Advice on my 2yo eating please?

[MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy]

My 2yo DS is a fussy eater. I know this is very common. When I weaned him he would happily eat brocolli, carrots etc but now he point blank refuses. And he doesn't like fruit.

So his daily diet consists of, weetabix/coco pops for breakfast (as that's all I can get get him to eat) but I do sly in fruit purée.
Lunch is a plate of snacks - he will eat dried fruit/fruit peelers, pom beers, yoghurt, toast.
Dinner is fish fingers, waffles or chips, or fish cakes or spag bol. These are the limited things he seems to like.

My other concern though is that he is sucking on his food, not chewing! He seems to have regressed in this sense? He refused cereal this morning so he's currently eating toast and he's sucking it instead of chewing (like a weaning baby would) no matter how much I say 'chew it' or try to show him.
Has anyone come across this before and can advise at all please?

Is he teething?

2YO fusyness is normal. Just don’t stop offering things alongside the preferred food and he should come out of the other side soon enough. My DD was just like your DS at 2 but starting trying more around 3 and was really adventurous by 4. Is he getting his 2Y molars? That could explain the sucking.

I don't think he is, although I've not thought to check really.
He's been doing this for a while though now. I do have his 2yr HV check this week I am definitely going to bring this up. It's weird

My DD occasionally sucks at food or will refuse but I've found that's when she's teething.
She's almost 2 and has fussy days with food.
I just give her whatever we have and then add something on her plate that I know she eats. I also don't interfere with her eating as she tends to then eat more than if I say "are you going to try 'x'"
It's hard when they refuse food though so I know it's sometimes easier to just give them what you know they'll have but it's good for them to still have variety placed in front of them as it gives them the choice of what to eat.
I find never offering something instead of their dinner aswell. So let them eat what they want and then later if they're hungry maybe give them something else, otherwise they'll always be asking for an alternative to their dinner

My 22mo son has sat in his chair for half an hour point blank refusing to eat his dinner (chicken brocolli and mash) which he has had many times before. I eventually put a tiny bit of ketchup on each bit and he demolished the entire plate!!

Ideal? No. But he's eating veg, so I'm calling it a win!

Meant to say he also sucks his food quite a lot. He knows how to chew, so I've never really worried too much about it.

🤣 definitely a win, there are worse things than a blob of ketchup!

Also mine will only eat veg if it has salted butter on it. Just a tiny bit as again not ideal. But if it works it works!

Thanks for the tips I did try him with ketchup before and he didn't like it but I'll try again with different sauces. I'm going to just start putting the veg back on his plate again, with these tweaks 😊

No advise really but my daughter has been awful with food the last few months. Lunch time is the worst as she no longer will eat bread, crumpets, wraps etc. I had a chat with my husband last night and we are going to keep offering her what we are making along with a few safe foods and leave it at that. My son went through a fussy stage and he now eats great. It's so hard not to get frustrated though.

Have you checked instagram accounts called "solid starts" or "feeding littles"?

They've got strategies for all types of fussy eaters, including the issues you're experiencing with your DC. I've started implementing some of them and they do work!

@BananaPalm I'm not on Facebook or Instagram but I'll ask DH to follow this thank you ☺️

Just keep offering real food. They will go back to eating it eventually