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Fussy eater!

5 replies

Weddingaug2019 · 12/01/2022 14:21

Looking for some advice/ tips/ solidarity when it comes to having a toddler who is a fussy eater! My DD is 22 months old, she used to eat anything we gave her, we were filled with such hope! 🙄😩 how naive!
Are we being over ambitious trying to get her "five fruits and veg" in her every day?
I mean some days she will only eat snacky things like part of an apple, or fruity toddler snacks and then porridge before bed. Plus bottles. ( diluted)
Other days she might actually let us feed her breakfast, a vege packed dish for lunch, dinner and then porridge. But that's getting more and more rare..
should I be strict mama with her at this age and keep coming back to the same dish until she eats it or just let her have what she will eat ( she can ask for things such as yoghurts, cheese, milk, snacks and she does)
Am I getting too worked up over this?
TIA 🙏😁

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ZooKeeper19 · 12/01/2022 22:07

What do you eat? Do you eat together? My 2yo will eat what he sees us eating. If it's apples, he will want apples, if it's marshmallows, he wants marshmallows.

I'd not make fuss over any food. Offer, if she says no say OK. I'd not actively offer sweets but offer snacks like berries, fruit and maybe boil veg into something to blend onto pasta?

Not sure, I hate veg so not a great example (leave this to veg-dad I do).

Nursery is great in this, they cook some healthy stuff (the look on their face when I said he can have anything but not too much pizza - like pizza, the horror, we do not cook things like that - whatever). Basically nursery do the healthy, at home he has the less healthy but as we eat quite healthy for the general Uk population I am not fussed.

The one thing I do know is - do not make a deal of anything food-related. You want, you don't want, whatever. It's pavement to hell if you make food special, good, bad, a treat or anything in between.

Also here, my son has two three four bottles of formula with cow milk and it has zero effect on his appetite :-D He also drinks water from the bath tub, cat bowl or horse through so what do I know though.

AdrianHunter · 21/01/2022 09:41

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TBC45678 · 22/01/2022 19:53

I just posted about my 27month's eating habits - so I'm here to offer solidarity! He was brilliant until about 15 months and slowly got pickier and pickier. He has phases where he's brilliant and will eat everything, but they are quite rare, maybe one week in 4. The rest of the time it's pasta, pasta and more pasta. And when he's in a really bad phase I'm happy to get pasta down him! We had a 30 minute battle for him to eat a quarter of a peanut butter bagel at lunch today.

Anyway I find it quite lonely and stressful, as my husband doesn't find it triggering at all, so I'm here for a bit of moral support! Don't have many answers for you though, other than making the most of the non-fussy phases by giving lots of veggies and nutrient rich foods.

TBC45678 · 22/01/2022 19:55

I'm also always a bit confused about whether to do a bedtime snack. If he's not eaten much in the day I give Greek yoghurt with oats or banana and peanut butter toast, but I'm not sure if that's making the problem worse by teaching him if he doesn't eat his meals he gets to eat at bedtime...

HelenaCrimson · 21/02/2022 16:15

I wouldn't worry. My DS (now 21) used to eat broad beans when he was 2 and then suddenly went off them! I've had 4 kids (3 fussy eaters).
I agree with ZooKeeper19. Don't make a fuss of food.
Cook stuff that smells nice when cooking.

Let them get a bit hungry.
Don't talk about the food before serving.

If you can put it all on the table, so everyone can serve themselves so it turns into an active activity to get oneself food (rather than being offered and served) or have to ask to be served.

Make sure everyone waits and starts the food together.

Let your child choose whatever they like off the table. One day they may want just pasta and lots of it, other days just chicken, other days just cucumber. (this is what my other DS used to do).

Don't worry about a balanced meal at every mealtime, look at it on a weekly basis!
And like Zoo says, if your DD sees you eating she'll eat so make sure you serve and feed yourself first and get eating. (bit like on the plane where you're told to affix your own oxygen mask before helping children!). They soon want to eat when a) they see everyone else eating, b) realise they get nothing unless they serve themselves or ask, c) can have as much of anything that's on the table.

Another tip, don't let them fill up on drink before the meal and also, if you serve them food just give them a small portion - they can always ask for more.

I have this belief that after being babies, children never get the chance to get hungry and are always reacting to being asked about food. They rarely get the chance for this sort of conversation,
Child: "what's that you're eating Mummy?"
Mummy: "chicken"
Child: "oh, can I have some!"
!

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