My 2yo won't eat meat or anything great for that matter!!

[Tagz269]

I am looking for advice as i am at my wits end now with my 2yo. As a baby she used to be a great eater until she hit 18months'ish and since then she is THE worst eater ever. She does not eat ANY meat, she barely eats anything at dinner time or lunch in fact. She never seems like she is hungry and i have cut her snacks down a lot. Going out for lunch/meal is a nightmare as she doesn't eat anything off the menu apart from the chips.
A typical day's menu would be:

• breakfast: cereal
• lunch: breadsticks dipped in dairylea, cucumber, olives/ some sort of sandwich (barely touched)
• dinner: some sort of pasta/fish fingers or chick nuggets and smiley faces or something similar

She eats her breakfast, picks at her lunch and only eats the potato part of her dinner. I have tried to great lengths to get her to eat meat however she does not want to know. It has got to the point where i have given up and give her something she will eat - at least she eats right?!? I haven't had her 2 yr check up yet and i am dreading that :( She still has cows milk and consumes around 640mls a day in 3 separate occasions. I know i will have to phase out the milk however i would like to know how i could get her eating meat. Does anyone else go through this or has gone through this? Advice would be appreciated. Thanks :)

I should also say that she demands yoghurts like crazy! Which I giver her at dinner time

That's normal. My 3yo was the best toddler eater. Then she barely eats anything. She is nearly 4yo and still doesn't eat meat unless it's fish fingers or chicken nuggets. She lives on carbs (rice, bread, potatoes, weetabix), dairy (milk, cheese and ypghurt) and fruit.

She's still gaining weight. I think if you look at it, your DD is getting protein from milk and yoghurt.

That's a lot of milk, twice what she would need for the daily calcium requirements (which is why milk is recommended as a drink after 12 months). I would imagine that she's filling up on milk and suppressing her appetite somewhat.

Could you replace one of the milk drinks with water, and see what effect that has?

I would then work on giving her meals where you know she is likely to eat most things, with one part she would usually refuse. Then don't offer any alternatives, but don't ask her or press her to eat everything. Take her plate away when the meal is over (decide on a reasonable amount of time, and give her a few reminders), and then give a pudding if that's what you had planned.

Make no comment about what she's eaten or not eaten. If she says something is yucky or whatever, just repeat a standard phrase like "that's ok, you don't have to eat it", and then ignore her.

You can't make her eat anything. You may have offer foods many times before they are eaten, so keep offering even if it's ignored or rejected several times. Try lots of different types of food (colours/textures/shapes) as well.

We're vegetarian so my DS doesn't eat meat at all. You could try some veggie sources of protein like lentils, beans or even tofu and so on as she might like these.