Fussy eater

[NerdySciFiDad]

My Two year old has recently become a very fussy eater. He used to try new things, especially from my plate, but in the past couple of weeks he doesn’t want to know. He does eat bananas, drinks full fat milk, Elle kitchen smoothies and watermelon , but when it comes to real food, he is sticking to sausage and beans, birdseye chicken burgers, peas and noodles and refuses to try new things. His energy levels are sky high, and he has lost a little of his puppy fat. He is well and happy in himself. Am I worrying about nothing? Is this a phase? As you can tell, I’m a first time dad.

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Look into division of responsibility. It sounds like you are eating together, so keep cooking the variety of what you would normally eat, including a couple of foods he likes, and he can take or leave what’s there with no pressure. Serve small amounts of food you’re not sure about.
My 2.5yo is a pretty good eater overall, but has gone through phases of taking against all kinds of foods. I keep serving small amount of them (as in one cherry tomato, two blueberries) sometimes for a couple of months and one day she will randomly start eating them again. It’s a bit tedious, but I’ve got enough evidence of the cycle now that I don’t stress about it.

Sounds very normal. I'd be careful if he's drinking milk as that can reduce appetite for food, we've cut down cows milk as a drink to only 1/2 small cups a day for my 1.5 year old. Don't put any pressure to try new things - offer them repeatedly and eat them yourself in front of him.

Sounds fairly normal to me.
My now teenager was like that and he has a broad palate now.
I thought that from an evolutionary perspective they start getting fussy at about that age because that’s when they’d start foraging for themselves and so it’s safest to stick to a small number of “safe” foods.
My tips are to just never give up. Keep offering and eating a large variety of foods in front of them. We did a bit of “hidden” food ie blended into soups and stews but also plenty of food in recognisable form. Things gradually improved over the years and I tried not to get too stressed about it and certainly not at mealtimes when it would have been counterproductive.