Extreme fussy 2 year old and getting worse every week.
What do your kids eat?!?!
Update: Thank you for everyone’s ideas. We are definitely push over parents but now that I think about it we were both fussy eaters as children so I wonder if it’s a DNA thing.
First kid?
2 years old, they don't know anything and won't listen to reason. Let them eat whatever makes them happy. They're only kids once.
I guarantee you won't care what your next kid eats.
Let them eat whatever makes them happy is awful advice.
Every child is different, both my boys have a love-hate relationship with food (still do), whereas my nephew would happily eat even bittermelon from a young age. I do agree though, that it does take resilient parents to teach the kids, so don't give up just yet. A couple of tips from my personal experience.
Good luck and most importantly, don't give up!
Few tips I can offer up my sleeve..the trick is to disguise everything
As an example, certain vegetables can be cut up into colourful and fun shapes. Use cookie cutters. Heart shaped carrots? Square potatoes? Broccoli rectangles?
Baking can work. Include very small diced up vegetables in sausage rolls. We call them 'yummy sprinkles' but you can call it whatever you want that might interest your child, Put it in a pie
(If everything works this can be for later): Include them in the process of food making: if your child enjoys eating the hearts and squares show them how its done. Let them be the head chef and help you cut out the shapes. They are less likely to decline food they've cooked themselves !!
I can agree having fussy children can be difficult but these are the critical years where they develop habits. All the best
Hi OP. I really feel for you. our 4 year old boy has been a very fussy eater since birth. We tried every single thing to feed him and managed to struggle through infancy. We then came to solid foods and it was a nightmare from the ages of 1 to about 3 years. We had to hand feed him everything and even then it took my wife 2 hours to feed him a meal. He is now 4 and eats better but still a single meal can take 1-2 hours of constantly asking him to eat his food.
I read many places that said if your child is not hungry just let them go to bed without food. This is rubbish. Our child could go to bed without food without any issues. He would awake at 4am in the morning and vomit from 4 to about 8am until he was begged to eat food. Doctors thought it was viral but after it happened more than once I knew it wasn't and found it he basically did not have enough carbs in his body to support his growth and hence was vomiting in the early morning due to low blood glucose. We had a Paed who congratulated us for persisting in the area of feeding. Literally and holding every single feeding session. Without this god knows what weight he would have been. I can say he is now 4 years old and eats better, less issues but still requires every meal to be constant pushing to eat. All I can say is keep at it and maybe do what we did and add Almond Meal or Almond paste and other high calorie items to his foods. Another tip. Try Pediasure. This helped a lot. Each bottle has more than 200 calories and comes in Choc, Strawberry of Vanilla. Thank god for this product because this has put a lot of calories into our child during his key developing period from 1.5 to 4. Good luck and reach out via PM if you need any more info
Thank you. It takes us 2 hours to feed her a few spoons. I thought it was only us!
She doesn’t drink any milk so it’s going to be hard to get Pediasure.
damn, that's like my daughter. Give her eggs, croissants, nuggets, dinosaur chicken, dinosaur Pasta etc. You just gotta keep trying different things but as I said in my earlier post - she will start to get better with age so just hang in there :)
Edit: I forgot to add that we started giving her ProBiotics when she turned two and it helped her with appetite. It could just be a coincidence but few week after we gave her probiotic, she started eating bigger portions which helped her to gain some weight too.
Do you think its because the probiotics gave her more regular bowel movements making her more hungry?
our son also did not drink milk but for some reason did have pediasure and while not a lot it was enough to get by with the 2-3 hour feedings and often no foods he ate. nothing worked at all. and we tried the experiment of going to bed hungry and he will eat when he is ready and that was a failure. he just did not eat. I heard from his lips for the first time in 4 years the words "i am hungry" about 4 weeks ago one morning when I gave no breakfast and by 10am he was wanting to eat. Our second son who is now 2 is so different. the first was unbelievable. Our stress was through the roof. As I write he is eating his lunch which he started at 1pm a small plate of meatballs and pasta. it is now 349pm
I recommend Pediasure as well. It's damn expensive so sometimes we run out and won't buy another straight away, but what I did notice when my son first started having it was his appetite also increased significantly. Could be a coincidence, could be not, but he has maintained that appetite quite consistently since. I only got to know Pediasure because relos in China swear by it, told me it will help him grow taller so we gave it a go. 🤣
Potentially unpopular suggestion but several servings of discipline did wonders on myself as a child.
Agreed - my parents definitely did that to me when I was a kid…
We are definitely push over parents but now that I think about it we were both fussy eaters as children so I wonder if it’s a DNA thing.
Wanting sweet calorie dense foods is all human's DNA. But since your child is 2 years old and relies on you to set boundaries for their development and wellbeing, perhaps you might reconsider the above as an excuse to let your child make the decisions.
This is generally more complicated than it seems. OP, have you seen an Occupational Therapist or Dietician? They can do things like sensory profiles, to determine what is the cause of the fussiness. Sometimes its taste, other times it textures, smells, sometimes it's everything combined.
we saw them all for our child. best OP can do is do what she is doing. Try, try try her best to feed one spoon at a time until the child gets another year. Add high caloric food to her diet. We saw all the dieticians and Paeds in the world and it did nothing. In the end the therapist said continue to do what you are doing and hand feed. try to let them go to sleep hungry which he happily did and that failed
I don't know if anyone has linked it, but if you want some expert advice, then I highly recommend the Ellyn Satter approach to feeding. Basically you decide what, they decide how much. Link below:
https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/how-to-feed/the-divisio…
Indeed, the first mistake here is letting the child think they have a choice about what the meal will be.
Lol, you all spoil too much. Teach them the value of food and they'll appreciate everything they have on the plate. My 8 year old now eats anything even veggies without problems.
We are definitely push over parents but now that I think about it we were both fussy eaters as children so I wonder if it’s a DNA thing.
No, don't downplay this. A 'push over parent' is a failing parent.
My step mum was a pushover parent, that child is now going to school and it is a literal nightmare, 6ish years old and I can count the food she eats on one hand.
It has repercussions beyond eating requirements that is for sure.
Parents used to constantly cook the item you didn't want to eat.
There's plenty of food around - you choose if you want to eat it.
Don't like broccoli?
- Broccoli stirfry
- Broccoli quiche
- Broccoli soup
- Baked Broccoli
- Broccoli lollipops
Hi OP,
I'm wondering if you can describe the sort of routine you have during the day that may be impacting on your childs diet. For example, what do they eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner? Is the kid active enough during the day and time between meals sufficient to want to eat something other than icecream?
I know when I take my kids out for walks / exercise they come back hungrier and more likely to eat more, be less fussy.
Get in touch with your maternity health nurse who can refer you to feeding specialist. Does your child have any issues with speech?
I know its a tough time. Hang in there!
My kid is just unpredictable. One day he will munch down a capsicum like an apple, the next he will hate it. Then he will eat 20 olives— then not touch them for a few weeks. You would put a cookie in front of him and some times he will eat it. Red meat is so hit and miss it's not funny. Some nights he will eat two or three helpings of it other times will not touch it.
Cream based pasta with vegetables is generally well accepted, but you can't do that every night. Starving them until they eat what's on their plate works wonders, sure go off to play, but you get hungry you can eat the same food.
I find that eating some of their food motivates them. They get serious FOMO. I also get them to prepare the meal with me and they can eat whatever is on the chopping board (pending safety checks). I don't care if they fill up before dinner, as long as its good for them.
Can you provide some suggestions of items you cook with your kid? The most of i've made is pancakes and getting them to mix the ingredients and add them in the bowel. Anything more complicated and it will be all over the floor.
Seems like completely normal behaviour to me.
Do they have a healthy favourite meal? Just give them that every night, what's the harm?
I have a 2.5 year old and she went through that stage. It was really disheartening for me and my partner. All the effort trying to cook a meal/snack and the energy spent trying to make her eat. And it felt awful as parents. We tried a number of tips from this website:
https://ozdads.com.au/index.php/2019/12/04/next-stage-of-eat…
What worked for us is the routine for appetite and getting our little one to sit with us and eat together as a family. Good luck - hope it's also a stage.
My youngest has bad reflux and no front teeth at the moment so I use the slow cooker quite a bit to make his meat a little mushier. Even if I cook a quick pork chop for the rest ,I chuck my little one's pork chop ,in the slow cooker for 1/2hr after browning it in the pan. He also likes less salt on his food but enjoys herbs.
Yea, it is. I will elaborate.