My soon to be 4 yr old end of March was never a given just simple foods. From the moment she went on baby foods she had her s and spices. Nothing hit that would upset her tummy. Now she wont eat anything with spices. She insists black peper or the seasoned peper by Lawry’s on most of her food. We have always ate as a family and seeingbthe adults and her siblings eat the same thing. Never had an issue with my 4 older boya either now my 14 yr old is just trying new foods but he has food sensitivity always has.
Let it go. Fix dinner and tell him he has to eat it. I didn’t do that by kids know they eat what’s cooked unless it’s our whatever nights…
Don’t make anything special. He’ll eat if he’s hungry enough.
Let him go hungry, he’ll come around. He needs to learn to eat what you make.
Not trying to be mean,but it’s called being a parent in charge,not the child!
Dont give in to his demands. He will eat when he is hungry
Do not give in. He will eventually eat.
tell him he eats what you make or goes hungry
He’ll get hungry eventually
My niece was fussy as a toddler. My sister would try to let her go hungry, only to have her daughter wake up at midnight, crying because she was hungry. She is still fussy about eating at 16. Now, she fixes her own dinner, if she doesn’t want what her mother wants
Normal! Thats definitely alot more than my toddler eats. Mine refuses any meat right now. And cheese is too stringy. Hahaha.
Oh and all of a sudden food cant be touching on the plate. Kids!! Go with the flow. Things will change. Good luck to you.
Normal for the age. My twins are 2 yrs 4mo and one got super picky right at 2. She doesn’t get what she wants She gets what’s in front of her and that’s it.’I try and include something I know she’ll eat (she’s decent with fruit, loves cucumbers), a pouch (again veggie fruit), yogurt - but the meal is chicken, steak, burgers; whatever we eat. If she doesn’t touch it, that’s it. Nutritionists will tell you just keep offering it because eventually they’ll eat it, it’s a stage. They can’t try green beans or broccoli or regular chicken if it’s never there as an option and they’re only eating what they like and throw a fit for.
And FWIW, I did that with my oldest. Nuggets, Mac and cheese etc and she’s 16 and still that picky so I’m trying to learn from my mistakes!
I just go with it. I personally rather my kid just eat than turn it into a power struggle. I don’t believe food should ever be a struggle. Yeah it sucks making separate meals but it’s not like it will be forever. Shoot yesterday my child randomly decided to corn, cucumbers with ranch, whole piece of city chicken and she had ate a lot earlier in the day too. She never eats corn and rarely ever get her to eat a cucumber. It happens randomly, I’d rather just go with it. I have anxiety with food now as an adult due to too much pressure on eating as a child
Honestly that’s not that picky compared to some children who will want to only eat 2 to 3 things and nothing else.
Sounds like my youngest. He’s almost 3 and is super picky. Honestly I just feed him what he likes. I’d rather he eats something even if its the same thing he had yesterday.
I’d be so happy if my kids had that healthy palate at 2
Check out Dinner Winner Kid’s Tray on Amazon. While it is normal to be super picky at that age, they still need to eat more than one food group.
Give him what he likes. I bet you only eat the food you like! Also a Pediatrician once told me if the child doesn’t like some foods they may have allergies.
I put out a bowl of cut up fruit with dinner every night and another with veggies like carrots sticks and broccoli and cucumbers. Let him choose. Let him help pick foods when grocery shopping and let him help cook.
Ur child will not starve themself feed them what they will it it’s a phase they do get over it continue to offer a variety of foods but it’s really ok if they only eat a few choice things my oldest would only eat chicken at that age hes 18 now and loves all food my 2nd only eat mac and cheese around that age hes now 13 he won’t eat potatoes but loves most foods my 3rd had a protein allergy so she was a little harder but she loved noodles anything I made things look like noodles so she would try it lol never worked my 4th is in this phase now he only eats a few things…once they understood u eat what I make or part of what I make and that’s that that’s how we did it.
I wouldn’t resort to making something else if what you put in front of him/her is for dinner that’s that, they will eventually eat if there eating breakfast, lunch and some snacks throughout the day they won’t go hungry. Sometimes tuff love is needed. ( from a mother of 3 )
My almost 4 year old won’t even eat some of that…but then he randomly ate raw carrots and lettuce and grapes the other day sooo… if he doesn’t eat what I make. He gets peanut butter bread.
Following. My 2 1/2 year old son will hardly eat anything now. He used to eat all that and now will only eat fruit and cheese, crackers and snacks of course but nothing he should be.
Its normalish just find your balance. I had one who refused to eat broccoli unless it had mustard on it. Another refused to eat spaghetti noodles
. Now they have to try everything we cook and we openly discuss what they liked, didn’t like or what we could do differently.
They will normally prefer the junk sad to say.
Following for advice, that’s still more diverse than my daughter will eat
Have you had your child tested for SPD or food aversions? Those are both very real n play a big role in a child’s diet.
See I never jumped on this band wagon. Eat what I served or dont. Those are the choices.
That’s way more than my Son will eat… that’s a good variety
as long as hes eating your doin good…lol
I have an eat or don’t policy they will eat when hungry enough and I always offer something he’s eaten before the picky stage started
He has a bigger variety of foods he eats than my almost 5 year old lol. She hardly eats. Never really has. She’d eat snacks all day if you let her. But she’s always been this way even as a baby. She’s healthy though. I’m used to it at this point I’ve tried everything so I gave up lmao if she eats cool if not cool
good luck tho. Hope you figure it out!
When you are cooking have him help and tall to him about what you are making. You may learn what it is about certain foods that he does not like. Smell, texture, looks. Give him small pieces to try as you go to.
When I was growing up, I either ate what was in front of me, or I didn’t eat. I learned real quick.
Why in the world are YOU allowing him to do this??? Buy only health foods and put them before him…allow him to eat as much as he wants and anything left over, cover it and place it in the fridge. Next meal, remove the covered food, heat it up and place it in front of him again…continue this until he finally eats it all. NOTHING between meals except water. YOU are the boss - NOT him!
We have the same problem with my boyfriends 6 year old. The biggest problem is that her mom let’s her eat what she chooses and if we try to push different foods she wants to go back to her moms house so we are stuck. We don’t want her to hate it here. For her a lot of it seems to be a texture problem.
It’s not a texture thing. I have to texture eating children. One won’t eat oatmeal or things like that. I make sure that there’s a healthy alternative when we are serving oatmeal for breakfast. The other one won’t eat peas don’t know why don’t care as long as she eats anything else on her plate she don’t have to eat the peas. This is it junk food addiction. What I did was provide 2 healthy meals and one kind and not healthy meal with a healthy side. They got to eat what I cooked. But we would have pizza night so that they had a night where they could eat something they enjoyed. And we always made it game to try new foods. Got all three of them to try calamari none of them liked it but they tried it.
I have a 5 yr old granddaughter the exact same way. Guess what, she dont eat, she goes hungry. I be damned if I’m making something special for her. Nope. Shes now starting to eat different stuff. She’s learning what its like to be hungry.
Eat what you fix or don’t eat. I raised 7 kids. They will get away with whatever you let them them get away with.
I know hes young but it often helps if you get the child involved in food prep we found as our son got older if we went through recipe books and let him pick out things he liked the look of we did better (especially when he get old enough to cook them himself)we benefit too!
In the meantime you can try hiding grated zucchini or carrots etc in pasta sauce or soups etc he does seem to eat quite a variety of foods (albeit more on the junk food side)I knew a kid that would only eat pizza for every meal!
Look in the supermarket for chicken nuggets with added veggies and cauliflower pizza crust there are better alternatives out now
When my children were younger I cooked different meals I mean I have 4 different little personalities I don’t like some of the foods my husband ate why should my children eat what their siblings eat if they don’t like it and they try it several times and at one point you have to realize that they don’t like it . As they get older their pallet will change . Do what works for you but don’t make food time a struggle my children at 5 yrs old would help go grocery shopping for meals that week and help cook some dinners the kitchen would be a mess but i didn’t care and that week my non carrot eater ate carrots why who knows
the following week breakfast tacos with pancake syrup
the other broccoli with ketchup or roast Cauliflower not boiled but roasted the other one cereal for dinner and lunch for breakfast and other time roasted corn mixed with roasted green beans
was I tired ?!?heck yes but I already knew what to expect I mean it could change at a moments notice potatoes with with tomatoe sauce or hot dog without the dog with fries in it that’s what they wanted and I cooked for them ! They are all older now mid 20s ( but still love roasted broccoli and Cauliflower ) and of course they have a grown up pallet now . I miss cooking for them