2 1/2 Yr Old Wont Eat His Dinner--too Picky!

My 2 and 1/2 year old i the same way! We are trying to just give him whatever we eat, and he eats what he wants or he doesn't eat at all. My son has never eaten a vegetable! We did find luck in hiding foods in sauces though. Also the book "the sneaky chef has helped hide vegetables so he will eat them without knowing it, i suggest reading that!

Persevere! I know it's hard, but the best response for a "picky eater" is to offer healthy choices and let him be. Maybe put some fruit or whole grain bread on every plate, so that he eats something (to keep his blood sugar up), but only a taste. Don't let him fill up on milk before a meal - wait a few bites before offering a cup. Also try purreeing veggies and adding them to meals - like if making your own baby food.

It sounds like he would also really benefit from getting involved in the cooking. A lot of pickiness has nothing to do with likes and dislikes but control. He is two after all. Have him make his own meal. He can handle a spreader to spread or cut soft things. While I wouldn't encourage you to cook seperate meals for him, let him fix his own portion. Try:

- assemble his own pizza (pita with fresh or mushed tomatoes, and cheese shreds)
- toss/stir his own salad (baby spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, peas, cheese, dressing)
- builld sandwiches (some nut butter with fresh fruit or apple butter - all these can be bought with no sugar)
- mix plain yogurt (no sugar) and let him add mushed banana, applesauce, berries
- same with oatmeal
- try smoothies with yogurt, fruit, oj, ice, soy milk, etc.
- veggie soup (look for low sodium and try pea, butternut squash, tomato) and let him crumble crackers and cheese into it
- whole grain pasta and let him add peas, corn, and cheese

Don't give in to the prepared foods!! If you can get over this hump, you will have a great eater!

See Dr. Sears' "Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood" - great nutrition guide and great meal ideas.

My daughter went thru that at about 3 years of age. Our Peditrician suggested that we make her plate, have her sit with us while we eat. If she does not want to eat put her plate in the microwave or Fridge and when she asks later for a snack get her dinner out warm it up if needed and give it to her. It took a couple of weeks for her to realize we were not going to fix her a seperate meal from ours and she began to eat. I always tried to include something she like at meal time. We also encourged her to eat the tablespoon size portions of each thing on her plate, and when she was done she could have more of what she wanted or she could have a desert, most often a pack of gummies, or some fruit. Once in awhile a couple of cookies for desert theese things encouraged her to eat but let her choose to or not too with out a fight.

She is 13 now and still eats like a bird but she eats whatever I fix.

hope this helps
A.

Just make sure there is one thing on the plate he likes. If he only eats that, he has eaten something. Don't make meal time a fight. It's not a fight you can win.

We had an alternate meal - peanut butter on wheat with milk. He had to make it himself when he got older. He is now 15 and is starting to try new things...

YMMV
LBC

i have a stubborn picky eater too. what we have found to work with us is that she can have a hot dog or chicken nuggets or whatever but only after she eats at least some (how much depends on the day) fruit. to start out she would only eat apple sauce, then we started buying fruit baby food and calling it "pear and apple sauce" or whatever. from there she moved to little pieces of pear and such. We try to make sure she gets vitamins and fruit juices and plenty of water through the day so i don't worry about her nutrition as much. Also, we do things like oatmeal raisin cookies, apples and peanut butter, and kids' yogurt to get the nutrients she needs. good luck!

Hi H.. I also have a two year old picky eater. We fight over breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Not really fight, but I don't push him to sit at the table, if he won't eat) However, if he askes for juice later (after getting down from the table), I tell him he can't have any until he eats. After asking a couple times he will give in and eat. Mind you I don't make him eat stuff he doesn't like, nor do I make him eat it all, if he doesn't. As long as he eats most of whats on his plate, which he will normally do. I just leave his plate on the table, until he decides to eat. I've been told it's just a phase, so I'm waiting for it to pass. He has gotten better at eating when it's time, but like everything else we have our moments. Maybe he can help make the meal, or sit down with him and make a weekly menu. He may be more incline to eat, if he knows he helped (also workes with my son, sometimes). I hope this helps you out in some way.

Kids go through phases with food. I think you are doing a lot of great things with your son. You might try making sure there is something on the menu he likes. It takes kids on average ten times of seeing a new food before they will accept it. If you have some type of bread or fruit with dinner then you know that he will get something into his stomach before bed.

Try to avoid power struggles around food. It's a no-win for both of you. I suggest you simply make the regular dinner items for everyone and let him pick what he wants from the foods you have made, without you deciding what he should eat. If he picks nothing at all, try giving him less for lunch and no snacks before dinner. The best way to improve his eating is to increase his hunger. Lots of afternoon physical activity helps. You could also have him "help" you make dinner by standing on a chair hear you while you cook. He can stir or hand you things. Participation helps get appetite going. Main thing: do not force food. If he eat no dinner and then wants a snack later, pull out the dinner leftover and let him pick something. If he's like my daughter and doesn't know when he's hungry when he has low blood sugar, try giving him a peanut butter "lollipop" on a small spoon to jump start his appetite at the start of a meal.

If all else fails, my brother has a 100% fool-proof way of getting kids to eat: feed them every other day. Sounds crazy but it works as a very last resort. I never tried it, but I've seen it work permanently after one day.

i totally agree with you on no snacks and not being a short-order cook. so, why not just take the fight out of the fight? make sure he has healthy options at his meals, maybe compromise by offering one fruit that he likes at each meal, and letting go the argument. you should still hold firm on not allowing substitutes or snacks if he refuses your meals, but he'll get sick of bread and fruit eventually. if you are adamant that he must eat some meat and veggies, then you can insist on it, but there's no way of doing it without a fight. i'd stick to your guns on the important point- he doesn't get to just eat whatever he wants despite what you're preparing, and let go the less important one- that he eats exactly what the rest of you do.
you can puree steamed veggies, freeze them in ice cube trays, and add them to things like pizza sauce so that he's not utterly bereft of veggies.
khairete
S.

Sometimes it's the texture of foods that freaks toddlers out. While that is totally normal, it could be an idication of a sensory integration problem. Check out this site:
www.spdfoundation.net

Otherwise, keep his hypoglycemia in mind when you opt not to feed him something different. Most kids go through stages where they are extremely picky eaters for a time. It usually passes. My 7 year old ate nothing but yogurt for about three weeks, and then resumed his usual diet. My 21 month old goes through days when he is very picky, but others when hes not. Also, this is an age when he's suddenly aware of the foods he doesn't like, and he wants to have some amount of control over some part of his life. Maybe just offering something healthy but simple is an option, such as yogurt or a fruit or veggie that he'll eat that doesn't take prep work.

Good luck!

I'm not very strict when it came to making my son eat. If he wouldn't eat the veggie I made than I would just cut up some small fruit I knew he liked but didn't go totally out of my way to make it. If he didn't like something I would ask him to try it off my plate so that it wouldn't become a battle about him wasting food. Eventually a new phase would start. I just tailoed dessert to compliment what he ate (i.e. if he ate all food groups maybe some ice cream, if only a little of one thing then some kind of fruit). Plus, pizza is not bad at all and very versatile...it has cheese, meat veggies all different ways to make it. Even fruit pizza, just leave off the tomato sauce. My son actually liked a mini bagel with cream cheese, shredded cheese and blueberries and strawberries...weird I know:-) He ate and we all were happy. His dr said to just try and make sure he got all his nutrients over the course of a week and that was much less stressful then trying to get all the nutrients in in one meal. Good luck.

H. M. Most children go through this stage. Give him what he likes to eat especially with his hypoglycemia. Try giving him what he wants and maybe putting a small portion of something different. I promise he will grow out of it. Also if he enjoys breakfast give him breakfast for dinner sometimes. Most people laugh but there times that we have spagetti for breakfast and pancakes and eggs for dinner. Sometimes it is not about giving in but compromising. Picky eating is something small.

My 3yr old daughter did the same thing. She refused to eat anything but pizza, peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, and nuggets. I was so frazzled I cried because I thought she wasn't getting the right nutrients. I just kept offering her the same foods over and over again and she kept telling me no. So I started to add shredded cheese to everything. That got her attention and she started to eat more things again. As for veggies, I chopped them up and mixed them in whatever I gave her. She was eating them and not even knowing it. She now eats pretty much anything if I put cheese on it. She is still picky on a couple things but that's ok. Don't give up! If he is hungry enough, he'll eat!!!!