Reply to toddler feeding issues

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "toddler feeding issues "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Parent of a picky eater here. Mine is 5 now but was just like what you describe at 3 (I think at 2 she was still eating okay? at least less picky and less total food refusal, but by 3 it had gotten really bad).

My biggest piece of advice is: let go of ALL of your expectations of what it means to eat "enough" and to eat healthy, and start from scratch. Like become an alien who understands the concept that a child needs to eat to survive, and that those calories should preferably involve plenty of certain nutrients (protein, vitamins, fat, some carbs).

Serve meals with tiny amounts of a bunch of stuff. You can food prep this stuff weekly and then you just serve a divided plate with a little of like 6 things. A typical plate for my DD at that age was something like this: four small pieces of egg omelette, one cut up grape, one cut up strawberry, two whole wheat crackers, three carrot ribbons, a dollop of yogurt. Then say nothing except "lunch is ready". If she says "I'm not hungry" just accept it and say "okay, well I'm going to leave the plate here for 20 minutes and then I'll put it in the fridge -- let me know if you want some." Most kids will sit down and eat at least one thing off that plate, no matter how picky they are (usually the crackers, but you never know!).

If she expresses any interest in any food, get enthusiastic about it even if it's not a healthy food, and offer it several times a week. For my DD, the first food she got excited about at that age was McDonald's French fries. So I went through the drive through for those fries three days a week for months. I know, it sounds terrible! But first, that's not really that unhealthy for a kid that age (they need fat, they need carbs, they aren't dieting). The sodium is bad but not as bad as a kid who hates eating. The goal was to get her enthusiastic about a food, any food, and then satisfy that hunger. The second food she got excited about was beans and rice, which is obviously way better and I felt much more enthusiastic about serving. She doesn't even like French fries anymore, by the way. But she learned that if she likes a food and asks for it, I'll make an effort to serve it. That was a valuable lesson for her (and me) and got us on a path toward eating more food.

She's still super picky but she eats three meals and a snack every day and most of what she eats is pretty healthy (mostly fruit, whole grains, yogurt, nuts and nut butters, rice and beans). We don't have to beg her to eat and her lunch box comes home mostly empty most days. It's not a struggle. I do wish she would eat more kinds of things (it would make traveling and going out to eat a lot easier) but all things considered, I recognize how far she's come and am happy with where we are at.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics