Welcome to Monday Mornings with Dr. Mona where each week I answer your questions.

To leave a message call 954-526-2641 and I may pick your question for a future episode.

Let's get to our first caller.

Hi Dr. Mona, my one year old only wants to eat fruit. He used to be more open to everything,

but now he'll avoid everything on his plate to get more fruit. We've had issues with weight in the

past, so I worry about you decide what's on the menu and he decides what to eat strategy,

especially when he eats nothing. I still badly want to go get fruit, so he has something to eat.

Any tips on how to get my one year old to eat other food?

Hello and thank you for this question. Ryan, my son, was the exact same way.

And I know you said that you were worried about the you decide what's on the menu and he decides

what to eat strategy, but I want to remind you that this strategy is very important because it does

work. Now, I know some of your reservations comes from his weight. Had you had a child on the higher

percentile, visually you may not be as concerned when they refuse food. You know, you won't be like,

well, they're going to lose so much weight, they won't be sustaining, they won't be developing,

but when a child is leaner, we sometimes worry more about these weight fluctuations.

I really want to reassure you that he will learn. You may see some weight fluctuations as you train

him to these new feeding that you want to do, but reality is that you would have likely seen

those weight fluctuations anyways. If you were giving him fruit all the time or if you're giving him

a variety of different things and trying to train him to eat different foods. The division of

responsibility does work and it can be hard. We went through it with our son and it can take about

one to two weeks for them to get the idea that you want them to explore other, but I really want

to reassure you that if you are consistent, you will see change. Believe my words, I know it's

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