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I never try to feed him a bite because he is very independent and that just doesn't work. Honestly, I make a conscious effort not to stress about it and let him eat when he's hungry. Like today, he would not eat anything at thanksgiving dinner. I made him sit for a few minutes, but he was clearly too excited and tired. He ate a good breakfast and I figure he will make up for it tomorrow.

I'd make sure she wasn't filling up on too much milk or snacks. 1 - 2 year olds should only have around 16 ounces of milk a day, and 3 year olds shouldn't have more than 12 ounces a day, from what I've read. A two year old only needs around 1,000 calories a day, so overfeeding calorie-dense whole milk can easily fill that quota.

If she's grazing on snacks at will, she could easily fill up on those. Or if you have multiple scheduled snacks, you might want to cut it down to one (or even none). Juice has a ton of calories too, so be sure to take that into account.

16 - 18 oz. WCM is about 200 calories, so if you have four meals a day (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner), each meal should have about 200 calories worth of food to fill out the 1k calories. You might want to start checking the labels of some of the food she's getting, just to have an idea of whether she's getting enough food. The problem is either that she's already full by dinnertime (which isn't that bad, though you may want to change things up) or that there's an underlying issue that is preventing her from getting the energy and vitamins she needs from a proper amount of food.

This might sound like we micromanage our toddler's diet...we really don't, but I think staying mindful of the caloric content of a few key foods has helped ease our minds. Sometimes it can seem like she hasn't eaten very much, but then I remember that x has y amount of calories and it's more than you might think. For example, I know that roughly the following foods have these amount of calories...

Banana 100 calories
1 TBSP Peanut Butter 100 calories
Egg 80 calories
1 oz. Cheese 100 calories
Toast with Butter 100 calories

Or you could just wait and see if she changes her behavior on her own. Toddlers are apt to do that.

I totally stress out! I try not to show it, but I often fail at that. I am guilty of trying to find something that he will eat, so I will provide 1 or 2 more options if the first one fails. I hate doing it and I hope to stop soon! Thankfully, LO is normally a pretty decent eater so these days are not too common. But when they happen.....ugh it gets to me more than I care to admit!

I usually offer a simple snack like crackers instead but that's it. I honestly don't care. It's not like she's going to starve herself to death! (I feel like this sounds mean! But really, if she's hungry she will eat )

Nothing. If she asks for a snack later she has a choice of dinner or another healthy option of my choice. If she chooses neither of those she eats at the next meal. My kid is not a big dinner person, she eats a big breakfast and lunch and tends to graze throughout the day. I have heard that's pretty common for toddlers. I'm happy if we get 3 good dinners in a week. I know it's not a healthy food thing because she will refuse pizza and Mac n cheese, too which makes me feel a bit better about it.

If I know it's a stage or something is bothering him like teething, I just give him what I know he will eat so he will fill his belly. DS always eats plain sticky rice, banana, and puffs. He will almost always eat yogurt. From there I try to add on things to it - like I smash some avocado or scrambled egg into his rice, PB on his bananas, raisins with his puffs, and chopped fruit mixed into his yogurt, etc. If I know it's teething and chewing hurts I try to spoon feed him porridge or risotto, offer banana and applesauce, and may also make yogurt smoothies with PB or coconut oil mixed in with milk and fruit and bananas.

Our pediatrician specifically tolls is that there will be days when she wont eat much, and that it's nothing to worry about. On those days we will sometimes give her an extra cup of milk, but mostly we just trust that she'll eat if she's hungry.