For mac & cheese, I cook my pasta, add a little butter, and a little milk then add some shredded cheese and stir. That’s how I’ve made it before. You don’t want it too cheesy, just enough to give it a little flavor. That way they can just pick it up with their fingers. I’ve used the box mac & cheese too.

Do they eat any food with their fingers, or are you having to feed it to them? I pretty much don’t give anything that I have to feed them anymore. If it requires a spoon, I just give them the spoon, although they always ended up picking it up with their hands anyway. Faith has actually used her spoon a couple of times, though. I’m planning to post some pictures of them eating their macaroni and cheese later.

Now as I said before, Diane. I’ve been there before with the picky eating with my son Christopher. He was our first, and we were afraid to try anything with him, and I feel we have paid for it severely. He hardly eats anything now, and it really worries us. Not saying that’s what will happen with yours, but just try to do your best to not be afraid to let them try things. Now with that said, it sounds like you are doing great though, and you are venturing out of the pureed food zone. Hotdogs are ok as long as you cut them up. When I first started giving Faith and Emma hotdogs, I would slice, then quarter the slice. You don’t want the pieces to be too small, that they have trouble picking them up. Now they are eating them sliced and then halved.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

By Ruthie on 07.29.08 7:12 pm | Permalink

I think you just need to be patient and know that they won’t starve Make sure to add lots of variety and a new food every week. Making things colorful and fun sometimes helps. Eventually, they will eat and never stop! Good luck

By Annette on 07.29.08 10:30 pm | Permalink

The only food they eat with their fingers are puffs, cookies, wagon wheels (Frankie stuffs the whole thing in his mouth!)and Angelina eats her string cheese in pieces. They don’t want to hold anything. Oh, And Angelina will share my banana in the mornings. I break a small piece (like a quarter of a slice) off for her & she’ll take it from my hand & eat it. Everything else is spoon fed. They still won’t hold their sippy cups either. My MIL is always saying something about that! I try to give it to them but they refuse to hold it. Even when I add the chicken or chopmeat into their food, if they come across a large piece in their mouth they gag, make faces & spit it out! Angelina even puts her hands in her mouth to get it out while she is crying! It’s so frustrating. I thought they would just be ready one day & start eating what I put on their tray. I didn’t know it would be this hard!!! I snuck some cheese into their lunch today & they didn’t notice. Frankie didn’t even want cookies after lunch. They ended up on the floor.

By Diane on 07.30.08 1:18 pm | Permalink

I’m glad to hear they’re gaining weight. I agree w/ what Annette & Ruthie have said. Try to keep things interesting & fun & give them things they can pick up themselves. If they’re hungry they’ll eat it. We don’t spoon feed anything anymore & haven’t for a while. You could try giving them something like pita they can dip in hummus. It has some good nutritional content & is fun for them to eat. As far as the meat goes it could be the texture they don’t like. Owen, who’s 4, still doesn’t eat much meat b/c he doesn’t like the texture of it.

By Keri on 07.30.08 9:32 pm | Permalink