2 year old DS refusing all food except bread, breakfast cereal and yogurt.....reassure me he isn't going to expire from malnutrition.

[LacksDaisies]

DS2 was 2 in November and has always been pretty good with food, despite a deep suspicion of anything green (excpet peas and grapes)

A few months ago he started refusing previous favourites (mash, rice based dishes, spag bol) and only wanted to eat pasta at meals and picked the filling out of his sarnies before eating the bread. He won't even eat pasta now and we are lucky if he eats anything at mealtimes.

His typical day consists of dry breakfast cereal, buttered toast, jammy toast, yogurt and a bit if fruit. He'll eat peas and sweetcorn if we are having them as veg (so we are all sick eating peas and sweetcorn) but won't touch anything else so generally has bread just to get something in him.

Having had two older DC who have gone through fussy phases, I'm trying not to worry too much, but this is a much more extreme version of what they went through so it's hard not to worry. He makes such a big deal about it all as well and shioves his plate as far away as he can and then shouts to get down. we've tried letting him snack as and when to no avail as well, so I don't think it's typical toddler ants in pants/too busy to stop and eat (and he will sit happily at the table as long as there is no food involved)

I know the bread thing isn't ideal, as it fills him up so perpetuating things, but it is only given as a last resort after he has refused other food, and never at the same sitting as the meal he has refused so I don't think he is "holding out" for the bread iyswim.

Weight wise he is just under 30lbs and quite chunky, so he has a bit spare, but I just want him to eat...and for us to return to the once harmonius mealtimes we used to have.

Any advice would be welcome...thanks

I should say that it isn't easy with your own child which is why they are often better with other people and food (if you are not around).

Firstly, don't worry too much about malnutrition. He is clearly not underweight and malnourished, and he is eating some reasonable stuff. I second the idea of vitamin pills, if it makes you feel a little more relaxed about things.

If it's any reassurance, my autistic nephew (MAJOR food issues) ate nothing but toast and marmite and strawberry yogurt for the first seven years of his life and is now a strapping healthy teenager.

Just keep doing what you're doing, don't ever make the dinner table a battleground, even though I'm sure you feel like force-feeding him at times!! Otherwise it can become an attention-seeking device. Just put the food in front of him (a reasonable selection) and leave him to get on with it, then remove it at the end of the meal. No snacks.

I found, with ds1, if I put the food in front of him then immediately walked out of the room, I'd spy him push it away at first, then slowly pull it back to him and start nibbling. There was no audience! But if I ever encouraged/cajoled/begged him to eat, the mouth would remain closed.

And you know it's a phase - it will pass.

Haven't read all the replies, just wanted to add my advice.

DD2 has tendancies to be fussy, whilst I think this is quite normal as they are asserting themselves, indulging this behaviour is when it starts to go wrong & become out of control.

I would start in the morning, by giving him what everyone else has, but a small portion. Don't make a fuss, just offer. If he doesn't want to eat it, say that's fine, but wait until everyone else finishes before he leaves the table.
Don't offer anything else.
Same for lunch, same for tea & no snacks.

See what he eats the next day or repeat the next day & I think you'll be surprised.

Remember that sometimes they don't like the look of stuff, if he's quite chunky (your words) he clearly gets eating & I suspect it's attention/developing stage.

I've done this with my light (age 4 & 34lbs) DD2. She is still fussy & get's bored of eating (unless something sweet) but knows that unless she eats the food that makes her grow, nothing else is offered.
HTH

haha...wouldn't you know he's just eaten more in one meal than he usually eats in a day!!!

I made chili and he said bleargh to rice, but I had preempted that and made some pasta and he had his mixed with that instead...and he had two serving spoonsful, didn't eat any of the mince, but ate a dozen kidney beans and lots of grated cheese. And then had some ice cream!

I've talked to DH about the bread thing and we are going to try limit the amount he eats, as well as trying some of the other tactics on here.

I feel really bouyant though although I realise that this may just me a minor battle and not the actual war!! now we see if he sleeps better tonight

Sounds like my ds (2.4) - ate everything until last Christmas, then got hugely fussy and wanted to live on stale bread for a few months. Well, preferably cake, but he wasn't getting that.

I only fretted because he got really badly constipated which was a rough 9 months. Then they invented Innocent fruit tubes and a couple a day fixed the issue. He gets protein from milk, yoghurt and peanut butter, drinks juice and has tomato sauces, and plays with veg and rolls them in his mouth so must get some nutrition from them and wholemeal bread. And is sturdy and healthy, touch wood.

My DS ate everything until he got to 18 months and then all of a sudden he stopped eating anything wet, milk on cerial was out and so was any kind of sauce appart from tomato sauce. He did eat nothing but pasta, carrots, cheese, yoghurts, grapes and bread for ages, (but given half a chance he would eat his body weight on crisps) and he has multi-vits everyday.
I tried making a picnic style lunch and put a blanket on the floor and he really loved that, also if we went to a deli he would eat any of the samples on stick, so I did that (not with sticks but cut off bits of straw).
I just kept offering him the kind of food we were eating but I would do one or two things that I knew he likes, (ie, pasta and carrots) Slowly he has started to eat more types of food.
Now he is 4 years old and still quite fussy, we have tried a different thing over the last few days, if he eats his tea we light a candle and he gets to blow it out, I dont have a clue why this works but it does, we had stir fry with noodles for tea tonight, he ate all his noodles all his chicken and even tried broccoli.
I hope everything starts to get better for you soon.

Lacksdaisies that's really good news. I know it's incredibly hard to be relaxed about your child's eating but he really isn't doing badly for a decent diet there.

You've had lots of different advice about what next steps you should take and as you know him best you've probably already got a good plan to move forward in mind.

Just bear in mind the advice about not turning food into a battleground. It's one fight which the child always wins.

Children who are otherwise healthy are likely to be willing to eat more foods when they are hungry so don't be afraid to refuse snacks between meals. I think that we all enjoy our food a lot more if we're really ready to eat.

Whatever option you decide to try you must make sure that he only gets attention for eating and any refusal to eat is ignored totally with a relaxed smile on your face. If he does eat offer praise but don't try to push him into doing it again. Hopefully he then won't begin refusing food to get attention.

Good luck. I hope he moves on from this stage really quickly.

thanks Alison

Hiya! This thread was a long time ago and I’m hoping that someone is active still?
I’m having exactly the same issues and at wits end! I’ve twin 2 1/2 year olds!
How food you get on following lplease? Really hoping it’s a phase xx