My nearly two years olds are suddenly really fussy eaters- help!!

[victoriagirl]

They have been okay eaters up till now. But now it feels like they won't eat anything. They still have two bottles of formula a day (one in morning and one in evening) which they still take, but are refusing breakfast, and most other stuff unless its snacks or pureed baby food out of a jar- which they will only eat if they see the jar. I am not sure what to do as they seem to be getting fussier- today they have turned their noses up at toast, grapes, bananas, breadsticks and all the things they normally eat (as well as the normal food options). They are still eating snacks once in the morning and mid afternoon and I don't offer them other food if they don't eat their meals- but do try to ensure there is at least one thing they normally will eat with their meal and I still give them their fruit puree for pudding- but that is just pureed fruit with nothing added, so its not like they are holding out for some big pudding. I am not sure what I should do to get them eating again. Any tips welcomed- and trust me I have tried Annabel Karmel's tips and making fish cakes in the shape of fishes is just not fooling them!!

Cut out the bottles - it will make them feel hungrier. Give them milk with breakfast in the shape of porridge or cereal instead. You can always use formula milk instead of cow's milk if this is an issue. I remember dropping the last bottles for my twins felt like a big deal at the time, especially as it changed our morning and evening rituals. But it was fine and they adjusted.

Many small children prefer snacking to set meals that tend to be big. I definitely regret 'force feeding' mine by deciding how much they 'should' eat and dipping their puree in yoghurt etc to get them to eat it. As a result, dinnertime is still difficult with one of my boys. Next time I'm doing baby led weaning - just giving them a selection of stuff to choose from like you describe and not making a big deal out of it if they won't eat. Making faces out of the food on their plates and pretending to eat the 'eyes', 'nose' etc was a huge hit with my two aged 2-3 and they still enjoy me laying out their food like this aged almost 5 and playing this game as they eat.

If they are hungry they will eat, and if you can avoid getting wound up about it it will make things easier for everyone. It's tough though - 2 year olds can be veeeeeeery hard to please.

Thanks CocoK. Yes am trying very hard to be less stressed about it. Will stop the formula any day now- they are on hypo allergenic stuff so am a bit cautious about it, but I know I have to. As a compromise I have started giving their breakfast later so that they are hungrier- that seemed to work well this morning. Plus we have tried to get some other food in them at the other meals, but will try the face thing- I think they might go for that-we get away with saying brocolli is a tree for the first bite, then they cotton on and won't take any more!!

Can't you just put the formula on their cereal/in sipper cups instead of bottles to have with a meal?

We call broccoli monkey trees - when you eat it all the monkeys (ie. me) scream 'no please don't eat me' in squeaky voices... Bit of an effort, and we don't have broccoli very often... But at least it got them to try it. So yes, putting some extra effort into making meals fun definitely pays dividends in the long term.

do you eat with them?
dd is always eager to try stuff off my plate or have 'a big bowl like mummy's', even if it's stuff she migth not normally go for.

you say they eat snacks - what do they normally consist of? with a bit of wangling a 'snack' can become a proper meal without them noticing ('Oh dd, would you like a piece of cheese with that biscuit? and some cucumber? what about some hummus to dip it in?' etc etc)