I’ve had several posts on fussy eating of toddlers already, here are some more things that I found worked for my picky daughter, and thought it might help you too:

1. Any physical discomfort would affect a toddler’s eating. Check if any physical problem for example a sore throat, mouth ulcers, a tooth budding or any illness coming on.

2. Your kid might simply feel full after drinking something like milk or juice or eating snacks. He/she has no appetite for more food. So only give juice or milk after meals not before. Even better, cut out commercial juice that contains a high percentage of sugar.

3. Try to do an exercise/game with your toddler or play wiggle music for him/her to work up his/her appetite some time before having meal. (I used to play treasure hunt with my daughter before dinner for 15 minutes or so.) Or simply take a walk before meals, that’ll help too.

4. Tell your toddler a joke, something like this: the bread in your tummy is having a party (put your hand on his/her tummy and say you feel it’s dancing). Then say, the carrots want to come, the zucchini all dressed up, with its cheese hat on, ready to go too.

5. Remember that a toddler doesn’t grow as fast as a baby and his/her tummy is small. Give reasonable serving size, not larger than necessary. Your toddler might want to eat five to six small meals a day instead of three large meals. Something simple, prepared food or even raw, fresh fruit and veggies will do, and you won’t be weighed down.6. Let your toddler have meals at fixed time everyday. He/she will gradually feel hungry and want to eat something around the fixed time.

7. If all things you have done don’t work, what about trying bribery treat. For this part, I don’t care about what some “experts” say it encourages kids to think ice-cream or cake is yummier than broccoli. Be realistic! Kids already know ice-cream is yummier than broccoli and in fact it is. As long as you don’t offer the treat every night in the same way, and your toddler eats the meal up. Sometimes the treat is a piece of cake, pineapple or melon, a funny joke or a game they like. Sometimes offer to take him/her for night-shopping (make sure you have no work that night). At least, your toddler will eat some food you want him/her to. (That worked for my picky daughter at least.)

8. Refusing to eat is very common to toddlers because they are reaching a stage of learning control. To them, food is the easiest thing to control, eat or not eat. If your toddler chooses not to eat a meal, don’t take it personally. It’s not your fault or because the food is not appealing. (Have you seen toddlers playing their food and making them extremely messy on the plate? I saw many toddlers happily swallowing the mess up.)

9. When they’re hungry, they’ll eat. Keep offering food on the plate and don’t excessively worry about it.

10. If you worry that your toddler doesn’t get enough nutrition, seek your family doctor’s advice and ask if he/she needs to take vitamin supplements.

Related posts:

What Causes Picky Eating

Solving Your Child’s Eating Problems

How do Parents Train their Toddlers to Eat Healthy Food

10 Healthy Foods for Finicky Toddlers

Toddlers’ Favorite Foods Around the World

MedlinePlus - Age-appropriate Diet for Children

Recipes for Kids at Different Ages

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 27th, 2006 at 12:03 am and is filed under 02-03 yrs: Toddler, Eating, How-to Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.