How do you deal with fussy eating?

lmahoney79

I have a 2 year old boy who has suddenly become very fussy at dinner time. He's generally ok at breakfast and lunch but at dinner he just ignores it unless its a bowl of pasta.
Do others give in and give them what they want or do you just leave dinner in front of them and if they don't eat it, they don't get anything else?
I feel if I didn't give him something else, he'd go to bed hungry!

Chattastrophe!

My view would be that if he was that hungry, he'd eat it! No danger of him starving himself anyways.

My own inclination would be to give him the same food as anyone else. If he wants to eat it, grand. If he doesn't, that's fine too, I wouldn't force it, but I wouldn't give him anything else either.

You could always increase the amount you're giving him at breakfast and lunch (and give him more of a "dinner" at lunchtime), if you think he's not eating enough. It could be that he's winding down and is just not hungry that time of the evening.

lmahoney79

He does like to eat a good amount at dinner time if its pasta! But yeah I think you're right, ill have to stop giving him something else instead.

pwurple

I think a lot of 2 year olds do this... My own did it with meat for a few months. We just kept having our usual dinners, and we never even mentioned it. if she ate it she ate it, if she didn't no big deal. Then one day, she started eating it again, started chewing a lamb chop off the bone! She is 2 1/2 now, eats anything we have really.

My nieces and nephews did it too around that age. Only one of them is still a fussy eater, his mum still cooks him different dinners to the rest of the family (he is six now).

lmahoney79

pwurple wrote: »

I think a lot of 2 year olds do this... My own did it with meat for a few months. We just kept having our usual dinners, and we never even mentioned it. if she ate it she ate it, if she didn't no big deal. Then one day, she started eating it again, started chewing a lamb chop off the bone! She is 2 1/2 now, eats anything we have really.

My nieces and nephews did it too around that age. Only one of them is still a fussy eater, his mum still cooks him different dinners to the rest of the family (he is six now).

And when she didn't eat it, would you give her something else instead?

Pugins

Seems very common and majority grow out if it. It can be due to them wanting to exert some control over their lives and this being something they can control. I always make sure there is one thing on the table they will eat. So even if they eat only that they won't be hungry. So for example beans, or cheese or bread rolls.

liliq

I would tend to do what Pugins does. I'd offer a range of things at each meal and include at least one thing he will always eat. It's up to him how much of what he eats.
This things of praise for clearing a plate etc isn't always healthy Eating to appetite will generally result in a far better relationship with food.

pwurple

lmahoney79 wrote: »

And when she didn't eat it, would you give her something else instead?

No. but I didn't just put meat on the plate. There was a few different vegetables as well. She ate those.

moochers

My two were the exact same at that age, I read a book at the time that David Coleman wrote (psychologist off the telly). In it he explained that a lot of young children are grazers, they are too young and too preoccupied with other things to actually sit at a table for dinner for long periods of time.

The best thing to do is put the dinner aside so they can come back to it when they are hungry, he also said that they have a very limited palette, they do not like a lot of foods and often stick to the same things all the time. If they do not like vegetables with their chicken/sausages etc, give them some fruit at dinner instead.

Also eliminate choice, that's the trap I fell into particularly at breakfast time. I would spend valuable time listing all the choices they could have at breakfast. In the end, I gave them two choices and said if they didn't pick one they got nothing. Kids are very clever, they know that parents are more inclined to give in and give them what ever they want to eat, if they know that they can get a kitkat at breakfast, they will object to everything else.