Toddler Won't Eat!

L.,

My son is 21 months and picky too. I've found a few things he really likes and I make sure we have them each every week (boring for me - good for him). Spaghetti and tacos are big hits and also easy to hide vegi's in. I've been working to add vegi's to both recently. Last night I put beets (ground up) in his spaghetti sauce and he ate it! He is small (7th percent for his weight at 18 months) so I worry too. I've also started trying to switch his snack from crackers (which he always eats) to raisins or something healthier (he does like raisins so they are easy). It helped me to make a food diary for him to help pay attention to the things he actually ate quantity of, so I could be sure to include them in our regular menus.

Good luck to you!
Jessica

dont force food on her. giver her smaller, healthy snacks throughout the day. if you serve her a meal that she doesnt eat, wrap it up and put it in the fridge for later. I hate throwing away food too, so i start them out with a small amount and give them more if they need it and I also wrap stuff up to re heat for a different meal. she will eat when she is hungry, dont make it a battle or beat yourself up over it.

I agree wiht Debbie P. just offer her smaller portions and tell her she can have more if she wants. Also have healthy snacks through the day for her when she gets the munchies.

Hi, my 2 year old is the same way. He doesn't want fruit, except bananas, no veggies, and will drink milk and juice (thank goodness), but he is very picky. The advice I have been given from people is to give them healthy snacks, and if they want to "snack" all day, well at least they are getting some nutrition in them. So I have now made my son eat a good breakfast, and then he will have a banana for snack and then he he will not want much for lunch and he usually eats a better amount for supper. He has gotten a lot better at eating. But it has taken quite a bit of time to get him back to eating at normal times. Good luck I hope that she gets back on a good schedule!

I think it is something the toddler goes through... my daughter going through it too. I was stressing out until I talked to my mom and found out a snacked throughout the day and she just left out health snacks for my to eat when I was hungry.

In the morning I leave out healthy whole grain cereal (fruity cheeries, plain cheeries, life and so on). Around lunch time I put out fruit, veggies, cheese, meat of some sort and whole wheat toast cut up. In an hour or so I put away the stuff that needs to be kept cold. I also give her pedasure (sp?) because it has the protein that my daughter hates to eat in any form. After her nap I just have some fruit, seseam seed sticks, rasins, veggie puffs out for her. At supper she will eat 2 or 3 chicken nuggets or half of a grilled cheese, along with some fruit.

I have tried to not have the drinks out until after a "meal" otherwise she fills up on that.

... I think it takes a few years to out grow, my mom said I out grew it around 5 or 6 y/o.