Toddler refusing food - help!

[Snickers94]

Hello all, I have a little girl who will be 2 in June. Ever since she was a baby she has eaten by herself and eaten a wide variety of foods.

For the last few weeks however it's been a battle to get her to eat anything with us except unhealthy snacks. She eats fine at her childminders. Today she's had 2 bowls of cereal and completely refused lunch and dinner. It's been the same for weeks. She's already become noticeably thinner.

Sometimes if we put Peppa Pig on she eats if we feed her. But the last two days she has refused even while it was on. She hasn't got a temp and if we offer her biscuits she eats them. She eats apples but that's not enough to live on. I don't want to offer her biscuits or snacks as it's reinforcing the cycle. I'm worried she will lose weight. Her clothes are already looser on her.

Please help, I don't know how to get her to eat.

That sounds very stressful. Have you spoken to GP or HV?

What happens if you put small amounts of things in individual pots? Cut up fruit, veg, cheese, breadsticks, rice cakes.
She eats cereal, so would she have anything alongside it, such as fruit which is small enough to add on top if she wanted to do so? Is the cereal fortified?

Toddlers I find have periods when they eat and when they do not. Keep a food diary - what is offered, what is eaten, quantities.

I haven't spoken to a HV because we don't actually have one - we had a lovely lady at our old house but moved across the city and the new ones sent out an 18 month development questionnaire then never got in touch after that, lol. Been reluctant to go to GPs cos she seems to clean her plate at childminders so fear we would be fobbed off.

She does eat little bits of cheese if we offer it but it's meals that she refuses to eat. I just really want her to eat meals again 😔

My DD has been through / is going through similar at the same kind of age. I try to take the pressure off as much as I can. Some things that have helped:

• Giving 5 minutes notice before a meal
• Reassuring her that she doesn't have to eat anything (but coming to sit at the table is a non-negotiable boundary)
• Serving meals tapas style with different foods in different bowls, including one or two that I know she can / will eat. She can decide how much of each food she has. If that means she just has bread, fine. I make sure she sees me eating all the other foods but don't make a big deal of trying to tempt her or make her eat them too. If she does eat something new, I don't make a big fuss about it. I try to comment on her eating as little as possible, negatively or positively.
• Trying to relax about it and know that sometimes toddlers just don't need that much food. I make sure she has plenty of milk and give her a multivitamin so I know she's getting some calories and nutrition.
• Making her snacks as boring as possible, e.g. plain rice cakes, and limiting the amount so she builds up an appetite.

Her eating still isn't great but I think it's all pretty normal for toddlers!

@MissHoney85 that's great advice, I will try your tips - thank you so much! She also has a bottle aversion when she was around 3-5 months old and I think she is veeeery sensitive to any kind of pressure to eat.

My DC is just a few months older-I daresay this is completely normal!

Babies eat well. 2yo are picky eaters and go through phases.

Keep offering, try not to stress.
My LO loves fruit and is on/off with veg. That is our balance to the inevitable (and more frequent than I'd like) snack foods.

My 21mo bottomless pit has refused dinner for three nights in a row. Finally got him to finish his dinner last night... turns out the answer was tomato ketchup.

No, not an ideal. But he ate lots of chicken and two veg, so I'll take it as a win!

When my toddler goes through phases of not wanting to eat much, I find that leaving a plate of 'bits and pieces' (crackers, chopped fruit, veg sticks, omelet strips , cheese cubes, plain pasta, basically anything small and easy to pick up) on a low table near where they are, and leave out all day, refreshing as necessary, usually results in them duping in and out and eating a decent amount over the course of the day.

It takes the "pressure" off sitting at the table for a proper meal and I find it works on my 5 & 7 yr olds too if they are refusing to eat for whatever reason.

I think this is normal for toddlers unfortunately. My son is nearly 2.5 and goes through phases of eating loads and then not eating much. We're currently in a 'not much' phase and it is frustrating but I keep reminding myself that he is always eating breakfast and then lunch at his childminders so it's not so terrible if he only has a few bites of dinner.

Generally we just serve him whatever we're eating and let him pick at it but always make sure to sub any veggies with the two he will always eat (peas and corn).

Very good advice from MissHoney.

If she had a bottle aversion has she got CMPA?

Totally agree with PPs that toddlers have phases of this. There were times I was genuinely amazed my DD (now 3) was still alive as it didn't feel like she ate anything at all some days! She still has fussy phases and I reassure myself that she eats everything at nursery so isn't actually fussy. She also has days where she'll randomly eat loads - she's going through a fruit phase at the moment where she can eat 3 bananas in one sitting! So I just try to relax and roll with it. We also did what others have suggested and make a 'picky plate' which she can pick at over the day and takes the pressure off meals a bit. I think offering a bit of autonomy helps. I wouldn't like having a random meal put in front of me 3 times a day that I haven't chosen so I normally offer 2 choices for her to pick from: sausage and mash or cottage pie for example, so she feels as though she's choosing what she has. Doesn't always work but sometimes does!