Portion sizes for a 2 yo

[Housequeen101]

So since my little one was unwell a few months ago, she has lost her healthy appetite. Before, she use to love her food, now it's a mission to get her to eat a full meal. Tonight she had a mini corn on the cob and 1 fish finger. After she had some grapes and a yogurt. What is a toddlers portion size? I'm thinking that maybe I'm giving her too much which is why she isn't eating it. For breakfast she'll eat one of them 25g pouch variety cereal and normal eat half. Helppppp, hate the thought of her going to bed hungry. (She still has a bottle of milk before bed)

Thanks

TBH toddlers vary in how much they eat. I had a tiny DD who ate much like yours as a toddler & a large DS who ate vast quantities and is now, at 14, causing a big increase in my grocery bill. I think what you've given as an example of what your lo eats is fine & she seems to eat fish, fruit, dairy, etc, so that's great too. But I would ask, is she happy and healthy and growing as expected? Most children will not go hungry by choice.

My DD will be 3 in may and eats tiny portions. She's on the just under the 25th centile for height and just under 9th for weight so she's little. She's a little over 11kg and lighter than her 10month old cousin!

She normally has maybe 20g of cereal with milk and a satsuma for breakfast. Or one scrambled egg with a little cheese/a rasher and some veg added. Lunch at home is normally a small portion of pasta with veg and some meat (maybe 30g dried pasta), or a sandwich with one slice bread/one small bread roll. Followed by fruit. Dinner is usually what we eat- so last night she had around 2 tablespoons of rice and some prawn curry (5-6prawns with some veg, but prawns are her favourite food!). Then some grapes. Before bed she might have nothing if we eat late, or a little toast with avocado/malt loaf/some cheese. She sometimes asks for seconds. More often eats only half of what's on her plate (side plate).

She doesn't drink milk or eat yoghurt, and loves fish, rice and lean meat so can be a challenge to get calories in- hence avocado/Malt loaf daily, and I add milk/cream/ricotta to her potatoes/pasta sometimes. I used to worry more as she spent the first 9months of her life on the 75th centile then went a whole year without gaining any weight. After numerous trips to Paediatricians and dietitians it appears she is just meant to be on the lower line as once she hit the 9th centile she started to eat and has stayed on that line for the last year.

One fish finger and some corn followed by grapes/yoghurt sounds like plenty for a 2 year old by the way. Also DDs dietician used to want to look at her intake over a week rather than a meal.

There are some great online resources about toddler portion sizes (infant and toddler forum one is good, IIRC), written by professionals which are really reassuring. Portion sizes are smaller than you might think - a half slice of bread is considered lots!