2 year old won't eat vegetables...

skysky69

OK, I seem to have the pickiest child ever. Every dinner time seems to be a battle of wills of what she will and won't eat. She won't really eat any vegetables at all and I was trying to focus on making sure she eats fruit but she has recently started playing up by not even eating the potatoes. Yesterday she had fish fingers with some scallop type potatoes and ate the fish fingers only. Today she had chicken and potatoes and refused to eat the potatoes so only at the chicken.

Now if she were one of my dogs, I would put the food down and if they were fussy and did not eat it, I would take it away until next meal time - they only ever tried this twice. But give me a child and I am completely clueless.

I made a lovely stew last week and we sat down as a family to the table and she ate only the chunks of beef and refused to eat anything else, potato vegetable or otherwise. Then kept asking for yoghurt!

I don't know what to do!

mishmash

Hi

First thing is not to worry too much. Generally mosat toddlers go through this stage, apparently it is to do with their taste buds developing.

My 2 yr old ( youngest of 4) refuses to eat any meat that requires chewing.

I'm not an expert, but I would sugest a few things. Try not to make a deal out of this. Toddlers and older children will use any means possible to controll their parents and food is no exception.

Try and make food as interesting as possible, bright colours, lay it out like a face or in a pattern. Only give a tiny ammount. A toddlers stomach is about the size of a few table spoons, so 2 or 3 table spoons are fine.

Try variety, making up your own pasta sauce is really cheap and easy. I chop up onions, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, cougettes. Cook it all up in a big pan add a tin of chopped tomatoes and then blend it and put it into jars and freeze it. Its an instant meal with pasta and the kids tend to like it.

Get your toddler to help with food preperation, when you have chopped up the veggies get him/her to put them in a bowl and wash them. Let him/her choose them when you go shopping helping you find a nice carrot etc. While preparing veg let them eat it raw and where possibble you do this too with lots of praise.

Chocolatte sauce or yoghurt is a great dip for chopped up fruit ( messy but they love it) and if all else fails blend a smoothie or blend fresh fruit into yoghurt.

I really would not worry too much ( I know that is easier said than done) but I think it is really important not to make a battle out of meal times. I do think kids benefit out of enjoying sitting with their family. And beens even count as a vegetable if you are really pushed.

Hope this helps.

Mish

Counting_Pennies_2

You say what you would do for your dogs in this situation and it really is the same for a child.

They won't starve, they will eat when they need to. They may become a little bad tempered, as they will be wanting a treat in between the meal if it is left, but stay firm and say no your supper will be shortly.
Give it a week and the food consumption will be likely to increase, which will include the veg as they have the appetite for it.

At this age you might also want to consider hidden veg. Making a pasta sauce popping in all the veg in a blender with tomatoes ans serving it with pasta and grated cheese on top, that goes down well in our house, with a slice of garlic bread as the reward at the end.

Above all don't fret about the food, as it will be something your little one will pick up on and use as a bargaining tool with you.

Smashing

Is it a texture thing perhaps?
Is she willing to eat minced meat products, mash etc?

You definitely shouldn't pander to it, just ensure you vary the meals to see if there is any pattern in the refusal. Above all, don't make an issue out of it - if dinner is not eaten, don't give into her whims or you'll be setting yourself up for more refusal.

yummymummy79

I would re-iterate the previous posts. My 2 1/2 year old is up and down with food (as they all are!) and vegetables are currently limited to carrots and trees (broccoli!). The hidden veg ideas are great for a pasta sauce or pizza topping. My DS prefers fruit and luuurrrrrrrrrrves smoothies (currently strawberry, banana and mango) so I don't worry too much if he doesn't eat much veg.

I have found that either making no fuss at all, (if they eat it great, but if they don't they go hungry) or making loads of fuss but in a positive way (clapping/cheering/stickers when they eat the tiniest morsel etc) are the best ways to go. You will prob know which of these your DD is most likely to act upon.

Also make sure that snacks and drinks are limited throughout the rest of the day to make sure she is hungry at the right times. My DS is with his nan 2 days a week and he hardly eats much tea those nights as has been stuffed with biscuits all day (grrr!!), but at weekends when we are out and about he tends to eat more.

Rachie_B

having gone through this myself with my youngest son my advice is to not worry and get stressed about it ........

then get sneaky

You can hide veg in lots of different home made foods,that way she is still getting her veg but is none the wiser

You are both happy

still continue to offer veg on her plate but dont make a fuss if she doesnt try any just say "maybe you will try some next time" and leave it at that

HariboJunkie

I agree with the sneaky thing. My DDs wont eat courguette but wolfed it down last week when I called it "cucumber" and tomato pasta. Mind you this works for hubby too. He apparantly hates celery yet ate two bowls of celery soup last week when I presented it as cream of artichoke :rotfl:

As far as wee ones are concerned, disguise, disguise, disguise.

Rachie_B

HariboJunkie wrote:

I agree with the sneaky thing. My DDs wont eat courguette but wolfed it down last week when I called it "cucumber" and tomato pasta. Mind you this works for hubby too. He apparantly hates celery yet ate two bowls of celery soup last week when I presented it as cream of artichoke :rotfl:

As far as wee ones are concerned, disguise, disguise, disguise.

:rotfl: :T I love it !

NAR

I remember as a child being "forced" to eat certain vegetables and then completely refusing to eat them (out of choice) for several years.

Thankfully as I got older my palette allowed to accept a lot of these vegetables. I would agree with an earlier poster about giving very small portions to "try." New things will sometimes seem strange, so what they have to work out is it "good strange" or "bad strange."

Reward system for eating vegetables with older children, can also work.

icefall

Give it time, keep putting small portions of veg on the plate, one day your 2 year will eat them. I have been through this was really worried, but my 15 yr old loves them now!

It just takes time for little ones to get used to strange textures as said above.

lottee

We have always been pretty lucky with our DS (well so far, he's 4!). We just tried to make food fun - for example, we call broccilli (sp?! that doesn't look right!) 'trees', as we think it looks like a tree ! lol . We cut carrots/suede & others into shapes - squares, rectangles etc. That seemed to work for us, but maybe we were just lucky on that side of things perhaps.