AIBU worrying about my daughter?

[LostAndConfused2616]

Hi everyone,
My daughter will be 2 in March and about 4 or 5 weeks ago her eating habits became horrendous.

Yesterday, for example, she had almost half a rich tea biscuit
A slice of brown bread
Not even a full teaspoon of "tayto"
1 teaspoon full of porridge and a tiny bite of "narna"
I mean a slight scraping of teeth around the side of it.

She used to be a brilliant eater. She would love vegetables and fruit. She would sit in her high chair and use a fork and try to use a spoon. NOW she wont do that.

She says she "not like it" when I try to give her almost anything. Even if its something shes had the day before. She makes vomiting noises and starts coughing. Some days she has nothing at all. Christmas day she lasted on 1 bite of bread.

I try not to react or worry incase it makes it worse but I'm at my wits end. My husband sometimes tells her off for "being silly" but it doesn't help.

I dont want to just give her anything but she wont even accept "choco butts" anymore. Something she used to love as a treat.

I dont know what to do. She isn't losing a noticable amount of weight. Shes still playing and learning outstandingly and as far as I can tell shes healthy.

Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated as I'm at my wits end and its making me so stressed. My anxiety is through the roof.

She will be up soon and I dread to think how today's gonna go ☹😔😢

I think its a stage that they will grow out of TBH. My daughter ate about 5 things in total for a long time.However Yoghurt/milk may be acceptable ,also as someone else said Smoothies too .What about home made soup too (obviously cooled right down) .Sometimes mealtimes can be a bit of a battle .Trick here is try not to fuss, (not easy I know)! Offer food and if not needed try later .As our old Doctor used to say" No child ever starved themselves "!

What scotsinoz said on page 1

My dd was like this, I let her lead the way. I just left food out and let her come back to it when she pleased. Same with my son who is 2 now. Hes refusing a lot, especially breakfast and lunch. I just make him food, leave it on the coffee table and he will pick eventually as and when. I've seen other kids with exasperated parents being made to stay at the table etc and it's all turned into a nightmare, so definitely avoid that! I've also scrapped meal times for my ds for now, he just grazes throughout the day when he feels like it and with dinner I give him the freedom to come back to it later. Dd is a brilliant eater now!

Very very common. It's about them discovering their independence and tastes and stuff. What's most important (so long as she's not using weight or getting ill) is not making it a battle or a big deal. My daughter has some issues with food, always has done, we saw a occupational therapist at one point and they were very clear that you have to let them refuse food if that's how they feel. If you make a huge fuss about meal times it becomes very counter productive.
She'll get over it and find her own way, it's very normal

I was advised to look at what they eat over a week rather than a day. It's probably more than you think. Is she having milk still? I found with my little boy that the baby food pouches worked often when he refused food so at least he was getting some nutrition. Also went through a phase of him only eating toast, banana and yogurt. He's back to eating normally. They go through these phases. It's important not to get stressed and draw too much attention to it otherwise they work out that they get attention. Easier said than done though I know!

Ignore it best you can, it's pretty normal for toddlers to get picky at this age. Ds (6) is the same. He was an incredibly fat ebf baby and did the blw thing, eating everything well. Then it was downhill all the way. Even school have told him to go in for the first meal sitting as he is usually munching away from his usual baked potato. He likes beige food like noodles and would have spaghetti every night with nothing on it, if he could. He won't sit still to eat so I've slipped into the bad habit of just giving him anything if he eats it.

O P. Use the proper names for food, don't be weird. Your daughter will be 100 percent grow out of this. My two were the same. Give her the food, make no drama if she doesn't eat it, limit snacks and breath til the phases passes.