2andhalf year old eating very little

[Worriedmumof3uder3]

Hi,
My nearly 2and half year old is an incredibly fussy eater.

He still isn't speaking so communication isn't the greatest although he has no problem bringing you to the press for a biscuits or sweet treat.

Meal times have become increasingly difficult with a lot of upset and food refusal even some of his go tos are no longer an option.

He is displaying some flags for ASD (not diagnosed as of yet)and he is starting SALT this week.

I'm worried that doing the usual only offering one thing for meals not giving an alternative ect might not be the right thing to do in this situation.

Does anybody have any similar experience and have managed to achieve a more balanced diet and how did you go about getting there?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

My ds9 has autism, as a toddler he was an extremely fussy eater, he still is now but has a much wider variety of foods than back then. We tried it all, bribery, no treats if meal isn't eaten, ignoring (so not giving attention to what was eaten), praise, putting new foods on his plate so many times etc and nothing worked if I'm being honest. Eventually our GP and HV said if he's not losing weight and he's healthy in all other ways, just let him eat what he feels comfortable with. When I tell you that he had dry cereal/croissant for breakfast, totally plain pasta for lunch and garlic bread with chips for dinner for 2yrs straight this is not an exaggeration. But as he got older and his communication improved his diet has grown. Like your son we had items he used to eat that he suddenly went off of which was confusing but we carried on following his lead. We're not at a stage where he has about 3 or 4 meals he will alternate for dinner, 2 meals for lunch and 2/3 for breakfast. If you think he has ASD like my boy, this may just be the way it's going to be due to textures.

Let him eat what he likes as long as it's not fizzy drinks and sweets (just joking). And of course he growing and not loosing weight.

The goal is having a good time at the table.
Try to include him in cooking and preparing the food.

My niece has ASD (5 yo). She visited us this weekend without parents and she ate cereal, pasta, lasagne, white bread with butter, apples and cucumber for 3 days. She does better and better.

Btw she accepts a childrens' vitamin after advice of GP.

Thanks for coming back to me, all your advice is very reassuring.

He does take a multi vitamin and probiotic so for now I will follow his lead I don't think its a texture more to do either familiarity.

@Nogodsnomasters can I ask how old your DS was when his communication started to come along I'm struggling with how to help my lil boy.

Thanks again for all your input

My daughter is a poor eater and we always offer another option but there is a limit on what that is. We won't make a full meal from scratch but we have quick cook pasta and one of her favourite meals is spaghetti with olive oil, frozen peas and chick peas. We don't mind doing this if she has rejected the first meal as it's very low effort on our part and quick as we just need to wait for the pasta to cook.
Toast or crumpets or crackers are also acceptable alternatives meals but say she's had chicken in her main meal and she wants sausages we don't do that. In part because we don't have a lot of time in the evenings. There's 45 minutes between getting through the door and putting her to bed on a nursery day. She generally eats better on a home day but we involve her in deciding what to eat which usually means she eats or she flat out refuses everything and doesn't even ask for an alternative!

My daughter has a lot of food allergies which limits our food selection!