Solved my toddler’s picky eating and sleepless nights after months of struggle.

I want to tell our success story because I know there are parents out there struggling with the same frustration we faced. Our toddler went from eating everything in her first year to rejecting almost every meal we put in front of her. What made it worse was that none of the pediatricians we consulted could actually help. They all gave the same generic advice:

“She’ll eat when she’s hungry.”

“Don’t make special meals for her, just give what you eat.”

“If she refuses, don’t offer anything else.”

One even suggested keeping her hungry for two days, forcing her to eat what she rejected.

We tried all of it. It didn’t work. In fact, it made things much worse.

She didn’t “eventually eat.” She simply stopped eating during the day altogether. The only thing she would accept was sweet foods, and when we removed those, she just waited for her nighttime milk.

And that milk became the center of everything.

Because she wasn’t eating during the day, she woke up multiple times at night, drinking 500-600ml of formula. Since she was drinking so much at night, she never felt hungry during the day. And because she wasn’t eating during the day, she was starving at night and drinking even more milk.

It became a cycle we couldn’t break.

Her night wakings were constant, her appetite for solid food was gone, and our sleep was completely destroyed. My wife and I both work full-time, and between broken nights and daily feeding battles, our own health started to decline.

The last pediatrician we consulted told us to stop all sweet foods and fruits for 10 days and only offer what she rejected. We tried. She went the entire day without eating. We simply didn’t have the time or the patience to spend hours trying to convince her to take a single bite. And frankly, starving her into eating didn’t seem like the right approach.

Then, one night, while scrolling through random articles, I read something that changed everything.

Toddlers have more sensitive taste buds than adults, especially for bitterness and strong flavors.

That one sentence made me think: What if she wasn’t rejecting food, but rejecting how it tasted?

I decided to test it. I offered her three things separately—plain wheat roti, boiled potato, and aloo paratha. She ate the roti. She ate the boiled potato. But she wouldn’t touch the aloo paratha.

The only difference? Spices.

To confirm, I tried another test. She had always refused omelets and egg bhurji, but when I gave her plain boiled eggs and butter-fried steamed carrots, she ate them quickly and happily.

That’s when it clicked—she wasn’t a picky eater. She was rejecting spices.

All those months of struggle, and the answer had been so simple. We had been following the doctors’ advice, feeding her “what we eat,” but no one had told us that toddlers experience flavors differently than adults.

What seemed like mild seasoning to us was overwhelming to her.

The very next day, we made a change—we stopped adding spices to her meals. No masalas, no strong flavors—just mild, natural-tasting food.

The result was almost instant.

She started eating again.

Not only did she eat, but she ate well—nutritious, balanced meals without any battles. And once her food intake improved, her nighttime milk intake dropped from 500-600ml to just 150ml.

Her sleep improved. Ours did too. She now sleeps at a fixed time, wakes up once for milk at 4 AM instead of ten times a night, and we are working on breaking that last habit.

After months of exhaustion and stress, we finally fixed her eating—not by starving her, not by forcing her, but by understanding her.

I wish even one of those pediatricians had told us this. Instead, they kept giving the same generic advice that wasn’t relevant to our child. Some toddlers might accept spicy foods early on, but some simply can’t handle strong flavors yet. Instead of assuming every child is the same, we need to pay attention to what they’re actually experiencing.

If you are struggling with a toddler who refuses food, try reducing spices before assuming they are just being stubborn.

They might not be a picky eater. They might just be waiting for food that doesn’t overwhelm their taste buds.

Update: Yes, we didn’t know that toddlers prefer bland food. But that’s because every single pediatrician we consulted told us to feed her what we eat. And in India, that means food with spices. Not once did any of them mention that toddlers experience taste differently or that spices could be the problem. We were following medical advice, not ignoring common sense. If even doctors aren’t addressing this, how were we supposed to know?