Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
How do I get my child to eat?!
It makes me insane that I have a picky eater. He's ok weight/weight-wise according to the ped but I hate that I can't get him to eat anything. We fight this everyday when we get home and he gets in his highchair. He just shakes his head "no" at everything I put in front of him.
I'm not going to be that mom that makes special meals just for him but when he refuses dinner almost every night what am I to do? I end up getting so frustrated that it ruins my entire evening and DS is frustrated too. Help!
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Re: How do I get my child to eat?!
If he's ok weight wise, have you just thought of ignoring him? If he says no, leave him in his high chair and let him fuss. If he starts throwing his food, remove him from the situation. Let him fuss it out for a while, and try again.
If he knows you will give him something different if he fusses enough, he will continue to do so.
DS will refuse to eat from time to time, or will only eat a few bites. At first it drove me NUTS. Then I just had to accept what my pediatrician told us - a toddler will not starve himself, and that they need surprisingly little food. He said that there may be days where we can only get one meal into him, and to not worry. If he needs the food, he'll eat it.
So now I put food in front of DS, and he eats what he eats. If he picks at the food, that is fine, and I just put the leftovers away (or feed it to the dogs if he just played with it and made a mess).
At first, I also worried that if DS didn't eat much dinner, that he'd wake up in the middle of the night hungry. This hasn't happened yet.
Holy crap! I thought I was the only one who had a kid who does this! My mother can get Tegan to eat things that I've never been able to get her to eat and it drives me crazy! We were just with my mom for a week and during that time, Tegan ate 5-6 different foods that she's never eaten for me.
The crazy thing is, my mother is more accomodating with DD than I am. If she offers her something and Tegan refuses, my mother will make multiple other things until she finds something that Tegan likes. Typically, if Tegan doesn't eat enough of what I've originally made, then I just try to make up the calories in her snacks (think yogurt, cheese, etc.).
We are having this same issue, but my little one is only in the 5th percentile for weight. A little scary to me. One thing that we're going to try, and I've run this by the doctor, is giving him less milk. He LOVES milk, but he drinks so much that he's not hungry...so he's naturally uninterested in food. The doctor said if he's actually hungry by the time we put him in the high chair for meals, he's more likely to try new things and eat more...
Good luck. It's SO frustrating!
I am dealing with the same thing. It is so frustrating! My son will only eat baby puffs, crunchies, chips, cheerios, and milk. Sometimes he will try something new but when i try to give it to him again...forget about it! He will not even open his mouth and both of us end up getting frustrated. I was thinking about getting pediasure for some peace of mind. I will still continue to give him meals even if he does not eat them...but pediasure has tons of vitamins and minerals that LO's need to grow big and strong! Some days all he drinks is whole milk and I really worry about him not growing properly.