My two year old boy won't eat! He is currently living on - toast, sandwiches, rice crackers. I'm going insane! I'm happy to offer toast for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch but there is no variety and he is now refusing dinner altogether aswell and waking in the night hungry. Before he started sharing the family meal all he ate was mashed vegetables and meat, fruit to snack. Since he has stopped eating dinner (about a month ago) I realized it was a real problem and have not given in and stopped snacking between meals to encourage some eating at set meals but there just seems to be no end? He is a small boy , sitting 3rd percentile for weight and I'm worried it will affect his growth. I spoke to our health nurse but offered no real advice to stop the habit other then don't give in and get some vitamins for him. What can I do???
3 Replies
Ive worked in a clinic that worked with tricky eaters.
Firstly the breakfast lunch and snacks sound pretty par for the course when it comes to 2 year olds. The same as the mash and meat. So personally I wouldn't worry if my two year old only ate those foods and I would definitely let a 2 year old snack. There stomachs are only the size of there fist so that's all that fits in there stomachs so they still need to eat through out the day.
When introducing new foods in the clinic setting we intro one new food at a time and not at a main meal time. That way the main meal doesn't turn into the battle of the wills. We also celebrate any attempts at trying the food. So touching the food, playing with the food licking the food is all praised and treated as fun. It may take months if that child being exposed to the food before trying it. We only put a teaspoon of the food on the plate and let them sit in front of it for a few minutes. If the child isn't resistant to it we ask them to copy us by touching it, picking it up, playing with it, licking it.
We had a picky eater for a few months. It really helped when we let her help us cook things - easy stuff like mini pizzas, pumpkin scones etc. she would munch on things as we were cooking without it being a big deal and would eat what we had made coz SHE had made it.
Look into "selective eating disorder"
My boy started doing this at 2 also. I am about to take him to a specialist food clinic to see if we can get some help! He is now 4 and hasn't changed much in 2 years following all the suggestions for "normal" fussy eaters.