contrary toddler decieds to eat!

[luciemule]

For the last 2 months, our 2 yr old DS has been living on not a lot other than air, crumbs and Nutella sandwiches and then, just as I was about to take him to the docs again tomorrow, he decides to eat half a bowl of cottage pie and tell me it's yummy!

I've been driving myself mad with worry about him not eating - literally his daily intake consists of something like:

5/6 mouthfuls of some chocolate based cereal and then drinks the chocolate milk and a cup of hot chocolate.

Lunch - sandwich (1/2 one round) with either cheese/ham/choc spread.
Cheese cubes -about 3
Yoghurt - half a petit filous
Sultanas

1/2 banana if he can suffer the texture

A few mouthfuls of some of his tea - usually the carrots and perhaps a couple of others)

Hot chocolate (8oz) before bed.

What does everyone think - he never fills his tummy with more than a few mouthfuls and I can't understand how he sustains himself.

He doesn't sleep through and is often tired in the day from being awake the night before.

I've tried everything I, and members of the family, can think of.

Sorry for long rant.

what happens if you give him plain milk rather than hot chocolate?

He would occasionally drink it but DD was the same and my SIL always gave her boys a tiny amount of instant hoc choc powder in their milk and they drank loads of milk.

I don't like giving them the powder but as they only have it twice a day and it's literally 1/2 teaspoon in about 8oz milk, then I'm not too worried. It's more the food thing that worries me.

more than my (3.3yo) child will usually eat in a day.

Sleeping probs may be unconnected.

Children this age have small stomachs.

He eats 3 meals a day - small, but not tiny. That is reasonable in my opinion. I would worry abit about the type of food he is getting (i.e. the amount of chocolate) but not the amount.

Unless he is significantly underweight and still losing weight tbh I wouldn't worry.

DOn't let him see you stressing over his eating (leads to more probs) and put it down to phase he will grow out of.

Panic not.

DS lived off orange squash until he was about 4. Now he eats more than me.

He didn't sleep much until 3.5 either.

The example of the daily intake was only a recent example of the type of thing he has eaten becuase all else failed and I just wanted to get some calories inside him.

The other day he sat for breakfast and ate a bowl of porridge with honey and sultanas.

However, when I gave him the same breakfast the following day, he threw it across the table and demanded cocopop rocks!

I know it's not great but in my mind, a bowl of fortified cocopop rocks was better than an empty stomach.

He's on or just above the 2nd percentile and was born on the 9th.

Do you give him a small amount of choice?

I don't want ds (2.5) ruling the roost but at the same time if I give him 2 or 3 choices he seems to be fairly sensible and eats ok.

So for breakfast he can have rice crispies, porridge with fruit or weetabix. Porridge wins most days but not always.

For lunch (which when he isn't at nursery is the lighter meal compared to dinner) I might offer the choice (before I've actually made it ) of cheese on toast, sandwich or french toast and two choices of veg (peas or carrots or whatever). It seems to work really well as he feels he has that little bit of control 2 year olds need. But at the same time I am restricting the choices anyway to sensible things.

Sorry if you've already tried this but thought it was worth a mention.

That's a pretty sugary diet, which may not help his sleeping.

Can you try giving him more protein? Will he try eggs? My DD1 used to enjoy dippy eggs with soldiers.

But don't worry unduly. At that age they are notoriously contrary and will chop and change their minds constantly!

Thanks for ideas.

His diet isn't generally sugary Sidge. He doesn't eat chips/nuggets/crisps etc and rarely eats biscuits or ice cream and I've tried all the Annabel Karmel techniques to toddler cuisine there are, with little success. Mostly I might as well throw his meal straight into the bin!

It wasn't as much what food he eats but the fact that he hardly eats any quantity of it.

I think I'll do the giving him 2/3 options thing MNPKF (I try to do it regulalry and even though he might choose one option, he'd then refuse to eat more than a few bites).

Oh OK, I thought you meant his daily intake was choc cereal, hot choc, choc spread sandwich, yoghurt, sultanas etc. That's a lot of sugar!

hee hee - no, that was just one day I could remember. I would/should get rid of the chocloate cereals in the cupboard then they couldn't have them but if I did that, DD (6) would go bananas and refuse to eat brekkie before school.

Nothing is ever easy is it?!!!

And also definitely just chill about it. Ds is little for his age and I used to get wound up about ensuring he ate enough. As soon as I stopped caring (or at least relaxed a fair bit) he stopped messing around.

If he wants to leave his dinner uneaten then that's his problem not mine.

We have only the following rules - no desert unless half of main course is eaten (him), no badgering him to eat things (me) and once he's given me his choice he cannot change his mind or ask for something different.

It's (touch wood) working very well and he is pretty good.