My LO is 21 months, has a lot of oral motor issues, and has been doing feeding therapy for almost a year now. As he's started eating more solids, I'm realizing that I have no idea what a typical toddler does for meals.
I read a lot of comments about how toddlers eat only one or two bites at meals or snacks and then make up for it later. I'm wondering how often your kiddos *really* eat only one or two bites versus how often it feels like only a couple of bites (but is really probably more) because meals with toddlers can be so frustrating.
Also, do your toddlers drink milk with snacks, too, or just meals?
Thanks!!
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M is 28 mo and she very rarely eats just a little bit at meals - only if she's not feeling well or
Completely exhausted. Sometimes she'll refuse a snack though.
She has milk with just her meals. -
We have pretty much cut out snacks most days (at 2.5) and he never eats just a couple bites. He is always hungry for meals and tries more foods this way. Even a tiny snack really impacts meal-time, so the most we will do is a small snack at least 2 hours before meals (we had a ton of feeding issues). We will give milk or water between meals.
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We only do milk a couple times a day now, mostly before bed. it was 100% ruining her appetite for dinners. I serve water and wait for her to ask for milk. She rarely does. Fridays, she usually eats a poor dinner. i think it's because her friday daycare lady stuffs her full of crappy, late in the day, snacks. This weekend, she hardly ate a breakfast or lunch, but did ok at dinner. It's kind of all over the place. I just figure if she's not hungry, she's not hungry, that's it.
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Thanks, all! @fancyfunction: and @blackbird:, that's good to know about milk at meals but not snacks.
@jess1483:, I've had some success with spacing out his meals and doing 4 meals a day (breakfast, before nap, after nap, and dinner) instead of the more typical 3 meals and 2 snacks. But then his nutritionist said that most toddlers graze throughout the day, so I started questioning myself. I think we should go back to doing fewer meals to see if he eats more at each one. -
Regularly? The other day, my son refused breakfast. He ate a normal lunch, but nothing to write home about.
He has oral motor issues as well, so I have no idea what's normal behaviour.
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I moved milk away from mealtimes so that my lo would eat more. He's always been a pretty slight eater, but he just about always eats more than a few bites.
A typical meal would maybe be 3-4 bites of chicken, a small handful of shredded cheese, a half cup of fruit, and then half a piece of toast or a half cup of rice. So definitely far from nothing, but some foods he'll only eat a bite or two.
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No oral issues here, and L refuses to eat more than a few bites for at least one meal, I'd say probably every day. He's 27 months. But every couple of weeks he'll shovel it in all day, everyday for a while. We provide milk with meals and before bedtime.
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@Chuckles: I think toddlers will definitely graze if you encourage that sort of behavior. Or if it works best for you, since your child has motor issues. We do breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. Snacks are cheesestick+applesauce, usually. It's just how meals naturally fell for us. We don't offer the snack, she walks over and points to the stuff she wants, so...*shrug* some days she has it, some days she doesn't
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Depends on when he last had milk or snack, so a lot of times, we eats a pretty late dinner or "skips" dinner since he eats so much at daycare during the day. He eats better at daycare.
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@blackbird: We only give milk after dinner. Otherwise she drinks it and won't eat dinner.
It depends, when she is teething it can be a couple times a week. If day care has a lunch and snacks that she likes, she isn't as hungry. Average once every couple of weeks.
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@Smurfette: Same here with the milk! Especially her favorite, the chocolate milk.
Dd does this often. Maybe once a day? She usually does it during breakfast, which may be because I give the milk at the same time during breakfast. Or maybe she's just not a breakfast person. She usually has fruit with her breakfast that I leave out for awhile and she might snack on (which I don't mind.)
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@Smurfette: yes the teeth! i'm a lot more lenient if i feel like she's not eating dinner b/c her teeth hurt versus just, say, not liking dinner. It depends if she eats all the soft food but leaves the steak!
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I feel like at least one meal a day, my 22 month old will eat maybe just 7 bites of her meal and call it done. She eats better without snacks, but she also get a super crabby hungry so I have to strike just the right balance between no/ tiny snack and having her next meal prepared at exactly the right time.
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He is a good eater and almost always eats big meals for breakfast and lunch but a smaller dinner. Unless he loves it. But breakfast and lunch are always foods he knows and likes and dinner is whatever we are eating. He always tries everything but doesn't eat a ton every time. Maybe once or twice a week he eats a pretty skimpy dinner.
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LO is 19 months and meals are a huge struggle. He'll be flailing in the floor while we finish dinner and then eat nothing...this happened tonight. I normally give a pouch before bed when this happens (2-3 nights a week when we don't cook him a special meal); hopefully I'm not encouraging the behavior. He only gets milk 2 a day at wakeup and directly before bed, he'd drink 10 cups a day if we allowed it but we just offer water the rest of the day. He eats more varied and better at daycare, I guess the peer pressure?
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