Our LO is almost two and is going through the worst eating stage. He used to eat almost everything and now will only eat a handful of things. He won't eat any veggies or fruit (unless its in pouch form!) It's starting to stress me out because I try to put different things in front of him and he simply refuses. For lunch he will only eat pb&j sandwiches on whole wheat or chicken. Breakfast he will only do waffles (we stick to organic with fruit in them to be semi-healthy) or eggs. Dinner is just a total S show. He will only eat mac & cheese (hidden veggies in the one I buy) grilled cheese, chicken and eggs again. Snacks are pretzels, crackers, snapea crisps, fruit pouches and granola bars. Honestly, I'm at my wits end. I see other toddlers his age eating everything and ours just seems to refuse to have anything outside his comfort zone. Textures and shapes freak him out too. For example, I changed the mac & cheese brand I used a week ago because it's all we had and refused to eat it because it wasn't the same shape. Any suggestions mamas? 
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My 22mo is similar, he has never been a great eater and it's kind of gone downhill. Breakfast he usually has 1/2 a Nutrigrain bar (used to eat a frozen waffle, won't anymore), a little milk, maybe a bite of fruit. He will eat carby junky snacks like pretzels, Goldfish, graham crackers etc. For main dishes he will eat pasta (but NOT mac and cheese), sometimes cooked shredded chicken type stuff, some fruit (but he's pickier about that), sometimes rice, vegan cheese, yogurt when we let him have it. And pouches. It is hard! I think its normal.
We just continue to offer healthy/different options, I know he won't eat them but maybe the 20th time of offering he will take a bite. I follow the school of I decide what to offer, he decides what to eat of it and how much. I try to offer some things that I know he will like. For example last night we had pasta - and I buy the Protein Plus pasta for extra fiber and protein, which he ate. He did not eat the meat sauce or the green beans, but I offered them at least.
My struggle is if he doesn't eat anything or hardly at all, I want to give him something he WILL eat because I am worried he's not eating! He is skinny as it is and lost 1/2 lb when he had hand foot and mouth a few weeks ago so it's a worry. Ugh!
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My 26 month old is in this stage right now. I think it's pretty normal and it sounds like there is a fair amount of variety.
Oh and keep offering! DD will eat the most random stuff that I don't expect her to like.
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DS went through this as well and we are on the other side of it finally. Probably from 24 months to 28ish months. I was losing my mind until I just decided to keep offering a balanced diet interspersed with things I knew he would eat but weren't healthy and just leave it be. He got one alternative for meals: pb on whole wheat crackers. I stopped providing a bunch of different things and just let it go. I can't make him eat, same as I can't make him talk, walk, crawl, etc. He came around all of a sudden and 2-3 months later he eats nearly everything again. If he doesn't, I know he's not hungry. Letting go of the stress and trusting him to self regulate his eating was very helpful.
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No suggestions, just commiseration. My 21 month old is exactly the same. His preferred foods are chicken nuggets, meatballs, grapes, and watermelon. Every once in a while he'll throw in a grilled cheese, but it's such a tough stage. If it helps, my now almost 5 year old was the same way. He will now eat pretty much anything we put in front of him. He's not a huge fan of meats because of the texture, but if I ask him to eat it, he will. He now loves broccoli (used to HATE it), cucumbers, carrots, squash...you name it. So it does get better. Just keep offering. A lot of it has to do with him exerting his control, and some of it may be texture. With my little guy, I know he likes other things, but when he's teething, forget it. He wants stuff that will take the pressure and pain off of his teeth...aka watermelon
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No advice, just commiseration. My 2-1/2 yr old is a HORRIBLE eater all of a sudden, I can list off 10 things for breakfast and it's no, no, no. Yesterday I put cheerios in a cup to eat in the car after we left, and he did, I felt like I tricked him into eating! Vegetables - no way.
I just keep offering whatever we're eating, I don't make separate meals. -
For what it's worth, reading through your list, it sounds like he's eating a decent variety of stuff, getting some protein and dairy, and veggies even if they're pureed in a pouch. I would just keep offering stuff, maybe try one new thing on the plate with the other stuff you know he'll eat? Eventually he'll branch out.
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This sounds like my toddler. We got him evaluated for a speech delay and Early Intervention also said he qualified for a sensory therapist based on his eating. My son is a super texture eater and because of his milk allergy, we're already pretty limited. Here's a couple tips the therapist have given us that's really helped:
The Rule of 3: Offer one thing you know he likes, one thing he's tried before, and one new thing at every meal. Don't worry about making him try it, just have it on the plate. It may surprise you what he'll eat. Of course you can add more things he'll eat, but don't make it too overwhelming.
Any interaction is good: Toddlers can easily ignore a new food or pitch a fit, but if they stick it on a fork/spoon, try to feed it to you, sniff it, lick it, try it and spit it out, ANY interaction is progress! As they get comfortable with the idea that it is a food, they will eventually try it you keep offering it in different forms.
Reintroduction: You may need to put something on his plate 10 times before he'll try it. So mix it up, but only in one way at a time: texture, temperature, taste and appearance. So for carrots, I tried carrot cake, steamed carrots, grated carrots, raw carrots, colored carrots, sliced carrots, etc. And you know what, he ate the raw carrots on his plate the other day!
Since my son has a problem with mixed textures, we're working on combining peanut butter (he loves it) with all sorts of things. We tried a thai peanut chicken crockpot meal, peanut butter on waffles, on graham crackers, with apple slices, peanut butter sandwiches, pita bread sandwiches, cookies, etc.
Honestly. I love Early Intervention and even though I've only had them coming for a month, it has been totally worth it just for these tips! DS is eating a lot more variety and I'm a lot less stressed trying to guess what he'll eat for dinner.
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I offer my kids reasonable, balanced meals (i.e. things that shouldn't be overly offensive to them or things I know they have eaten and liked in the past but meet some basic nutritional requirements). I would say my meals are rejected at least 50% of the time for one reason or another and my almost 3 year old will start listing off a thousand other things he wants instead and have a fit.
What I've found often works for us is to just say "okay, you don't have to eat it, you can go play" and then remove his plate. Or say "okay if you don't want to eat it, Mommy/Daddy/brother are going to eat it" and reach a fork over to spear a bite. Usually one of those 2 moves will get him to freak out and get territorial over his plate. We say "S, we don't waste food. Its not nice. If you don't eat it, someone else is going to eat it, okay?" Then he will usually scream "NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MINNNEE!!!!!!!!!!!" and then we'll say "okay, then YOU eat it." And then I can get him to grudgingly take a bite or two. Sometimes we have to play this game of chicken through dinner and he ends up not eating anything, but sometimes he will decide its good and keep eating.
Basically, its a control thing and trying to exert power and control over small decisions. So we try to bring about consequences to his decisions (i.e remove the plate or someone else eats the food you don't want) so that he has the opportunity to course correct and choose something else (i.e. eat and keep his plate).
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Have you completely ruled out oral motor issues? I only mention it because this was my son's problem and the usual advice that is given didn't even make a dent in the situation. If there is truly an issue with textures related to chewing and handling food in the mouth, it can be addressed.
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No advice, just commiseration because this sounds just like DD. The only things she’ll always eat are PB&J, PB toast, cheese sticks, chicken sausage, and pouches. Sometimes she eats fruit but veggies go straight to the floor and she won’t eat any meat except chicken sausage.
I worry that she’s not getting the nutrition she needs but not sure what else we can do
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For all you guys dealing with this, how do you deal with your LO getting hungry later because they don't eat at the meal?
Lately my 22 mo is waking up about 4am crying for milk. He usually eats like nothing for dinner. I don't give in but it isn't stopping. The last couple days I have been giving him an after dinner/before bed snack (like after bath). Like a pouch or something. I guess that is okay? I feel like it's sort of just perpetuating the problem because I'm giving in and giving him something he likes to eat.
But I am really not a fan of hearing him cry/fuss at 4am and then the whole day is shot because he won't go back to sleep and he's a cranky exhausted mess all day.
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