If 2 Year Old Doesn't Eat Dinner...

I always would always wrap it up put it in the fridge & when she wanted a "snack" later, that would be it. Even when she was 2. When I was a kid, if I didn't like what Mom/Dad made, suck it up. That's dinner. Sounds harsh but I certainly don't want to make an entire dinner for my family only to end up making PBJ or eggs also. Good luck! :)

We have a house rule: You don't like it? Have a sandwich or cereal.

That easy.

I love to cook. I'm the one cooking what I happen to be in the mood for. And even I sometimes end up going "Ick." and having something's else. Sometimes not even 'Ick' but just NOT wanting something so heavy /spicy/green/whatever. Everyone else can chow down, and I'll have some crispix, thanks.

If we actually start to starve... Then I'll act like it. Until then, a bowl of cereal or a Sammie is an acceptable alternative, and the uneaten portion just gets wrapped up with the rest of the leftovers.

I grew up in a house where food was a battle. In my house, we love food, and its never a battle. Sometimes my son might eat cereal all week. Sometimes he might not have Plan B for 6 months. Whatever. No biggie.

Oh. My son is 10. Starting around 2 or 3 is ALSO where the clause came in 'You have to make it yourself' (aka when he was capable of it).

We do the same as Riley. I make dinner and if they don't like it they get themselves a bowl of cereal (of course, mine are 11 and 9, and fully capable of getting their own bowl of cereal!) Funny, I mentioned to them tonight that Daddy would be in charge of dinner tomorrow night b/c I'll be swimming. My oldest just said, "Well, then I'll be making a sandwich." Guess she didn't like whatever Daddy prepared last time!

I always offer alternatives. It could be as easy as PB&J, some yogurt or even a bowl of cereal. Do you have any leftovers in the fridge you could jsut pop in the microwave?

I'm not a big fan of telling little ones that the only option is the one I choose. I just want them to eat healthy.

She is underweight... is the Pediatrician concerned?
What are her percentiles?
If she is underweight and the Doctor is concerned, ask him/her for suggestions. ie: some suggest Pediasure etc. Which is a meal drink with protein and vitamins. Or they will suggest healthy calorie dense foods.
Ask the Pediatrician.

Feed her what she will eat.
I see no point in making eating a battle.
Otherwise, eating will just be a hated thing. And that leads to more eating issues.

My son is a picky eater. He eats if hungry and stops when full. He eats according to his body's cues. Which is the proper healthy way to eat. We teach our kids that. We never force, eating etc.
That is fine per our Pediatrician. BUT my son is not underweight and is in the upper percentiles for growth, despite his picky-ness.
So that is a different thing.

For you, your child is underweight. That is a different concern than just eating or not.
So, ask the Pediatrician, for what to do.

Here is a good article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/extremely-picky-eaters-st...

My 3 yr old has always been in the 9th percentile for weight. It's basically irrelevant though since she has gained weight steadily her whole life, is healthy, and very bright. She's just naturally little...and she just isn't a dinner kind of kid. She eats a huge breakfast, picks at lunch, and often skips dinner. I always make her a plate. She can eat it then, eat it later, or choose not to eat. She often just drinks a glass of milk and waits for breakfast. I've read it is perfectly normal for toddlers to eat 1 "good" meal a day and only a few bites at other meals. As long as she has a varied diet most of the time, meets milestones, and is otherwise healthy, I wouldn't make food an issue or turn yourself into a short order cook....unless you *want* to be running a restaurant. :)

She is 2 and underweight. Just be glad she will eat.

I am not sure how underweight your child is but I notice that many moms have kids in the single digit percentiles and do not seem concerned. WHAT?? My son just recently went from always being in the 50th to the 75th (he was always 75th for height) and believe me there were many times where he looked extremely thin.

She needs to eat. If she doesn't eat what you offer you do need to offer her something else. Do NOT make it a treat or special or she'll look forward to it every night.

When a resident of a group home chooses to not eat or not go out we would always make them a simple sandwich and some sort of side to go with it. Then we would be near but not interact with them so they get the idea it is one on one time, special time. It's not punishment or anything like that, it's keeping them from getting the wrong idea. If they don't like what's for dinner they have the right to chose to not eat it and they must have some sort of food or they might get sick. So, we made their meal an after dinner thing, if they don't like what's for dinner they sit through the meal with their roommates and then when all is done they can have something else. That way the other roommates don'g decide they all want something different.

Same with our kids. If they don'y want chili you let them chose to not eat it then when everyone else is finished you fix them something simple and neutral. They eat this meal and find they'd like to eat while their friends/family are eating.

Kids DO NOT eat when they get hungry enough. They just don't eat and stop getting hunger pains. Then they get sick.

This may sound terrible, but I base my 3 year olds ability to eat dinner on my 1 year old. If my one year old is eating it, then it's not too spicy or anything, so my 3 year old can either eat it or not. Before being able to use the baby? I think I would just make her eat a certain amount before she was allowed to leave the table. I have also started making after-dinner outside time dependent on whether she has eaten her dinner or not. If she didn't eat, we don't go outside. It has DRAMATICALLY improved her eating.

I did do other choices. At 17 I am still doing other choices. Obviously that doesn't work. :( try puting it up and bringing it out later if she is hungry. Vitamins tended to make my picky eater eat more.

My littlest will be 2 in November. Apparently he wasn't in the mood for even a bite of pot roast tonight, so he decided not to eat. I offered it to him 3 times and he wouldn't touch it. He went to bed without dinner - I am NOT starting to make other things for dinner. No way.

The parent educators at ECFE said to offer an alternative exactly like what you are doing. Their taste buds work much better than ours do and some things may not taste good to them when it does to us. They also said to never give up introducing a certain food. Sometimes it can take 10 tries and they will finally like it. Kids and food battles plague us all but it's never okay to make them go to bed hungry. That is just cruel.

I get so frustrated when I hear people comment that it's not OK for a child to be low on the percentile chart.....WHAT? I see many kids out there these days that are overweight, and somehow that's OK but our skinny kids are not? Sorry about the vent. To answer your question, our 2 year old is a finnicky eater sometimes. If he won't eat the dinner we give him, we leave it for later. If he decides 20 minutes later he wants to eat it, we pull it out for him. We don't give him another option because he nearly always ends up eating the dinner we offer at some point before bed. He's gotten so much better about just eating when it's dinnertime these days too. That's completely your decision on if you want to offer the alternative, but we didn't because we didn't want him to get so used to only eating a few "staples". Yes, he would eat more if we gave him spaghetti every meal, but then he wouldn't try all these other foods out. The saying that kids will eat when they're hungry is a true one, by the way. Good luck!

Our daughter was also underweight, tot he point where her pediatrician was having us put butter and oil into her food(3rd percentile for weight for height) and no we didn't offer anything else. Just gave her milk instead of the usual water after bed. You don't want to start getting them something else to eat if they refuse whatever is put in front of them-they will expect that and you might end up with a toddler who will only eat pb and j.
Kids are also built with an amazing mechanism that I wish we all had-they only eat when hungry and when they are full they don't eat:)

I always offer fruit. But that's usually it.