A 2 Years Olds Diet
Sept1799
member
So...my dd has come a long way with her eating...
She will now eat the following
Pancakes (I think she thinks its "cake")
Still the baby oatmeal (with pears or bananas in there)
Bagels
chicken nuggets
french fries
pizza
yogurt
white american cheese
macaroni
When she doesn't eat much during the day, she will still eat the turkey and rice (from gerber) and sweet potatos
Of couse she likes her cake and ice cream (but if she gets that every other week its alot)
BUT she won't eat vegs......I wanted to maybe do fruit smoothies and hide a veg in there but I don't know any receipts...any ideas???
Other than up above...what does your toddler eat? Any new ideas I could try with her?
Oh yea...she recently will eat jelly sandwiches but I hate to give her the jelly with all the sugar in them...and I heard the ones with the splenda is not good for them at this age... What do you use if you give them to you lo?
Re: A 2 Years Olds Diet
Oh she loves bananas...(forgot) and I usually put the pears in her oatmeal...
She is a picky eater...I am just happy she is eating what she is eating....
But no she won't eat vegs at all.... I have tried giving it to her with butter on them or any type of sauce.....tried to put them in her macaroni...didn't wory
What's your routine with her? Do you always offer her the things you are eating, or do you only offer her things from the list you put above?
My 2yo eats nearly everything. I know to some extent we are lucky (and he did go through a short-lived picky stage) but he eats everything we do.
As far as smoothies go, you don't really need a recipe. Just blend some fruit with yogurt and throw in a couple handfuls of spinach leaves.
DS rarely eats jelly but sometimes will on a pb sandwich. We buy the no sugar added kind (which is different than sugar free - basically it means they don't add any sugar to the jelly, they don't strip the natural sugars and add aspartame or whatever).
ETA: Do you ever cook with her? I learned that DS liked a lot of vegetables that he may not have really eaten before because while he "helped" me in the kitchen, he ate everything off the cutting board. :P
She pretty much eats everything, but isn't a fan of most meats.
Sorry, no advice... Will she eat tomato sauce (for pasta)? You can sneak pureed vegs in that.
I always offer the food I eat, but half the time she won't put them in her mouth or she puts it in and spits it right back out...
I was a very picky eater when I was small and would eat even less than I mentioned that my dd would eat...........
I always try to get her involved but a lot of time she wants to be too involved and she gets upset so easy.
I wouldnt allow my kid to eat that kind of diet. I was also a picky eater like that but it was because my parents allowed me to be.
We offer fruits and vegetables first when LO is most hungry. Right after naptime is when we try to get vegetables in. If he doesnt want to eat the healthy stuff, great. He doesn't eat.
Don't get me wrong-maybe once a month he's allowed to eat the processed crap like chicken nuggets and such. That just isn't part of his daily diet.
When he does go through picky spells on occasion and I absolutely can't get him to eat, I puree vegetables and sneak them in foods he does like. Even in his pickiest spells, he doesn't eat that poorly. Most of the time he eats everything we do. Fruits and/or veggies are in every meal, as well as protein sources like meat/nuts.
ETA: healthy stuff she might eat-instead of giving her pizza, make homemade pizzas with whole wheat english muffins with homemade tomato sauce that you puree vegetables in. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
Instead of chicken nuggets, fry up small pieces of chicken in extra virgin olive oil.
Make homemade pancakes with pureed vegetables mixed in.
Make homemade sweet potato fries with some sort of dipping sauce. I notice my kids will eat vegetables they don't like plain if they have some sort of sauce to dip into. A yogurt based one might be helpful in your DDs case.
Substitute sliced provolone cheese for processed american cheese.
He's not a big veggie fan. I get them in where I can including:
-sweet potato is his favorite. He'll eat it in any form, normally just baked cut into chunks, plain
-peas and corn by themselves only sometimes
-broccoli cut very small in mac and cheese
-spinach, carrots, corn in Mexican food like burritos and quesadillas
-veggie soup
ETA: Oh, he also gets those pouches once a day or so. And I honestly wouldn't give a jelly sandwich as a meal.
I was going to suggest the same thing. I've put finely chopped spinach and pureed carrots in tomato sauce before cooking the pizza and he didn't seem to notice a difference. SkinnyTaste.com has some nice, family friendly/healthy recipes. The baked chicken nuggets are his absolute fave.
. I don't want to be mean but I have to agree. I wouldn't allow my two yearmold to eat most of the things on that list and certainly not regularly. Dftnely do not give her splenda jelly? Puree your own fruit, mash a banana, or use no sugar added.
. We have been lucky with our boys and maybe it has nothing to do with anything we have done but our boys eat really healthy. Some of the foods that ds will jump up and down and get excited to eat are- squash, yams, beets, quinoa, butter beans, homemade Mac and cheese (I use all organic dairy and tinkyada brown rice pasta), berries, bananas, peas he also loves any sort of greens- spinach , kale, or we steam the green leaves on the tops pf beets. He will hoot and hop in happiness for this stuff.
We never used jarred food but as soon as he was able we have included him in the process of choosing and preparing his foods. We are members of a csa which delivers a variety of Organic produce so it si always a Suprise what will arrive and ds likes ot look in the box. He also helps us plant and harvest little vege and fruit plants in the yard or on the deck. Try checking out Www.weelicious.com for easy recipes designed to involve your little ones. One of the major strategies for breaking pickiness is to involve them in making and choosing the food. Not all of her stuff is super healthy but it is a good start. Www.wholesomebabyfood.com has excellent information on nutrition and recipes.
I don't have a picky eater so I know that I DON'T know what it is like so please know I am not judging. But I do think you should do sow research into what she is eating because it isn't very balanced or even very healthy.
I used to work in a smoothis shop so here is a recipe 12 Oz unsweetned soy milk, two scoops frozen strawberries, half frozen and half fresh banana plus a squirt of honey. So yummy! I wouldn't feed her soy super often though (soy is estrogenic) so maybe try it with almond milk. You could also do apple juice with blueberries and strawberries with a scoop of yogurt. Carrots are sweet and don't taste like a vege.
I'd try sweet potato fries, for one thing. And the yogurts that have mixed fruit and veggies -- at least she'd be getting something.
Neither of my girls have been particularly picky, thank God. They especially love corn on the cob. It's a novel way for them eat. Maybe you could try things like that, or veggie kabobs, and let her eat off the kabob. Some kids respond to calling broccoli "trees" or using silly names like monster casserole or whatever, or making their meals cutesy, like using cookie cutters on veggies and sandwiches; although that can be quite a bit of extra effort.
My girls like celery because of the Wonder Pets, so they'll eat it raw and in things like chicken noodle soup, etc. Maybe she could watch some Veggie Tales or something?
Do you think it's a texture thing? Does she like anything that's crunchy?
To some extent, pickiness is a developmental thing, but that's a pretty restricted diet. I'd keep offering new & different things along with stuff you know she will eat.
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010
I joke around and call DS a garbage disposal b/c he'll eat just about anything. For the most part, he eats what we eat, b/c I never wanted to get into the habit of making separate meals for him.
Most of the time he has cereal with blueberries or strawberries and yogurt for breakfast, maybe egg yolks. Have you tried making a veggie omelet?
I would honestly just google toddler food recipes, there are tons of "kid friendly" recipes out there that incorporate fruits and veggies.
I actually just made broccoli nuggets tonight for snacks for the week. I got that recipe from wholesomebabyfood.com
And a veggie/turkey burger meatloaf for all of us for dinner, I would do more research if I were you.
There are bunch of those fruit packs that have a fruit and then a veggie in them. DD loves the Pear, Pea and Green bean one from Happy Baby (link below). Sometimes I spread on a whole grain waffle in the morning. Other times she just has the pack as a snack.
https://www.happybabyfood.com/ourproducts?page=shop.browse&category_id=10
She probably doesn't eat it because she knows she can hold out for chicken nuggets and fries. At 2, she is definitely old enough to understand "if you don't eat this, you don't eat." I'm not saying you need to constantly give her all new things, but I would definitely not cater to her at this age. Give her a plate that has what you're eating/new things, and then a small portion of something you know she likes.
I'd also work on health-ifying some of the things she eats, like pp suggested. Those Gerber meals have SO much sodium, as do nuggets and fries. Make your own chicken nuggets (and I'd try fish, too), baked sweet potato fries, pizza on whole wheat pitas or english muffins, puree veggies into pasta sauce. Don't do a just jelly sandwich - add some pb or other nut butter, or DS loves pb & banana sandwiches, too. You could also try the veggie/fruit pouches. They aren't cheap, but they are one way to get some veggies in her if nothing else works. Those things are like toddler crack.
DD loves these too. I only get the kind that also has a veggie. She eats enough fruit on her own.
I think that sometimes we get so caught up in what is supposed to be "kid friendly" that we get into a rut. LOs will eat what we give them to eat though. Chicken nuggets and pizza are fine for a treat but really shouldn't be an every day meal for anyone.
DD likes frozen veggies...right out of the bag. Peas and corn are a big hit. She also likes raw cucumbers and carrots. Sometimes tomatoes.
She loves mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, rice and quinoa.
Cheese sticks are a great snack and yogurt.
She loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches-only on whole wheat bread and light on the jelly. She's not a huge meat fan, so I try to get protein other ways. Mostly she just likes PB and yogurt and cheese. She does like fish.
For snacks we do goldfish, freeze dried fruit, dry cereal, crackers.
It's just a matter of offering a wide variety and letting your LO eat what you give her and only what you give her.
Keep giving LO something new (along with other foods you know she'll eat) at every meal, every day. Don't make a big deal out of it, just set it all down and let her do her thing. Kids take 5-10 tastes before deciding whether or not they like something.
If you give in and let her have cake, she'll quickly learn that she can skip the healthy meal, and still get dessert.
Of course they won't like everything out there, but sometimes if you cook it differently (bake/sautee/raw etc), it can yield different results. Some kids prefer strong flavours, others prefer a certain texture. Keep mixing it up.
Also, try to make your list of her go-to foods as healthy as possible. Make your own pizza. Bake your own chicken pieces. Chop a potato and bake fries. Set an example by eating a healthy, well-balanced meal yourself. LO will want to copy you.
We are not to 2 yet, but the stand out thing to me is to offer her a variety of foods and her diet needs to be more balanced. You will probably needs to start slow so she doesn't stop eating all together. Our LO usually eats whatever we are eating, however sometimes do to time constraints since we both work FT not many days we eat as a family. But our pediatrician said one of the key things is to have them watch you eating the same things, no distractions going on and don't become a short order cook.
Have you tried any cows milk alternatives like vitamin fortified coconut milk or hemp or almond milk? If she is not drinking milk you need to offer her a variety of whole milk cheese and yogurts daily.
I would stop offering her purees/baby food other then the fruit/veggie pouches to up her fruit & veggie intake. Instead of gerber turkey and rice, make real chicken or turkey and cut into small pieces for her to pick up with real rice.
I think the key is to try and offer many foods and find the ones she really likes, and praise her when she eats them. Here are a few things our LO loves to eat if you need ideas;
grilled cheese with avocado on wheat bread
steamed carrots, peas, green beans, broccoli, spinich
bananas, mandarin oranges, pears, peaches, natural applesauce, blueberries, strawberries
any fruit/veggie pouch for snacks
scrambled egg or omelet with cheese and veggies
mac n cheese with peas or broccoli
any type of fish baked
rice any kind
potatoes any way
cut up baked chicken
healthy fish sticks
whole grain cereal bars
yobaby 3 in 1 meal yogurts
toast with cream cheese
peanut butter and natural jelly on wheat bread
whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, peas & cheese
any type of ravioli, tortellini, lasagna with olive oil & pesto or cheese with with steamed spinich
happy baby tots yogurt smoothie pouches in a cup
home made smoothies or the "green" juice drink in the health food section that is a veggie and fruit juice mix
coconut or almond milk
veggie chicken nuggets & yogurt dip
veggie burger patty cut up
turkey sausage
turkey meatballs
fruit dices & cheese cubes for snacks
veggie & cheese sandwiches
for treats he gets things like Cinnamon graham crackers, smoothies, etc. He only ever had cake on his birthday and never ice cream. I would hold off offering those types of items at all until she is eating a fully balanced diet, sugars will fill you up and prevent you from eating real foods.
we are asians, so she eats rice three times a day. What's topped in her rice depends on what we have on the table like stews, or any soup dish with red meat, chicken breast or fish. She also eats fish nuggets, and spring rolls with rice still or sometimes she just munches on them.
i allow her a chocolate milk drink from time to time, and she snacks on biscuits as well. I give her french fries when we're out which is once a week. i know it is not that healthy, but she just loves it
Anyway she also eats cereal with milk and two servings of fruits a day -- she likes watermelon, mangoes, banana, pear, apple -- any fruit actually even pineapples. She also likes yogurts.
Im working on making her like pasta and bread/toast because she's not interested at all. The only noodles she will care to it is chow mein -- asian noodles.
Maybe you can try other food textures for your kid, or i agree with PPs for you to try sneaking in veggies in smoothies. One trick that we find useful as well is letting her eat like an adult. She becomes more interested in eating that way. By eating like an adult, we allow her to sit with us, eat her food alone although messy (i sneak in spoonfuls regularly of course and she doesnt mind eating a lot when shes allowed to experiment with fud), and to make her drink in a glass-looking plastic glass.
HTH
I'm probably coming off like a total douche, but I swear I don't mean to be.
I hate when people say "oh, you must not know what it's truly like to have a kid that is picky." I did. My son was. His was sensory related, so he had a true aversion to different textures. I think even kids that eat the healthiest diets from go through picky spells though. It's a completely normal phase of development.
If your child has true food aversions (not just asserting their independence over what they want to eat) it can be sensory related so I would definitely get that checked out by a professional. If you can find sensory tricks to use during the day, you'll likely see the food aversions decrease. Otherwise, I'd bite the bullet and demand healthy eating. That's one of the things I refuse to budge on with my kid. Maybe it makes me a monster because I let my then-18 month old "baby" throw a tantrum because I offered meat and vegetables when he just wanted to eat animal crackers for dinner so he went to bed hungry. Ah well. He wasn't too young to learn that he had to eat what was offered, and he didn't let himself starve to death. He eventually caught on that if he wanted to eat animal crackers, he had to eat meat and vegetables first.
Also, kids don't know that chicken nuggets exist if they're never offered. My parents let me live on a diet of those kinds of processed foods because that's all I liked as a kid. I developed many different stomach problems (I had ulcers as a teenager!) and a crap immune system from it. It might have been mean to let me go to bed hungry, but long term it would have been much better.
Now I am, but I wasn't at that age. Why?
So what would you judgy hors do if you had a underweight toddler who was also a picky eater? Withholding food isn't a viable option when your 23 month old is the size of an average 10 month old.
I will say that my kid is finally starting to become less picky the closer we get to age 2, but three months ago, if all she would eat was pizza, then by god, she got pizza.
Twatley, I fuckings love you.
Tino is SO picky. He will not touch meat. He will put it in his mouth, gag, and pull it out. In any shape, form, or cooked presentation. He also will not eat corn, anything spicy, or a general variety of vegetables. We are not a huge veggie family, so I know that's a learned behavior, but I'm working on it.
At this age, a serving of fruits/veggies is 1 tbsp per year of age. He meets that for fruits, and maybe gets 2 (being generous) servings of veggies a day. You know what the rest of his intake is? Whole grains, dairy, and on occasion, the processed crap. He'd eat nuggets every night, but we done offer them nightly. Maybe once a week. And mac and cheese gets peas or broccoli or carrots mixed in. You'd thnk by his size he was a garbage disposal. But it isn't the case.
The Mob Boss
Birth: 10lbs 11oz, 21.5 inches <> 1 mo: 14lbs 7oz, 23.5 inches2mo: 18lbs 15oz, 25.5 inches <> 4mo: 26lbs 8oz, 27.5 inches6mo: 29lbs 8oz, 30 inches <> 9mo: 32lbs, 32 inches12 mo: 37lbs, 34.5 inches <> 15 mo: 38lbs 6 oz, 36 inches. 20.5 inch noggin18 mo: 43lbs, 37.75 inches 21 inch head2yr: 47 lbs, 42 inches. 21.5 inch head. Woah.
That's fine. That's your choice. Funny enough, I had the same experience. My son was watched by my mom prior to 18 months until we put him in daycare where he got introduced to the evil world of chicken nuggets/mac and cheese. We too had the same battle of wills. He just didn't get dinner. I didn't let him go to bed completely starving (if he didn't eat at all, right before bed we'd give him some milk/something I'd know he would eat just to put something in his belly) but I wasn't going to cater and say "oh, you don't want to eat that honey? Here, let me make you whatever you want for dinner." It involved nights of him throwing tantrums on the kitchen floor (and DH and I wanting to pull our hair out!), but we got past it, and now he has a love for all things healthy. He still goes to daycare once a week and still gets stuff I wouldn't choose to feed my kids at home, but he knows that's a treat and not what we eat at home everyday.
I just chose a different path for my child (strongly based on my childhood and not wanting him to turn into what I was). We all make choices based on what we think is right. I just happen to believe that enforcing good eating habits starts young.
My DD is also on the lower end of the spectrum (8th percentile for weight) and we add pounds of butter to the vegetables she eats. LOL.
I mean, I do think there are expections to the rule. If you have a special needs child that has a true food aversion or a failure to thrive child that *needs* to gain weight, you gotta do what you gotta do.
I think there's a world of difference between catering to a kid that's a picky eater and a kid that has a true medical condition, though.
The Mob Boss
Birth: 10lbs 11oz, 21.5 inches <> 1 mo: 14lbs 7oz, 23.5 inches2mo: 18lbs 15oz, 25.5 inches <> 4mo: 26lbs 8oz, 27.5 inches6mo: 29lbs 8oz, 30 inches <> 9mo: 32lbs, 32 inches12 mo: 37lbs, 34.5 inches <> 15 mo: 38lbs 6 oz, 36 inches. 20.5 inch noggin18 mo: 43lbs, 37.75 inches 21 inch head2yr: 47 lbs, 42 inches. 21.5 inch head. Woah.
The girls are good eaters.
I would never judge a parent who doesn't give their kid a "balanced diet" at 18 months old. There is still plenty of time to teach the kid what a balanced diet is.
Unable to even.
********************
You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
I don't have a really picky eater but my son will refuse to eat or try something new just by looking at it. If he doesn't like what he sees, forget about it. I don't enjoy being a short order cook but when it comes to dinner I'm making sure my guy goes to bed with a nice full belly. You are doing your best and that's what matters. I would do exactly what you are doing.
I did want to share a recipe ... my son absolutely loves this! And I've discovered that I can mix creamed spinach (and sometimes plain steamed spinach) into all of his pasta dishes.
https://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/sleep-recipes/popeye-pasta
I'm curious--when you put something on your kid's plate and she slaps you, how do you react?
Well, butter is usually the answer to everything.
But when your underweight child spits out those buttery veggies? What then? Do you hold her nose until she opens her mouth and them cram them in with a shovel? Or take them away and put her to bed hungry against your pedi's advice? Or simply find her something else to eat? I mean, what's the reasonable course here?
Sorry.
*changes attitude to "oh, it's ok, feed your precious little baby whatever they want because they can't ever be hungry or you're a mean, evil monster*
Slap him back
The Mob Boss
Birth: 10lbs 11oz, 21.5 inches <> 1 mo: 14lbs 7oz, 23.5 inches2mo: 18lbs 15oz, 25.5 inches <> 4mo: 26lbs 8oz, 27.5 inches6mo: 29lbs 8oz, 30 inches <> 9mo: 32lbs, 32 inches12 mo: 37lbs, 34.5 inches <> 15 mo: 38lbs 6 oz, 36 inches. 20.5 inch noggin18 mo: 43lbs, 37.75 inches 21 inch head2yr: 47 lbs, 42 inches. 21.5 inch head. Woah.
Right. I would go through any healthy way to add calories like butter to vegetables/pureed avocado in tomato sauce/etc. If everything under the sun failed, I would turn to pizza. I wouldn't let my kid become ill from failure to thrive in the name of getting them to not be a picky eater.
I think I acknowledged that there's a difference between a true medical condition vs just a picky eater, though.
Wow. I had to stop reading half way through the comments. Yikes. Guaranteed your two year old is not the first or only two year old on the planet to turn down veggies.
Some kids are uber picky: mine were/are. At 2 years old my older DS had a similar palate. For sure he would not eat a vegetable. He's now 5 and generally will try anything and eat most everything we serve: so a typical dinner (last night for instance broiled chicken, corn on the cob, cauliflower and cheese sauce and brown rice) he tried everything, ate all his chicken and some of everything else.
The same dinner, little brother (now 3) ate.....NOTHING. Not a thing.
They both got peaches and greek yoghurt for dessert.
It is really, really hard to watch your kid refuse meal and meal, snack after snack. Eat when they are hungry? No. Some kids will refuse through the hunger phase. It doesn't take long, esp. with a tummy that little, to no longer feel hungry.
What I'm doing with my 3 year old is putting small, small portions in front of him. I am asking him to try the foods. If he refuses, I ask him to touch the foods. Seriously, even this is hard/scary for him right now. Frankly, this is a big step forward from six months ago when he would push the plate away from him so he could no longer see/smell it. That is how difficult some meals were for him/us.
I will take a food he likes (crackers) and put something on the crackers. If I find something he likes on the crackers, I will try putting that in a piece of celery (for example). If he eats the celery, I will put celery on his plate at dinner.
My advice is to stay the course. Keep offering up the healthiest choices for meals and snacks. Don't make it a battle, don't take away favourites permanently. Chicken nuggest a couple of times a month? Ok. Cake now and then? Ok. A jelly sandwich on a whole grain bread? Ok. Just not breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday, right?
Good luck.