We have officially entered the Picky Toddler phase (hopefully it is just a phase!) My once amazing eater who would happily scarf down veggies now turns her nose up at anything that is not in the potato family with an emphatic “No!”
Just about a year ago, I wrote a post about some of the nutrient-rich foods we used during our un-official “Baby Led Weaning” process. Annabelle will occasionally still oblige when we serve some of her old favorites, but you can never tell beforehand whether or not those efforts will be successful.
Since she can’t subsist on potato sticks alone (from Daddy’s food truck — her absolute favorite), we’ve had to figure out some tricks to get our picky toddler to eat real food.
3Tips to Get Your Picky Toddler to Eat Real Food:
Hide veggies inside potatoes — Potatoes (in all of their forms) are the absolute favorite food for our picky toddler. She loves them so much that if I hide carrots, green beans, or other veggies inside a spoonful of mashed potatoes, she will devour it all in one bite! Skillet potatoes are also very popular in the Rodriguez house, and I have successfully used those to disguise veggies and even proteins.
Cover it with peanut butter — Natural peanut butter itself is full of healthy goodies: protein, potassium, Vitamin E, and good fats. So for those days when Annabelle is in an especially picky mood, I can usually get her to eat a gluten free waffle or pancake (Daddy’s specialty) with a generous smear of PB.
Cook veggies in Mirin — Mirin is a sweet Japanese cooking wine and is my husband’s secret weapon for making anything and everything taste amazing. Like you would with any other wine, make sure that you’ve cooked off all the alcohol. What remains is all flavor. We recently got Annabelle to eat broccoli for the first time in months that was prepared this way. AND ask for more! Yea!
I’ve been assured that the picky toddler phase is just that, a phase. I have confidence that in time she will again love to eat her fruits and veggies without any “trickery,” like her big sis who is a fantastic eater.
More tips:
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