No bottles

[TheHeirOfSlytherin]

My 2 year old is an appalling eater, has been for around a year now after a good start with weaning.

He has in the last couple of weeks reduced his food intake even more and stopped eating foods he had previously liked such as bananas, weetabix, grapes and spaghetti (pasta not tinned). These sorts of foods pretty much made up the majority of his diet as he likes so little so I'm quite worried.

I know everyone says he won't starve himself but this can't carry on and I'm at my wits end. He can't survive on yoghurt and scrambled eggs, with the occasional ham sandwich thrown in!

So I'm considering dropping his before bed bottle of (cows) milk. Do you think this might help? It's the only bottle he has and he drinks about 8oz from it.

I'm worried about depriving him of yet more nutrients though as he just won't try anything. Can anyone help?

We've had terrible trouble with both of ours eating at around 2. It seems to be a time when they are naturally quite fussy.

Some of the things we did are:

Give them something you know they will eat, like a very small ham sandwich and give them something new on the plate too.

Don't make them eat anything but they can't remove things from their plate.

Don't comment on whether or not they are eating.

Eat with them.

When you've finished, if they are not eating clear away all the dishes.

Don't offer any alternatives. If they don't want what's on their plate assume they are not hungry.

I know it seems harsh but can guarantee that he won't starve himself. Some firends have been tougher and have just given them whatever the family are eating. They've all said that after 3 days the child just sits and eats the meal.

You might find this book helpful too.

If he is under 2 I would keep the milk but offer it throughout the day in cups as bottles aren't recommended after 12 months.

If he is 2 already I'd ditch it for now. We found that DD ate her evening meal much better once she realised there wasn't going to be anything else to fill up her tummy before bedtime.

Thank you I've just bought that book. Ds is 2 (had his birthday earlier this month) so I will make plans to ditch the bottle completely,

Unfortunately I already do everything you suggested (ds is a stubborn little thing) and dh and I have even changed our working hours so we don't need childcare and one of us is always with him so we can monitor what he eats after my mum decided it was her job as a grandmother to feed him a bag of crisps and a chocolate bar every day he was with her .

I now eat my dinner at 4.30pm rather than 8pm so that ds can eat with me and I think I may never want to eat pasta or bolognese ever again I've had it so often recently

DPs used to have our DD one day a week before she started school. I would pick her up and they would say *She eaten all day today " as she sat there with the remains of chocolate bars, bags of crisps and trifle all around her!

She used to eat well at pre-school too. They once said "She must be feeling a bit off today, she's only eaten one dinner".