How to get Your Toddler to Eat Their Veggies...or Their Food at all
It's no secret that we have struggled to get Harper to eat. Honestly, I am finding that she is kind of following the 'I will eat when I feel like it' mindset. There is no pattern to her eating. She does it sometimes so well, that you wonder how there was ever a problem. Other times, she just screams and screams and cries and pulls on you and attempts to climb you, and when you pick her up she screams and wants down. It's extremely frustrating.
I have almost zero advice on how to get a toddler to eat.
Harper loves pasta. She will almost always eat pasta. Almost. Once in a while she will look at it and and just burst into a screaming fit. I literally have to maneuver around her flailing limbs and shove a piece into her mouth. She will then proceed to remove it from her mouth, look at it quite carefully, and then shove it back in her mouth, followed by as much pasta as she can get her hands on. Clearly she likes it, she just sometimes needs to be reminded.
Disclaimer: I don't recommend shoving food into your childs mouth. It doesn't usually end well.
What I can tell you, is when I find something she likes (eg. pasta) I make the dish filled with as many good for you veggies as I can. She will mostly pick around them, but I'm glad for whatever she does actually eat.
Also, keep offering things. Just because they don't like it at first, doesn't mean they won't ever.
I know that was a super helpful post, full of lots of great ideas on how to get your toddler to eat food.
The thing is, every toddler is different, so your guess is as good as mine!
I have almost zero advice on how to get a toddler to eat.
Harper loves pasta. She will almost always eat pasta. Almost. Once in a while she will look at it and and just burst into a screaming fit. I literally have to maneuver around her flailing limbs and shove a piece into her mouth. She will then proceed to remove it from her mouth, look at it quite carefully, and then shove it back in her mouth, followed by as much pasta as she can get her hands on. Clearly she likes it, she just sometimes needs to be reminded.
Disclaimer: I don't recommend shoving food into your childs mouth. It doesn't usually end well.
What I can tell you, is when I find something she likes (eg. pasta) I make the dish filled with as many good for you veggies as I can. She will mostly pick around them, but I'm glad for whatever she does actually eat.
Also, keep offering things. Just because they don't like it at first, doesn't mean they won't ever.
I know that was a super helpful post, full of lots of great ideas on how to get your toddler to eat food.
The thing is, every toddler is different, so your guess is as good as mine!
The disadvantage of having twins is the comparing bits. One of my boys eats everything, well mostly everything. The other one, not so much. And honestly, I think the one who doesn't eat that well is more like your average toddler. So if we had just one I bet I would think he's eating just fine.
ReplyDeleteWhen all else fails our boys will eat scrambled eggs. I will chop up veggies and add them and yep, they will pick around them but they at least got something.
Oh my word, she is just so precious! I don't have any kids, but our bff's have a 3 yr old and she STILL has the "eat what i what when I want it" mentality, but now added in the mix she's got the "I'm always hungry" attitude because she has learned to looooove certain foods that aren't so good for her. I think it must just be a little kid thing!
ReplyDeleteMy boys are 12 and 8, and from day one, we gave them so many different foods. We made them eat what we were eating, and didn't cook a separate meal for them because they didn't like it. And if they didn't eat it, they got no dessert and they didn't get anything else. So they were hungry enough and ate most things. They have foods now that they don't "prefer" but they can go anywhere and eat anything and I am so grateful they are not picky eaters! You just have to keep trying and offering different things.
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