"New Ideas for Breakfast, Lunches and Snacks for a 2 Yr Old.

My daughter likes cheese, nutra grain bars, crackers, warm, cooked green beans, bananas (her favorite), apples, mandarin slices, jello, dole fruit cups, etc. She also will eat canned carrots, asparagus, avocado (LOVES IT!), chicken and noodles, any type of casserole, LOVES anything spicy - enchiladas, salsa, etc. Likes tuna.....

Hi R.,

For breakfast my kids loved (even down to the name) HOBO eggs,aka eggs in a basket. Butter both sides of a piece of bread, cut a small round hole in the center put in frying pan over med. heat. Break an egg over the hole in the bread, making the yolk sit in the hole. Spread the whites over the rest of the bread. After it cooks a bit add a bit more butter to the pan and flip over to cook the other side of the egg.
Lunch, P.B.&J "cookies" make the sandwich, and then take a glass with a decent sized opening and push the opening down into the bread to cut off the ends and "seal" the cookie.
Pampered chef also sells a cut and seal gadget for this and many more uses! Check out ebay!

My kids (3 1/2 and 20 months) don't like to eat big meals and so I do lots of healthy snacks during the day. I buy large containers of organic vanilla yogurt and pour it into the do-it-yourself popsicle things. When frozen, my younger child does not miss a drop of the healthy snack the way he does with a spoon, and my older child likes them better than a regular popsicle! They also like sesame sticks which I feel has the good-for-you fat and a small serving mixed with raisins or other dried fruit is a great snack. My 3-yr-old loves soy nuts and fruit leather and apples dipped in peanut butter. I also give hard boiled eggs often. Sweet sticky rice rolled into balls and dragged in wheat germ or sesame seeds is fun and my kids love this. 10 black olives (one for each finger) is pretty filling too. Anything that they help me make like bread or whole grain muffins or english muffin/pita bread pizzas they are always more willing to eat. Good luck!

have you tried:

cream cheese on toasted bagel
toast with butter cut into triangles
quaker breakfast bars
cheese quesadillia (sp?)
fruit/yogurt smoothies
peanut butter on a rice cake
mini corn dogs
popcorn shrimp
noodles with butter/parmesean
whole grain waffles with peanut butter or syrup
raw carrots with ranch dip
beef pot roast is a hit with my kids/ cooked carrots and potatoes
tacos with beef and cheese and sour cream to dip
mac-n-cheese

Hi R.! My daughter does this too sometimes. Some of the things she likes are NutriGrain blueberry waffles, mini-bagels, boiled eggs, or cheerios with milk. I usually cut up some fresh strawberries or bananas to go along. Someone else mentioned PB&J cookies. We have this same problem at lunch sometimes, so the other day I made a peanut butter sandwich and used a cookie cutter to make a "frog" sandwich and she LOVED IT!! I usually give her the food before the milk or else I have a hard time getting her to eat instead of drink!

for breakfast my 2 y/o gets to pick. i offer two things. the list consists of low sugar oatmeal with added fruit, a frozen waffle, eggs that i make in a big batch then reheat, and add cheese if he wants to or ceral (i buy the little boxes so he can choose what kind). also try getting her involved in the prep. sometimes i pull up a chair so he can help/watch. good luck

Hi R.,
My name is K.. Before I try to help you, I will tell you a little about me. I am a RN(mother-baby),board certified lactation consultant and a post-partum doula. I don't have any kids myself yet, but am trying. I have a lot of experience with 2yr olds because a lot of my clients, who have just had a baby have a 2-3yr old. Most 2 yr olds start wanting to become more independent or do what their mommies and daddys do. That is probably why she wants her daddys snacks. Here are some things I have told my clients, which seemed to have helped. I know some 2yr olds can be picky eaters. Finger foods are a definate and keep the child busy and helps them with their skills. Dipping is good. Veggies w/ hummus or plain yogurt, dipping cereal into milk(big cereal like mini-wheaties or cracklin & oat bran). Whole wheat toast w/ jam or cream cheese cut into slices. Peanut butter w/ a cut up bananna on whole wheat bread cut into a fun shape(use a cookie cutter). Fresh fruits cut into different shapes w/ whole grain crackers and cheese(have her put the cheese on the crackers) can even be a lunch. With 2yr olds you have to think creative. If it looks fun, they will eat it. I am a firm believer in eating what ever you can that is organic but I know it can get expensive. I get my fruits and veggies through a local organic company and it is very reasonably priced. let me know if you want the info. As far as the hot dogs and deli meats, try to get the nitrate free kind and try to give only once or twice a week. I know its quick but she might like some of the ideas I mentioned. you can also make egg or tuna salad sandwhich w/ cut up veggies or fruit. Fruit can also be dipped in yogurt. Another tip, look at the labels on the dried fruit beacause a lot of brands have a lot of preservatives and extra sugar. I would also maybe get her involved in picking some foods out and giving her choices(as long as they are healthy). You can have her help. Have her grab a handfull of crackers from the box and put them on her plate. Letting them get involved will make her less resistant and she will feel like a big girl. The sun chips are fine every other day. They are actually high in fiber and lower in fat than other chips. A little junk food is fine in moderation. It sounds like you are doing a great job but just needed some other ideas. If she will only drink milk out of her sippy cup, try to sit her down at the table and have her dip the cereal. You can even make a little game out of it. If it does not work don't worry because you will be giving her a snack in a few hours. Well, I hope some of these suggestions will help you. K.

Have you tried adding things to her milk? Try adding a little Carnation Instant Breakfast, Ovaltine or I know this sounds bad, but has the nutrition, Slim Fast. It has protein and everything she will need but isn't drinking just plain white milk and will get vitamins and minerals also. And is much better than chocolate syrup!

if you have not tried penut butter, she is probably old enough now. also my kids love things wraped in tortillas, like cheese and meat, or scrambled eggs and salsa like a burrito.

Costco has a fruit leather that is great! Unfortunately my kids won't touch the Trader Joe's types, but love this. I've checked the ingredients and it's fruit and that's it! There's a yogurt drink called Kefir that's awesome. Get the flavored kind because I imagine plain would taste like buttermilk, but the others are like very healthy yogurt smoothy. It's low in sugar (most yogurt smoothies are LOADED with sugar) and has 14g of protein per cup! My kids love it, but it is a little pricey so I don't buy it regularly.

My 2 year old has found a new love for the breakfast, its the pancake wrapped sausage on a stick made like corn dogs, he eats them like they are going out of style! He has always been a picky eater, but recently has started to eat anything we make for mealtime with no problems. this aleviated my breakfast problem. Hope it helps to give this as an idea.

My daughter loves the frozen, plain pancakes. I get her the Eggo ones in the shape of animals and that always does the trick as bfast, an addition to a regular meal or a snack. She also loves the Toaster Strudals in the frozen section too. You can alway make and freeze your own pancakes and french toast. See if your little one will eat yogurt covered raisins or nuts, those are good for the tummy too.

Ruth Ann
I will tell you my secret: I keep those little cups of microwavable mac and chees on hand. I put water up the line, mic it for 3 minutes then add the cheese. My daughter loves that and will almost always eat that. Another thing she likes is yogurt. I get the yoplait. I think it is creamier and all blended well. She likes to snack on pretzels.. the thin ones that are kind of like stick figures, in fact, we will lay them out on the table and make a stick figure man and she will eat theim one at a time.
She also likes to dip things so I will cut a bananna up and put some peanut butter or marshmellow cream on the plate and she will take the bananna and rup it in the pb or mc and then eat it. I have a book that is snacks just for kids. I will get it out and write you with more later.
Go the the book store and look for a recipe book that says snacks for kids. It has really neat ideas
Hope that helps.

.

We do lots of whole wheat mini bagels every way, they are small and my daughter thinks they are made especially for her! Also Jennie O turkey sausage patties are great too....you can make an egg, sausage, and cheese sandwhich with the bagels.

For lunch mini pizzas are great use whole wheat english muffins or wheat tortillas you can make them vegertarian by just topping them with veggies. Roll-ups work good for us too, roll sandwhich meat and cheese together. My daughter loves them.

Hummus and crakers are a great snack and they have all-bran crakers now too. Put out some veggies and dip and let her pick at it throughout the day. Also mini rice ceakes are great for us you get 7 in a serving which is plenty for little ones and they only have 40 cal, and 4 g sugar (carmel ones) they think it is a sweet treat!!

I'm 30 year old mom to a 4 yr old little girl and 35 weeks pregnant with second child. After we stopped the baby food at about a year old I had a hard time getting her to eat even now she is picky. There are a lot of mornings even now all she wants is milk so I give her milk and in about 45 min I start asking if she wants something to eat sometimes she will eat a scrambled or poached egg sometimes no. I let it go. She will eat when she is ready. She just now started eating meat, like chicken or ham no beef or pork she loves shrimp also I find if I give her a little ranch dressing she will dip food in and eat better she also like apples with peanut butter. my doctor also suggested to put healthy foods on pizza add some cheese. You can blend cooked carrots and celery and other vegies and mix with your pizza sauce or in spag. We let her have some junk food on occasion but i try not to have things in the house that i dont want her to have in fact i made my husband give up sweet tea and soda because I dont let her drink them I dont think its fair for us to eat something and tell her no. Remember that her stomach is small so she may not eat as much as you think she should good luck