Toddler and fussy eating, missing meals. Tell me this will pass!

[pickledLily]

DD won't touch (and never has) anything bitty (rice, couscous, beans) or anything pureed. She used to eat fish pie, roasts etc. No longer. She only eats pasta, fish fingers, peas, sausage, yoghurt, fruit and cucumber. Oh and cake given half a chance. I suppose i should be grateful she eats fruit (and olives ), but she is only eating snacks at nursery, refusing most meals. Then she's ravenous when she gets home and will only drink milk.
I know toddlers go through a fussy stage with food, but tell me this will pass...

I'm marking my place as my DD is the same, she's living off of pasta shapes, cheese on toast, scrambled eggs on a good day, cheese, boiled eggs, crisps and fruit juice. Occasionally she will eat a full home cooked meal but this is rare! She doesn't like fruit anymore and will never try anything new.

It panics me, as she used to eat anything I put in front of her and these days is skipping meals. I suggest loads of things to her, but don't force it as I don't want to stress her out.

I'm hoping it will pass!

My 17 month dd is doing this as well, she's gone from eating and loving everything given to her to being really picky. It's starting to freak me out as she refuses loads of her old favourites. I keep giving her proper meals but I'm despairing as I'm throwing most of it away. What's to be done? Ideas to get past this would be appreciated.

It's not just us then! Yes, I've been expecting her to get picky, but not eating meals? I know she's hungry because on the rare occasions that I then offer something else, she wolfs it down. The sad part is that I've given up cooking meals for her because, like you fairylights, it all just goes in the bin. I keep offering something new or something she doesn't like along side her sure-bet food and then leave her to it. It just gets thrown across the table!

DD did this from about age 2 to 3.5. I just threw the food away and left it at that. I did try to make sure there was at least one thing she liked on the plate, and didn't punish or anything, but there was nothing else until the next meal. I didn't make anything specifically for her and kept the portions small, then if she did eat it I would give more from my plate. She was pretty big for her age though (75th %) so I wasn't worried, she wasn't ill and had plenty of energy.

Now age 4 she's a lot better, will try new things at times and generally eats a mix of fruit, veg, meat, pasta, fish. Not keen on potatoes in any form apart from chips, but will have chunky homemade wedges which apparently are ok! You do just have to ride it out I think. And she's still tracking the 75th % so it didn't do any harm. It's so annoying to throw food away though, which is why I just kept it small or ate it myself

My DD has lost weight unfortunately. Not dramatically but I've noticed her trousers are looser now.

She is very grumpy a lot of the time, too.

I was wondering if I made lots of things for breakfast then she would have lots of choices and it might set her up for the day, as not eating reduced the appetite.
Although I'm worried it will overwhelm her and she'll eat even less?!

Thing is with my DD she'll agree to eating things (honey on toast was today's breakfast) and when I've made it she just doesn't touch it.

This is what they do from about 18 mths till about 3.5 (rough timings). They get hyper picky, and hyper conservative about food. They also mess about at the table, refuse to sit still, chuck food about, eat one mouthful and proclaim "finished!" and nosedive down from the table before you can even catch them.

It does pass. Don't worry too much, they are all like this at this age.

We've not had any contrary-ness yet. I'll look forward to that.

at nosedive from the table. Yes, plenty of that going on. They really have absolutely no common sense at this age, have they.