is getting more and more limited in what she'll eat. She's turning up her nose at anything we put down in front of her... like this afternoon she didn't even eat her hamburger, refused a chicken nugget, NO appleasauce and just nibbled on her french fries (after everyone was done)???



Since meals are already noisy and too busy we have decided not to create more craziness by "forcing her to eat". But we DO limit if she can have a biscuit or more fruit if her main entree isn't touched. Occasionally she'll eat a bit to earn an apple slice or biscuit....


This weekend we had a SHOWDOWN:) We ate dinner and Lydia didn't TOUCH a THING!! She said at dinner she was hungry but she never ate.


After dinner the kids and I made cookies. Lydia was offered her dinner again in order to enjoy the cookies:) She took the news pretty well but DIDN'T EAT!


Brian was starting to get a little worried about sending her to bed hungry... so he offered her the dinner again... NOPE ... "picky eater" wins again!


Finally as Christopher and Anna were brushing their teeth and I was cleaning the cookie mess, Brian came into the kitchen holding Lydia in her PJs! He said that he just couldn't send her to bed hungry..... so we offered her Cheerios with soymilk (she has YET to drink ANY soymilk EVER). Good 'ole Daddy!!

The "picky eater" gladly accepted the offer:)

She piled Cheerios on her spoon and stuffed it into her mouth! HUGE bite after HUGE bite!!

I've worked in a "soup kitchen" before... and this kid ATE like she had missed a few meals :(

So.... who WON the SHOWDOWN???

Not sure.... but I think it's a good compromise with our stubborn 2 year old. She's NOT going to eat the sweet treats and drink up juice if she won't attempt to eat her dinner. I think Cheerios with soymilk is a good alternative right now... protein, calcium and good carbs!

We have also started to limit her juice! So she'll get her 2 cups (mixed half with water) and then she'll have a choice of water or soymilk. So far she is a water fan... but it's been then all the sugar and empty calories of juice....

Anyone got some "out-of-the-box" getting kids to drink milk ideas???? I've already tried chocolate... she spit it all down the front of her ruining the shirt she was wearing... never thought chocolate was that powerful...