Doesn't Want to Eat ANYYYYTHING

One way I've gotten my girls to try new food is NOT to offer them any. I just sit at the table and eat it and all of a sudden them come around begging like puppies and the next thing you know, they tried it and OMG they like it! :)

Stop buying cheetos and they will no longer be an option. Put a small amount of several kinds of healthy foods on a plate for him-- ones that can sit out for a while-- and leave the plate somewhere he can reach it. At that age, kids tend to be grazers. My preschooler has a small table that's just his size that sits next to the kitchen. I put his food on it and he picks at it. Leaves, comes back, plays with toys at the table and takes a bite, etc

all kids go through this phase . you have 2 options. One is to continue to offer him the foods he has always liked and if he refuses o well, he isnt going to starve himself. OR you can offer him apples and cheetos and maybe he will one day choose the peas over the cheetos. My daughter did the same thing. I offered her the foods she once would eat, after about a week of realizing she wasnt going to get to eat rice cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner she gave up. Now she throws fits in the grocery store for brussel sprouts and other moms i know still have this fight with their kid every so often. Just remember they will not starve themselves. Offer him a choice between two foods you know he likes, if you are able to. But other than that you are not a short order cook and he will eat when he is hungry

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all kids go through this phase . you have 2 options. One is to continue to offer him the foods he has always liked and if he refuses o well, he isnt going to starve himself. OR you can offer him apples and cheetos and maybe he will one day choose the peas over the cheetos. My daughter did the same thing. I offered her the foods she once would eat, after about a week of realizing she wasnt going to get to eat rice cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner she gave up. Now she throws fits in the grocery store for brussel sprouts and other moms i know still have this fight with their kid every so often. Just remember they will not starve themselves. Offer him a choice between two foods you know he likes, if you are able to. But other than that you are not a short order cook and he will eat when he is hungry

There is a great book by William G Wilkoff, MD called Coping with a Picky Eater that every parent or provider of kids should read and have a copy of. http://www.amazon.com/Coping-Picky-Eater-Perplexed-Parent...

This book has what I call the Picky Eater Plan. I have used this plan with kids that literally threw up at the sight of food and within 2 weeks they were eating normal amounts of everything and trying every food.

First you need to get everyone who deals with the child on board. If you are a provider it's ok to make this the rule at your house and not have the parents follow through but you wont' see as good results as what I described up above.

The plan is to limit the quantities of food you give the kid. When I first start with a child I give them literally ONE bite worth of each food I am serving. The book suggests that every time you feed the kids (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) you give all 4 food groups. So, for lunch today I would have given the child one tiny piece of strawberry, one spoonful of applesauce, 3 macaroni noodles with cheese on them, and 2 oz of milk. Only after they ate ALL of what was on their plate would you give them anything else. They can have the same amounts for seconds. If they only want more mac and cheese, they only get 3 noodles then they would have to have more of all the other foods in order to get more than that. If they don't eat, fine. If they don't finish, fine. Don't make a big deal out of it, just make them stay at the table until everyone else is done eating. They don't get more food until they are sat at the next meal and they only get what you serve. When I first do this with a child I don't serve sweets at all. So no animal crackers for snack but rather a carrot for snack. Or one of each of those. I don't make it easy for them to gorge on bad foods in other words. Now if they had a meal where they ate great then I might make the snack be a yummy one cause I know they filled up on good foods.

Even at snacks you have to limit quantities of the good stuff or else they will hold out for snack and just eat those snacky foods. I never give a picky eater the reward of a yummy snack unless they had that great lunch prior to it.

It really is that easy.

Hello Parker's Moma,

Often toddlers will stop eating in between growing cycles. Offer foods at meal times. Encourage him to eat, but don't force the issue. Make sure you're not offering milk between meals or foods without nutritional value during this period, like french fries with dinner. If he eats his "healthy" foods, then offer the french fries.

You may want to weigh him every few days. As long as he is not losing weight, then all is ok. If he starts to lose weight AND still won't eat, try pedisure, (meal replacement drinks for kids), and then call the doctor.

I hope this helps.

R. Magby

Don't force, put only a small amount of the foods your family eats in front of him at any time, and just enjoy what you eat without making a big deal out of it (kids have a good ear for "hokey").

Offer as great a variety of healthy foods as possible, and keep unhealthy snacks out of your house. A daily multivitamin will help calm your nutritional concerns.

Toddlers very commonly go through a period of being extremely choosy about foods, often combined with a genuine dislike of certain textures or flavors. (This is probably nature's way to help keep little ones from eating dangerous foods or substances.) He will outgrow it if you don't make it a battle. It may take a year or two, but some of his patterns may gradually change during that period. Be patient!

Hi Parker's Moma-

I had just recently posted a question of a similar nature and got a number of answers and helpful suggestions. My son who is 17 months old is also a very picky eater and sometimes he wont even touch his favorites (Mac n Cheese, Chicken Nuggets, Yoghurt, Bread). However, I did do this- I made sure that I didnt give him any snacks atleast a couple hours before dinner time and then had him sit on his booster seat with food in front of him. I let him play with the food (he did put a little in his mouth), the key is to have him taste it and then it makes it a little easier to introduce a couple more mouth fulls. I also have a bowl of the same food which I spoon in his mouth (along side with him trying to eat himself)-

I made his usual mac and cheese (20% mac and 80% Cawliflower and spinach) and also added in some couscous with carrors (new food). So the combination of one tried and tested with a new food seemed to have worked. the slow transition.... also to add- my son is 17 months old with 6 teeth! So anything and everything i attribute to teething which is not always the case.

Hope things get better! Keep us posted!

He's probably too busy to eat. None of them starve, so while it is virtually impossible to not worry about it, try to just keep lots of healthy food around that he can grab, try to ignore how much or little he eats, and don't worry about how much food you waste by having to throw it away. Ask your Ped. about a possible multivitamin to bridge the gap for a while. get him checked to make sure his growth is in the normal range, and if all is well, just keep offering food, but don't get in a struggle with him. that makes the perceived eating problem into an actual eating power struggle that is harder to break. He will eat when he is hungry. My former boss has a daughter who would not eat anything but PBJ for dinner for more than a year, and little or nothing for Breakfast and Lunch. She grew up and went to college and is a perfectly well-adjusted young adult who eats normal food. This too shall pass:)

Hello, I know u have several answers already but I wanted to tell u about my first son! When he was this age he was the same way. All he wanted was hot dogs, mac and cheese and green beans right out of the can but he wouldnt sit and eat! I had to sit the plate at the table and when he was hunger he would go back and forth and eat. No it wasnt the best table manners but it taught him to eat other foods. At lunch I would give him his favorite foods and then at dinner he would have to eat what we where having even if the plate had to sit there and when he was hunger he would go back to it and he would eat it when he realize I wasn't going to make anything else for him!

Maybe crumple up the Cheetos onto some food!
Or dice up apples into something else?
Or try smoothies....
or soup, and crumple up the Cheetos ONTO the soup, instead of crackers.
Or use it in a dip.... ?

Does he take vitamins?