Toddler picky eater!!!

Any suggestions what I can try to feed my 2 year old? He has no problem eating junk which we don't have usually. He eats mac and cheese sometimes, pasta with butter, toast, maybe cheese. Rarely grapes or banana. HELP!!!

That sounds like the choices my kids made at that age. My advice is to not make a big deal about food. It will drive YOU crazy. There are so many different kinds of food available and I think people should get to eat what they like--within reason.

My kids are now 24, 19, and 17. They have favorite foods they like--one is a vegetarian that eats about what your 2-year old eats. The next one tries anything and likes most everything. The third one likes meat and potatoes. They are all healthy and active.

I teach Parenting and it is totally normal for a 2 year old to be a picky eater. For one thing, his amazing growth rate from birth to two, has slowed down a bit, for another, he is seeking to be his own little person and appreciates any opportunity to be oppositional!

Studies have clearly shown that toddlers will not starve themselves and they will make healthy choices, if you offer them healthy food choices only. However, they will not eat a balanced diet in the course of one day - but they will over the course of a week.

To make this work:

Don't ever force them to eat or make them stay at the table - this just make them more oppositional.

Offer only a variety of health food choices - eliminate junk food.

Do not offer in-between meal snacks.

Don't offer milk or juice in-between meals - kids can fill up on them and it will ruin their appetite. Give them water.

Limit juice to 1/2 c. a day. Most juices are empty calories anyway.

They shouldn't be on the bottle at this age.

Don't be tempted to give them goodies when they won't eat the good stuff - this just reinforces the behavior.

Just wait them out - this too will pass. No one is two for more than a year!

Totally agree. Don't lose sleep about eating habits of 2 year old. I never ate anything other that what my mom fed me for 18 years and then figured out she was clueless. I love food now, vegetables, everything.

A couple more thoughts:

A 2 year old should be eating dinner with the family and the same foods they do, as long as they aren't too spicy, and they are cut up appropriately.

Be sure mom and dad are setting a good example of eating healthy foods at family meals.

Make meals a pleasant social occasion - not a battle of the wills.

My 2 year old is the same. I think the biggest problem is that she doesn't want to sit long enough to eat! Will your little one eat cheese? Or apple cut up? Mine will eat several small meals a day. I'll cut up cheese and ham and she'll eat that. Or, I cut an apple up in small pieces and she eats that. But, as soon as she spots junk -- it's game over - she won't eat any of the good stuff. I constantly have to remind the 14 year old in the house to keep that stuff out of her sight. If we ask our 2 year old what she wants for breakfast, she frequently replies "M & M's"

Debi

"Take it or leave it" has always worked pretty well for us, regardless of how young. Although it is helpful not to pass on bad food attitudes--one person we know has not eaten eggs (unless they're mixed up in some other dish) since being told where they came from when he was a child....

And cutting up of stuff stopped as soon as possible, simply because a lot of kids develop an attitude of "I'll only eat _____ if it is cut up, or in a fancy shape, etc.

We do snacking, as long as it is healthy. We have different waking/working hours in the house, and "regular" meals just wouldn't work. We never purchased "baby food", we just made baby food out of whatever everyone else was eating, so maybe that's why we didn't see too many "I won't eat it" issues.

And some of those issues might also be texture-related--likes the taste but not chomping on one big piece of something. Grinding up the onion, or other offending item and hiding it is always an option. It's better than leaving it out, especially when it provides a lot of flavor (I admit to being like that with any type of bell pepper). Food processors are great!

Some foods that we think of as fattening are better thought of as calorie-dense and useful for toddler diets. Such as pizza, whole milk, full fat yogurt, bagel with cream cheese. Try scrambled eggs or chicken breast pieces for protein. Maybe he could dip the chicken in a sauce he likes (cheese sauce, butter sauce, or ketchup).

I remember reading that all a child needs is peanut butter [if no allergy], orange juice, milk and a banana for nutritional needs. My grandson would only eat corn and applesauce as a baby, along with milk. He started fat-free milk as a toddler, because regular milk upset his stomach. With a fussy eater, I would delay fat-free milk, but not let the child fill up on milk. My kids ate spaghettios, beanie-weenies, soup, sandwiches, fruit, pudding for lunch. Dinner used to be hamburger a million ways, now it's chicken for us. If you are eating at home, you probably are meeting the nutritional needs; eating out is a problem because of all the fat, salt, sugar, etc.

Most two year olds at this age still need snacks- their tummies are small and they don't hold a lot. I found that PLANNING snacks was the key- otherwise they you get desparate and they get junk. Snack time was good for juice as they would stick be hungry by the next meal- have some fruit or peanut butter on whole wheat or cheese.

Worry Not, O Mother!

Denise gave some excellent advice.

Both of our kids were the same. Our son was slightly worse than our daughter. My dad had me in tears one time, seeing my son eat only mac and cheese, pasta with plain tomato sauce, chicken hot dogs, and grilled cheese. Always French toast or oatmeal for breakfast. That was his whole repertoire. My dad yelled at me, saying my son would be retarded as his diet didn't give him sufficient nutrition for brain growth. I tried to explain that this was all he'd eat. We went through it all. The battle of the wills, the "You're not leaving the kitchen until you eat every, last bite," which was promptly followed by his regurgitating all over the table. I couldn't sleep at night for fear that my son was going to be retarded, and it was going to be all my fault!

Our son, however, had other plans. He taught himself to read, beginning at 18 months. He'd spell out simple words on his magnetic letter board. I thought his dad did it for him, and his dad thought I did it. My, my. Weren't we surprised to find out the little dude did it all by himself! I never taught him. He managed to "decode" this thing we call the alphabet into words. I have no idea how. But by the time he was 3 years old, he read proficiently enough to read me the morning paper out loud. He was probably the only 3-year-old who grasped the concept and enjoyed discussion of "nuclear proliferation."

When it came time for school, they didn't know what to do with him, as his problem-solving abilities and creativity was more than the educators had ever seen. They ended up skipping kindergarten altogether. By the time he was a 16 year old senior in high school, he was spending 3 out of 5 days at the local State University of New York for his classes. He started college with a year and a half worth of credits already. He scored near-perfect on the SATs (perfect on math, one wrong on verbals) and 5s on all his AP exams. He was a regional chess champ.

So the bottom line is although his diet was UBER-lousy while he was young, it was nothing at all to worry about. All that stressing, all that yelling my dad did, ("Why don't you ever feed that kid something? He's gonna grow up retarded!") was for naught, except to make me doubt my maternal abilities. My son is living proof that your 2-year-old will grow up just fine.

BTW, the post script is that although he was Biafra-type skinny while a young child (ribs showed through his back! It was really embarrassing!) he discovered that food can be pretty darned good stuff. He's actually husky now, and eats almost ANYTHING that isn't nailed down!

I am a parent of two and grandparent of five. I agree with most of the comments above. I agree that if offered healthy choices over a week period they will most likely get a reasonably balanced diet. I think that part of the obesity problem in the US is that parents make such a fuss about kids eating. We have relatives that would pile up the kids plates (ignoring the fact that a 25lb kid probably cant eat as much as a 160 lb adult) and mealtime with them was always an unpleasant time.

When our kids were at home (and now when grandkids visit) meal time is for a good family time and almost always pleasant. They were (or are) offered food. If they eat it, good. If not, they can usually have a peanut better sandwich when they get hungry.

As far as I know or can tell, they are all healthy and none are overweight.

70% of all disease is diet related

start them eating healthy now....it is so importand..fruits and veggies are so important to our future health.. I have so many articles on what our kids should be eating so email me if interested.. also check out this website. it is so good for parents.. www.askdrsears.com He askwers so many questions.
I give our kids Juice Plus gummies which is 17 fruits and veggies in a gummie and they love it.. They have had them for 6 years and not been on an antibiotic since. There is no way we can give our kids the 9-13 servings that are suggested. they just wont eat that much. I had to find a way to bridge that gap....