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Original poster

what can i cook a 2yr old who has stopped eating, with a stove and grill only

29 replies

PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:05

we dont have a microwave.
our oven has broken, getting it replaced next week.
we are making do with grill and stove in the mean time and doing ok but I am running out of ideas.

ds aged 2.4 is fussy at the best of times, but i suspect he is teething (last 4 molars due) as he has pretty much stopped eating anything except peanut butter crumpets, cereal (rice crispies only) and porridge, sometimes. And drinking a lot of milk.

Normally he eats pasta with pretty much anything, but he does not even want pasta or his fave sausages, or his beloved home made chips. Or...ice cream Shock, not a tiny morsel of fruit of veg is passing his lips.

So dinner has become a bit scrappy and poor DD is getting fed up with pasta as I keep trying him on that so get him to eat!

What can I cook that will entice him to eat, and also give poor dd a break from the routine food I have been cooking.

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BillyBollyBandy · 14/04/2012 18:07

Eggs and beans? Risotto?

Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:10

he wont eat eggs Sad not even before this, although he made a breakthrough a few weeks ago and ate some scrambled egg, has regressed backwards and now refuses.

normally loves beans, and tinned spaghetti, and ravioli (DHs lunch time menu!) with toast, not touching it at the moment. hardly even eating toast, although he had a nibble of his sisters toast soldiers a couple of days ago.

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BIWI · 14/04/2012 18:11

Cheese on toast?

Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:11

oh he wont eat rice! he is sooooo different to DD who eats pretty much everything apart from hot spice (not surprising, she is 5!) courgettes and mushrooms (except when i dont tell her its in the food then she eats it fine Wink).

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Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:12

nope, wont eat the cheese. he might nibble the toast as long as it has not had anything put on it. except perhaps peanut butter.

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BillyBollyBandy · 14/04/2012 18:17

mash? with corned beef maybe and ketchup?

Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:27

sigh i wish. I made cheesey mash two days ago, for DD to have with her fish fingers (i let her choose!), he screamed like I was attacking him for even putting on his plate. DH has tried smearing this type of thing on his mouth hoping that once he tastes it he will like it. I say has tried. He has learnt his lesson there! I have tried arranging it all in funny faces, offered sauces to dip. He just sits there and smears the sauce over his feet or chair.

So, when I offered him the cheesey mash I also offered him a fish finger, which he normally likes, and a bowl of ready brek. He dipped the fish fingers in the ready brek, licked it a few times, then ate the ready brek and wanted more. So I know he is hungry.

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Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:29

I have been giving him some liquid vitamins as I am concerned. I might have to give him some growing up milk or whatever it is called...

DD would love corned beef hash. I will make that for her and DH tomorrow i think!

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QuickQuickSloe · 14/04/2012 18:30

Fish finger sandwiches? Toasted potato cakes? Frying pan pizza? Veggie fingers? Banana and peanut butter smoothie?

Frozen melon wedges are going down well with teething DS and it tastes like sorbet.

BillyBollyBandy · 14/04/2012 18:30

Erm... I am running out of food stuffs!! Eggy bread maybe? Or could you convince him risotto is porridge?

Alternatively do what I do when dd1 (2.6) is being fussy and tell her she gets nothing else if she doesnt eat her tea. That usually gets some mouthfuls in before I break and give her yoghurt

BellaOfTheBalls · 14/04/2012 18:34

I'm really really sorry to be the bearer of bad news but welcome to my personal hell. I have been living this for 2 years now. It gets easier, you learn to get creative!

Gnocchi instead of pasta?
Grilled Chicken?
Soup? (DS1 will only eat green soup, so I throw any green veg I can find in a pan with stock then blend it)
Errm...

Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:38

oh yes eggy bread! he has eaten some of that this week. I will give him that for breakfast, thank you for reminding me billy. and refusing to let them eat anything else until they have tried it, that works for DD and has done since little. I remember before she could count I would say 'one more mouthful' as many times as I could and often she would finish it! DS, he just cries, and refuses regardless.

He normally loves smoothies, but he wont touch them. He wants it, goes to have it and then just cries and says he does not like it. Same for cakes.

In fact, been like this since he had a stomach bug about two weeks ago. I wonder if he has an issue with eating due to vomitting? [ponders...]

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Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:40

bella oh poor you!

I will try asking him if he wants green soup! Let him think he is in control...

I have tried telling him fireman sam loves it, makes him big and strong and brave. I got him to eat scrambled egg doing that, asked him if he was fireman sam too and he said yes and ate some. Not worked since.

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bonzo77 · 14/04/2012 18:40

DS is similar. I've given in to it. He has phases where he is less awkward but will not touch rice or pasta. He loves sainsburys hash browns, bread sticks dipped in cream cheese, tangerines and beef burgers. So that's what he has. A lot.

JuliaScurr · 14/04/2012 18:43

haricots au sauce tomate avec du pain grille
(beans on toast)

Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:45

I am worried about him eating only peanut butter crumpets though. 3 of them, and 3 bowls of rice crispies is all he has eaten today. Oh and a lick of my Oh My Apple Pie ice cream (see how much i want him to eat? i shared). his salt content is quite high at the moment and that cannot be good for him?

bonzo how long has he been eating like that? how old is he now? i would give in, except I just cant see how he can survive on so little! I mean its all he is eating anyway, whatever else I offer him.

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Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 18:51

ok, breakthrough...he has just eaten half a nectarine. But only because he thought it was a plum. which I did not know that he even liked Grin. And now, he wants a peanut butter crumpet.

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Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 19:24

Wohoo! Thanks billy for reminding me about eggy bread. I just made the children some for supper, and he has eaten 1.5 slices of it, cut into triangles, and dipping into the milk of his millionth bowl of rice crispies.

So, for the time being, he has one addition, so tomorrow he will be eating peanut butter crumpets, rice crispies, nectarines, and eggy bread. Not bad.

Keep them coming, maybe there will be more he will try.

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QuickQuickSloe · 14/04/2012 21:20

Blueberry pancakes
Sweetcorn pancakes
Chicken schnitzel
Secretly mash some avocado with the peanut for the next crumpet
Swedish meatballs
Toasted Fruit loaf
Anything on a skewer?

Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 14/04/2012 22:16

oooooh I like the idea of mashing some avocado into the peanut butter. Sneeky and it might even work Grin
Pancakes, he normally loves them, but recently, before his complete refusal to eat a proper meal, he went off them. I have fabulous photos of last pancake day when he was 16 months or so stuffing his face with blueberry pancakes, he ate his body weight in them. This year, he had 3, and then only bits of them.

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mrspink27 · 14/04/2012 22:25

Might seem like a lame suggestion but can he "help" you cook something? Beating the eggs or grating the cheese or kneading some dough for pizza... might be a bit messy and might be barking up the wrong tree... but DDs usually eat some of what they have cooked.

mamij · 14/04/2012 22:41

Baking muffins together, such ham and cheese, cheese and spinach, banana muffins, chocolate and courgette muffins, carrot cakes...? Add raisins or chopped, dried apricots to the rice crispies?

sharond101 · 14/04/2012 23:15

How about doing some pizzas with toppings that make faces or pinwheel sandwiches where you cut off crusts spread bread with cream cheese and slice of sandwich meat. Roll up tight and cut horizontally to make pinwheel shapes. Would he drink a smoothie or eat jelly with fruit in? How about making chicken nuggets or fish fingers using rice crispies as the coating?

Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 15/04/2012 07:52

mamj have no oven at the moment so cant do muffins Sad

I will definitely get him to help, its worth a try, not worried about mess, both the children have been, DS still is, a messy eater, messy artist etc. I have in fact done less getting him to help than I did with DD. I used to have her help lots, but with two, its easier to do it myself I guess. I should let him do more. He likes pizza but the problem with that is he takes all the topping off and eats the dough!

He woke asking for eggy bread again this morning! And he and DD had the last of the eggs, with golden syrup over it. So, for now at least there is one more thing he will eat!

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Original poster
PavlovtheCat · 15/04/2012 07:55

sharon normally, he eats home made chicken nuggets, its the only way I get him to eat chicken, with breadcrumbs and home made chips, they have their own dipping pots. But he is completely off that. He just sits there crying. I could try with rice crispies, but not at all hopeful.

I definitely think it is his teeth now, and shall repeat the mantra 'this too shall pass' with that knowledge - I gave him some ibruprofen before bed last night, and he slept til 6am, then dozed in our bed til 7am so back to normal where before he was waking lots and for good at 5am, for the last week Although, it could also be that he has been hungry in the night and this has caused him to not sleep well. But, hunger and teeth pain might be hand in hand. So either way, food and medicine before bed has helped!

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