feeding a 2yr old

[TLV]

whats the trick (if there is one) to getting them to eat, I do lots of chicken/mince and veg dishes, example tonight I did chicken chasseur with roast tats and veg and yorkshire puds and she would only eat the yorkshire puds, tomorrow i'm doing spicy sausage which she likes but I could really do with some advice, tia

My 2 yr old won't touch any veggies except roasted peppers. She's absolutely crazy for them. Maybe worth a try.

Make sure they're really hungry before you feed them. that was the trick with mine when they were that age. If I'd been out all afternoon at playground or playgroup and they'd been munching on fruit, biscuits and drinking juice or sometimes a roll from the bakery, they wouldn't eat much tea but if we stayed out late and they'd been having fun and then were starving - they would eat ANYTHING I put infront of them!

Yorkshires are quite filling. Maybe leave in the kitchen till she has a little of the meat and veg.
They still have small appetites so it could just all be a bit too much?

my dd has yorkshire but its in the middle of the table, when shes eaten some of her dinner (say 2 spoonfulls) she gets a bit.....i know i know bribary and all that, but it works! we do the same with curry and naan bread/poppadums!

Dd would eat the yorkshire pudding and chicken if i'm lucky she might eat a piece of broccoli, but she will not eat any type of potato.

I have learnt to just dish dinner up, offer no choices and be grateful if she eats anything (dd is 3.3).

At two i was lucky if i could get her to eat more then 1 meal a day.

just to contradict somebody further down if my dd gets too hungry she gets grotty and it makes it worse, shes 2.6 now and i tend to include something she really likes but not put it on her plate and then once shes eaten some of her dinner she gets the thing she likes. I know some people think its wrong but it works and gets her to try things she wouldnt before, now the list of things she likes is getting longer which makes it easier! keep it up jsut dont give choices or puddings....they get it eventually!

staceym11

I think your right if you can find a way to get your child to eat without fuss then it right.

There is no wrong or right method, it just what works for you.

My mum swears by telling stories, I guess just to distract them from the business in hand.

I would agree with the poster who says cut out the mid-afternoon snack (or keep it very light) and get them running around in the fresh air to work up an appetite.

Sometimes mine won't eat if I try to feed him, sometimes he will. There's got to be an element of their trying to establish some control, so not rising to the bait is important. As long as they are eating one good meal a day, and you keep putting varied and mostly healthy stuff in front of them, they should be okay.

And don't forget, most things are phases - my DS has lean months, then weeks where he eats for Britain.

my ds is 2.4 and is generally a very good eater and will eat anythin put in front of him. But sometimes he just isn't interested or would prefer to do something else. Im teaching him to count at the moment so i make a big huge over the top suggestion about counting his mouthfuls.

il suggest 5 and he will eventually do 5 big mouthfuls of dinner with lots of enthusiasm then he wants to do it again

i think big plates of food freak mine out - so cut portion size - then it's much easier to celebrate eating it all! talk about anything but the food - take a huge interest in their day whilst surreptiously loading their fork so all they haveto do is put it in their mouth!

Aren't they little b&**%£$ My son (just over 2) won't eat any fresh fruit or veg. If they are blitzed up in a sauce or stirred into yoghurt fine, but the minute he finds anything lurking he spits it straight out! His appetite also varies week on week with no particular reasons and I am just learning to go with the flow.
He started feeding better on food he can eat more independently rather than slopping food like stews, perhaps why your LO likes the yorkshire puds. We have had great success with sausages, chicken goujons, fish,omlettes,pasta with thick sauces and foods he can dip like boiled eggs, hummus and using tomato ketchup .
Hope some of that is helpful and I too am waiting for some more ideas to help on the fruit and veg front!!

Eating with them helps too - if they see you eating things they tend to me more inclined to do the same. Maybe you already are, but if not perhaps try some more family meal times if you can.

There is no trick - my 2 year old who wouldn't eat is now a 3 year old who won't eat. My 20 month old is a great eater and always has been. I notice Moondog hasn't been on here yet with the mantra
Put in front of them
Leave it for a bit
If they don't eat it, take it away
Repeat.........
Can you tell my 3 year old hasn't eaten anything except breakfast and an icecream today? [wry smile]

Agree that there is no trick and agree to no fussing and faffing.

DS is a bit of a grazer though and has always been better and small amounts and often. If I left him all afternoon he still wouldnt eat a big dinner.

DO NOT CHASE THEM ROUND THE ROOM WITH A BANANA.

with small amounts

i am very lucky in that my dd (18m) eats well - to the point where i think my CM thinks I overfeed her LOL.

but, she's a bit stuck in a rut and isn't too keen on trying new things.

currently trying to get her to eat potato in some other form than mashed.

when I know I'm going to try her with something new I will monitor what she eats between lunch and tea and not allow her too much in the way of snacks.

did this on saturday with a potato bake dish and she'd eaten almost all of it before realising it! she had leftovers of it last night and enjoyed it without fuss.

have also cottoned on to "staging" so she only gets grapes after a strawberry otherwise she'll ignore the strawb!

My dd will be 2 in June and is a terrible eater unless it is spag bol (or pasta with a tom sauce and chicken etc), scrambled eggs and baked beans on toast, pizza or fish and chips. She will eat rice and most meats and occasionally fish pie but if I give her a cooked vegetable I can forget it. I try to hide veg in the tomato sauces I make and we eat a lot of pasta. Luckily she eats fruit and raw carrot and frozen peas . I am grateful for this thread as some days I feel really up against it. We are lucky as we all (inc DH) eat together every evening and I eat with both the dd's breakfast and lunch. I just put everything on the plate and hope. This worked eventually with dd1 but no chance with dd2. She frustrates me as she won't even try shepherds pie or lasagne that I am sure she would like (and used to before she started feeding herself). I was actually considering approaching the HV for vitamin drops. DD1 eats extremely well by comparison, but then she always has. I don't think it is a hunger issue either as if it is Spag Bol she eats the lot and wants half of mine too. She gets no yog or fruit after her dinner if she hasn't eaten it and it is taken away without any fuss and she is not bothered. I have to get the fruit in after breakfast as a snack and with her lunch (so she eats the grapes and leaves the sandwich etc) and pretend I don't care when actually there is nothing that frustrates me more. So nothing constructive to add at all. Just wanted you to know you aren't alone. Fussy eaters drive me potty as adults too

This thread has given me heart. I was just about to start a similar one as I'm struggling with DS aged 2.3. But it sounds as if he's just normal. I guess if they are really hungry they would eat it, I mean you don't see any starving children on the news refusing anything. DD aged 3.5 is slightly better insomuch as I've managed to get her to eat some rice, peas and smoked fish rather than just pasta & pesto all the time.

I never give yoghurts, puddings or treats after dinner unless they have eaten it so I'm sure they must go to bed hungry. In fact I know DD does coz in the morning she says she's starving.

Shall watch any other posts with interest

My 2yo has quite a variable appetite - I accept that, so no bribery or praise, I just serve up reasonably balanced meals and if he eats it great, if he doesn't no fuss. I do find that he gets bored if I offer the same things too much (even when I know he loves them) so when I notice this happening, I try to find new things to try, then go back to the old favourites after a while. Also sometimes he prefers to sit on dp's or my lap to eat, which we let him do; and quite often he will eat something, wander off then come back to the table and eat a load more when he is ready. I worry about many things, but mealtimes is one thing I am very relaxed about.

ds recently had a great time with his grandpa when we had a chinese style buffet. It was really only chicken wings/duck and pancakes etc. But now ds asks for 'chinese' for dinner every night and will eat almost anything we offer him as long as it is wrapped in a chinese pancake or torilla wrap! Sometimes novelty works with my ds.
or as others have suggested - no snacks and lots of outside excersise leading up to dinner. A small drink of milk to take the panic hunger off - in case he has a meltdown!

I shan't be tearing my hair out and stressing anymore after reading all these posts i've used MN for a good few years now and whilst i may not post anything a while its good to know that you can really good advice etc

I have a new technique, whereby one parents shuts the hell up. As I haven't shared this technique with DH, the parent in question is me ... we were always on at DD to 'try this, try that, have a bite ...' and it must have been infuriating. I kept thinking I wish HE would shut up because MY input is much more worthwhile, but no chance, so I've stopped interfering. Since then, DD has decided she likes tuna and Yorkshire pud (not together). Both are huge breakthroughs, so I'm happy!

Put any veg finely chopped in a pasta sauce.