Milk is an important source of nutrients that you and your family shouldn’t miss out on. If someone in your family has lactose intolerance and the rest of the family still want to enjoy the taste of real milk, try Lactofree - the UK’s first virtually lactose-free dairy drink.
She is 20 months, weighs about 21lbs. She barely eats anything. Things she does like though are fish fingers, smily faces etc which I am very reluctant to feed her!
I make homemade fish cakes, can I make some kind of homemade smily faces?
Anyone else have this problem? I make all these yummy meals and she wont touch them, she also takes one bite and spits the whole lot out and refuses to eat it.
my ds 21 months is exactly the same! Is living on yogurts and fruit pots at the moment, wouldn't eat those a few weeks ago. I make very healthy fresh organic food and he won't even taste it., he pushes it away and says "finished". I hope its just a phase.
Ds1 (just 2 years) eats next to nothing. Most evenings he takes one look at the plate and pushes it away with a loud 'nay'.
He has phases where he'll only eat certain things. It was bananas a few weeks ago. At the moment it is cereal, or bagels with peanut butter, or jelly. And that is it.
Stupid HV gave me a hard time about it today. She reckoned that if the veg were presented in beautiful shapes or patterns hed gobble them up. He would not.
It is rubbish. I made fajitas last night with DD (2 and a bit). She was very excited about spooning on the mixture. She sprinkled on her own cheese and sauce, and rolled it up. Oh yes it was a huge hit. Did she eat any of it? Not a piece. She pushed it away and demanded fruit instead. I gave no reaction. I'm the queen of no reaction. It's a phase.... BTW, does anyone know how long this bloomin' phase lasts? About 10 months now I reckon.
Some 'people' would say the stage goes back to hunter and gatherer days when toddlers ate only what they knew to be safe and refuse to try anything new at all.
They apparently get over it by seeing you eat a food approx 17 times before they will try it!
Oh mine does, and I don't worry about her nutrition. I worry about whether she'll ever eat a meal with us again! In answer to OP, I would say don't get sucked into the whole smiley faces thing. Way too much effort! Just keep offering regular stuff, don't react to her spitting it out, and give praise for trying something new, even if it's just a bite. I'm hoping this will work for me eventually.
My 2 year old refuses everything except baby jars. She is only little aswell. Any ideas or do I just stop giving them to her.? It seems so harsh as she really doesn't eat anything else.
My DD ((22 months) is going through a "pasta" phase. She will eat anything as long as it is pasta !!!! .......... Or strawberries. Anything else is hit and miss, one day she'll wolf something down, the next its as if its poisonous !!!
I've given up with HV's telling me she needs to eat more etc, it is nigh on impossible to force her to eat when she doesn't want to. As long as she is growing and is healthy and active and developing, who cares what the scales say !!
If she'll eat fruit and some veg and pasta and cheese/yog then I think that's fine. It's true that you need to look at what they eat over a period of several days to see if it's balanced, rather than just one day.
Also don't stop offering something just because she's spat it out 20 times. The 21st time she may just eat it! Try not to mix things up, keep foods seperate and they are more likely to pick out what they like from the plate.
This "phase" has lasted about 10 months with us too. And how I laugh at my smug former self who proudly told people dd would "eat anything". It all changed when she was about 14 months, she is now 2. She would live on milk and fruit if she could. Well, actually, she pretty much does live on milk and fruit with a few bowls of porridge thrown in. I try not to worry about it but it is so hard.
eddiejo, please tell me your secret for being "queen of no reaction".
It wasn't me!! It was the hairtwiddler!!!! I am def reaction queen!
Do get a grip on them sometimes but ds1 is excellent at changing the topic away from his food. and often makes ds2 laugh so much he gets hiccups so then neither can eat their dinner.
Keevamum - my sisters DD was only on jars until she was about 3. In the end they told her that if she carried on eating them there wouldn't be enough for the babies
Worked though . SHe is still a very slow eater but will eat 'proper food'. Garlic bread was her turning point
That was me! Grit your teeth and smile! I just say, 'Ok, DD is not hungry', then make yummy noises about how nice mine is. She gets fruit or yoghurt if we're having it. Otherwise nothing. If I'm feeling a bit soft and know she hasn't eaten much, she gets bread and butter. I sob silently so myself as I scrape the uneaten food into the bin though. Just waiting for the big breakthrough but have nasty nagging feeling it will never arrive.
Thank god its not just my ds then <y ds (20mo) used to eat loads of different foods but now he just lives on bananas, toast, cheese, yoghurt, rusks, cereal and crumpets. Wont touch fish or meat or veg, about 2 months ago he was really into sausage and scrambled egg and fish fingers and mash potato but he will not touch them now? I get soooooooo frustrated I feel like giving up on cooking him anything nice as he refuses to even pick it up and attempt to try it??
I apologise hairtwiddler, I admire your resolve, i will try to sob silently into the bin instead. It is so awful isn't it, you cook, you serve, you eat and they push it away with a "don't like xxx" or "finished" after they haven't eaten a mouthful. DD does have days where she eats really well and I think we have turned a corner and then it all goes to pot again.
It's such hard work. I make lovely, healthy balanced meals too. My brother was similarly fussy and my mum tried to cajole him to eat in every possible way. I think that's what makes me go down the 'make no fuss about it at all' route. Nothing worked with my brother, and he's still a fussy sod with some very strange eating issues. A small niggling feeling though that my family carries some kind of fussy eating gene that is resistant to any approach!
To be honest, I think it is the cajoling that can have a detrimental effect. I cringe when my mil says "one more mouthful for grandma" etc, etc. The more you do that with dd the more she steadfastly refuses to eat anything. I think the no fuss route will work in the end.
evening all. i had a bad day with dd, she didn't eat her breakfast, had a bottle of milk, no lunch and a little bit rice for tea. taking her to hv on fri, at my wits end!
sorry to hear that strawberries, it is so stressful I know. In terms of her nutrition, could you make any smoothies/juice for her to drink. When dd is having a really bad week I juice carrots, oranges and pineapples (and anything else I have lying around) for her to drink and make her "milkshakes" with loads of fruit. She drinks loads of them and it is a pretty good way of getting some vitamins into her. The other thing I make is flapjakes with honey and very little sugar to get some carbs into her. She thinks they are a treat so stuffs them down.
Good luck with the HV, I know how awful it makes you feel.
My 18 month DD didn't really eat anything at all until 13 months. We slowly got her to eat by realising she likes all her food separate and without sauces. From mumsnet and local mums there does seem to be a subset of toddlers who like food like this - literally plain pasta, with plain veg, plain chicken. Worth a try.
After my experiences and research I do not advocate starving them to eat the food you want them to eat - that can be a very long haul. I would give them food they like along with one new food at each meal. It took my DD 9 months to eat carrots (sod 17 time to like a food more like 100) and 8 months for rice. Batch cook, use frozen veg and keep serving/rotating a limited range of food they like and new food and it should eventually work. Then you can expand the range.
tapster, I know you are right but I just feel exhausted at the thought. Food battles coupled with the recent entrance of bedtime battles is just driving me to the gin!
Hi. Today she had a good breakfast of porridge oats, lunch a bit of sausage and not even a slice of bread and a yoghurt. Supper was roast lamb and I did extra peas, I have now worked out she doesn't like peas. She had about 5 mouthfuls and no more. I mashed it up quite a bit for her. What is everyone's views on giving her more milk to drink? She currently has milk morning and night.
my son is 22months old and had previosly been a great eater and has turned into a fussy eater,my worst nightmare my ds10yrs has been like it his whole life. he will only eat chicken pie,chips and chicken korma.if we have anything else he just plays with it and doesnt even try any.its very tiring and upsetting.my dd 7yrs eats anything and every thing so what am i doing wrong?????
I am having the same problem and am tearing my hair out, finding it very hard to keep calm. How did I get from all organic home made purees to fish fingers/chicken nuggets/Thomas tank engine yoghurt???? It is doing my head in. Like you all, I spend loads of time making gorgeous fish pies and pasta dishes only to have them rejected without tasting. How do I do the 15-20 tastes if he won't even touch any of this?? It has been very comforting though to hear I am not along. Better get back to work...to earn the money to buy the lovely food...to put in the bin!!
So relieved to see this thread. My DS (22 months) loves fish fingers, cheese on toast (any toast actually), bread, and all fruit. Doesn't eat vegetables, or much protein. Drinks milk morning and evening. What I have realized is that he will eat almost anything at nursery (he goes twice a week) - he will everything they put in front of him. And occasionally ask for seconds. He will eat quite well for his grandma and quite well for his dad. But if I present the food and it is just him and me eating - then he eats very little. Someone on this thread did mention trying to see the larger picture - and actually that's a really good tip. If I think what he's eaten over the last week then I realize he probably has eaten something from every food group. And the whole not eating with me is, I suspect, as much about my reaction to his not eating - so it all becomes a vicious circle. But I definitely belong to the school of feeding what he will eat - so fish fingers appear on the menu at least three times a week!
Milk is an important source of nutrients that you and your family shouldn’t miss out on. If someone in your family has lactose intolerance and the rest of the family still want to enjoy the taste of real milk, try Lactofree - the UK’s first virtually lactose-free dairy drink.
, he pushes it away and says "finished". I hope its just a phase. 
