Help please..

My 20 month old is super picky. She was evaluated at feeding therapy and she said she has no concerns for her eating. She is delayed in her speech. She said she should be saying 10 words by now and she only says 3 so we'll be doing speech therapy here soon. For now I need some ideas on how to make what my toddler will eat a little bit healthier. She refused all fruits I've tried offering her. She will eat rice, mashed potatoes, Mac and cheese, chips, cookies, yogurt bites, shredded, string, and slices of cheese, hashbrowns, plain noodles or with grassfed butter or pasta sauce(won't eat hamburger meat mixed in), and i got her to eat half a bag of cauliflower rice once and haven't tried again yet. If there's anyway to make these things healthier or mix or any ideas you can give me I'd appreciate it so much. I'd like her to eat some fruit and vegetables but have no idea how to serve it to make her want to eat it.

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Remove the saltiest and heaviest sugar options (chips, cookies, and hashbrowns) from your roster, at least for now. Replace them with things that are either healthy and bland (chickpea rice, cous cous, pain tofu, polenta) or healthy and salty (add salt or garlic salt to just about any vegetable). Try lots of things lots of ways. If she likes potatoes, she might like yams. If she doesn't like baked yams she might like them steamed. She might like corn, if she doesn't like it hot, she might like frozen corn slightly thawed (still cold). She might like olives from a can because they are salty. You won't know until you try, but if you have junk on the menu, she'll go for that first and hold out on other foods trying to wait you out. It can help to prepack your snacks for outings and when she asks for food say "this is what we have." Consider not buying cookies and other treats until she is in a better place with eating. It's much easier to say no to requests when there are no chips available... Good luck. 🍀

My middle child had oral aversions as a baby. The thing about fruits and veggies is that they are unpredictable. One blueberry can be sweet and juicy and then next one sour. You can serve a safe food alongside new foods. I agree with getting rid of the most unhealthy options like chips and cookies. If you're concerned about her weight you can fortify foods she's already eating, like by adding sour cream to mashed potatoes or adding healthy fats like avocado into her diet.

Things I try to do when my daughter is being picky: add red lentils to red sauce, sneak veggies or shredded chicken in her quesadilla or even avocado. If I’m making pasta I’ll try to boil it in bone broth. Another idea - I saw a lot of food aversions have to do with lack of zinc. Idk how true it is but apparently it can alter their taste and textures and can cause major pickiness. Maybe worth bringing up to your pediatrician?

Try sneaking spinach into a smoothie! I recently did that using frozen berries, yogurt, milk, and fresh spinach and she was asking for more :)

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