Just turned 2 and become a very picky eater

[itsababslife]

Georgeous DD, aged 2.1 ate everything in sight until a couple months ago including raw broccoli whilst pootling round Tesco, however she seems to have turned into the fussiest little madam. Her Nursery say she eats well there but her snooty little nose is turned up at everything I put in front of her unless it is on her ever decreasing list of favourites (currently toast, cake, choc choc, bananas, pasta, weetabix, chips and blueberries).

It's driving me bananas...other threads say they just let their LO down from the table without making a fuss, but I know from experience all this means is I'll be making toast somewhere between midnight and 4am!!

Help ! pleeeeese come and reassure me that this is normal toddler behaviour, and advise me on what can I do to persuade her to eat a more balanced diet ?

Much appreciated

No tips, I would like some too! DD (2.4) is just the same - "no fruit mama!" (blueberries and bananas don't count luckily). I think it is normal but that doesn't make it much easier to deal with...

It's a phase and it will pass. Ds went through that phase a few times. Each time it will be different things he will/won't eat. At one point all he would eat was yoghut and cheese!

What I would do is still offer the normal meal but with a bit of something he would eat. Ie for lunch I would give him a sandwich, fruit cheese and yoghurt.
At the evening meal I would offer what we have and if he doesn't eat it he doesn't eat it (he is 3 now). I would offer some fruit after but that was it.

Basically what I am sayign (not very well) is to keep offering the foods and at some point they will start eating them again. I think if theya re not offered at all it will make it more difficult to re-introduce them.

I still put foods I know ds won't touch on his plate (as part of a meal not the whole meal) and sometimes he will put it in his mouth. It's all about persistance, eventually they will try it again.

Thanks twinkytonk, that's good advice and pretty much what I am doing, but it's nice to have it validated...she probably eats more than I realise as she does graze quite a lot through the day.

If she is grazing a lot during the day then perhaps she isn't hungry for meals?

I always hungry her up for lunch - ie not too massive a breakfast and no morning snack. If she won't eat it I don't give her anything else, not even fruit as she loves it! Once she's had her nap I chill out and feed her stuff from her favourites list for an afternoon snack and tea - meaning that she always has plenty in her tummy at night time.

The second paragraph refers to my nearly 2yo btw. The post reads a bit strangely!

My dd is 2.4 and she refuses all veg whatsoever.her list of refusals just grows and grows. She's been like it for about 3 months. I give a snack at 10 and again at 3 but only something small. At mealtimes I don't comment at all when she plays, pushes it away or spits it out. But we make a huge fuss if she tries something new or if she eats spoonfuls. This week she ate spoons of mashed potato for the first time since I did BLW. I try not to fret and ignore ignore ignore. I also without yoghurt til she eats something first.

Oh and I always end up saying eat some x and you can have. To which she then eats a morsel and declares it. I have to remember to say eat lots of or eat 3 pieces of!

Withhold yoghurt rather.

Thank folks, this is all food for thought (pardon the dire pun!)

Brett -Is lunch your DDs main meal? generally our lunch is more of a snacky affair, sandwiches or something - partly because slovenly mummy can't get act together early enough to organise a proper meal at lunchtime! but also we generally try to do a family meal when DH gets home from work. Problem with that is it doesn't leave any room to take a hard line if dinner is refused, as it's then already bedtime, so it might be worth a try giving her a main meal at lunch - it's what she does at nursery anyhow.

I'll also have a go at the offering a reward for eating the odd morsel...I've tried that before but don't think I've been consistent enough, but she's old enough now to make the connection between cause and effect.

On a positive note, she did nibble at a couple of broccoli florets, held daintily between finger and thumb with little finger crooked

Oooo thats great, ds won't go near broccoli!

She'll get there, ds now eats mash but only if it's off the masher, he doesn't touch it on his plate!

ah.....maybe that's the answer, hand them a whopping great big serving spoon to eat with rather than dinky little baby cutlery !

it might well be!!

My DS was the same when he turned 2. He survived on hummous, cheese, tuna and weetabix for 6 months. He's just started to try everything again and is really enjoying his food. We didn't make a fuss as we've seen how traumatic it's been for friends of ours who still have problems with their kids at 5 and 8 years old. It's a phase, most kids go through it as their taste buds change. I know it's worrying but she has some healthy things on that decreasing list so be patient with her.