DD (2.5) is becoming a very picky eater. The past few weeks at dinner time she's only had a few bites of her dinner, at the most. I try to convince to to just take a bite, because there are a lot of things I think she'd actually like. But she flat out refuses to try anything. Short of strapping her down and forcing it in her mouth, I don't know how to enforce the "Just try a bite" rule that I hear so many parents using. How do you get your kids to try things?
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We do the one bite rule. N is 25 months old. We encourage him by feeding him his favorites last. He only gets them if he tries the other bites first. It takes way longer to do meals but it's worth it.
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Daniel Tiger. You gotta try new foods cause it might taste goooood.
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@Mrs. Jump Rope: literally watching that episode right now for this reason! Following this thread as we are in the same boat!
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Following for tips! I can't even force LO to take one bite. She flat out flops her body all over and locks her lips together. You'd think I was torturing her to try a piece of something yummy even! Daniel Tiger - going to look that up now!
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@Mrs. Jump Rope: Ahhh! We need this episode! Daniel tiger is seriously potty training my kid. If he could cure our food issues, I'd be so stoked!!
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I have actually pried her mouth open before and plopped a piece in. Then she's like OMG TASTY and eats a bunch. Sigh.
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Bribes!
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@BeachMama: There is a daniel tiger episode and a song that will get stuck in your head forever!
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By that age, I would not let her leave the table until she tried everything.
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@Mrs. Jump Rope: YES; this Daniel tiger episode is awesome!
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@Mrs. Jump Rope: yessss. I was coming here to say the same thing. We sing that song, he giggles and tries it.
Because he loves garbage trucks, we also made a game. As I move the fork to his mouth I say "beep beep beep, open the hopper please!" He opens his mouth and I say "smash crash goes the trash!" And he thinks it's the most fun thing ever. He won't even notice he's eaten his whole meal this way because he just loves pretending to be the garbage truck.
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The Daniel Tiger song worked for a few months, but unfortunately it wore off. He does have to try at least one bite before dismissing an item on his plate. My three-nager is opinionated and tells me that my food is yucky. Bleh.
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Sometimes the Daniel Tiger doing works, otherwise she will just say "________'s not my favorite" and refuse to try.
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R wouldn't touch her dinner tonight. Nothing worked to get her to take a bite.
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Dd just flat out refuses- turns her head, clamps her mouth shut, etc. Even if I get a piece in her mouth she just spits it out. I just feel like I can't force feed her so how do I really enforce it?
We recently moved and have been pretty lax with our dinner set up (ie eating at the coffee table and she just runs around most of the time) so maybe strapping her in a chair might help.
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Bribes!
Also be very open at first. Ask for them to lick the food. Ask if they can mash it up in their mouth and spit it out. Let them know there is a safe place to spit it out if they really don't like it. Let them pinch their nose!
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@Mrs. Jump Rope: Yes. That. Took the words out of my mouth.
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One thing that seems to always work for us is if we do "cheers!" with LO with whatever food she's refusing to eat. I'll grab a piece and tap it against hers, like we are clanking glasses and I think that causes her to forget that it's something she initially didn't want to eat.
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Sometimes I reinforce it by saying, "Daniel tiger tried red peppers and loved them! But Katarina kitty cat tried carrots and didn't like them. She tried , though, and that's what counts!"
or whatever veggies they tried.Oh my god so much tiger in our house.
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Give LO and empty plate, and serve food family style. LO controls what goes on her plate, and what goes into her body, but I've controlled her choices. We also all sit down and eat together, so she'll see us eating things and try them.
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@BeachMama: We all have to be at the dinner table eating otherwise no dice. N gets to busy looking at other things. We also praise him for trying things on his plate. Although when it really becomes a fight we just put dinner up and when he asks again later we offer dinner over again.
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@yin: Tell me about it with the three-nager!
@Mrs. Jump Rope: No luck with Daniel Tiger here.
@Andrea: My LO is soooo stubborn. I can't tell you how many times he has stayed at the table for so long that he's fallen asleep.
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@BeachMama: You can try easing them into it, like touching the food with their tongue, if they are resistant.
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@Boogs: whoa!! What happens after that? Do you just carry him off to bed?
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@Mrs. Pen: I love this!
We do dessert and if he doesn't at least try it, no dessert. The other night I had to beg him to eat mashed potatoes. I told him he did a great job eating everything else and if he'd just try the potatoes, we'd have dessert.
He tried it, gagged and spit it up, lol. -
for a while, i felt like the harder i tried with my 22-month old, the harder he would resist. so i'll offer, but if he says no, i don't make a big deal out of it. but he doesn't get a different dinner either--i don't want to become a short order cook!
@yin: my friend's 4-year old once looked up from his dinner plate and asked "mommy, is this poo?" yes, sweetie, mommy made you poo for dinner.
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Honestly, I just don't think it works for all kids. My son is open and he will try most everything, especially if there is dessert involved later. My daughter just won't try. She just doesn't give a damn if there is dessert involved or not. Stubborn as a mule. I asked my pediatrician about this and she was like, "What can I say? She's a female." I don't know if that has to do with it but honestly sometimes I don't think the one bite rule works.
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@mamimami: I agree. My LO will not try something unless she wants too. She wouldn't touch her dinner last night, so she went to bed without dinner (had a veggie pouch as a snack when we got home). I know she was hungry for dinner, but I wasn't going to give her another option. So she just drank her milk.
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@Andrea: Yeah we have. Unless he's especially dirty then then try to wash him off a bit. I tell ya, stubborn as can be that one lol.
@mamimami: So true. Mine is so stubborn he will just choose to miss out on dessert, even if it's one of his most favorite things.
@Smurfette: We started doing that, we got tired of sitting around waiting for food to be eaten that we know won't. It really hurts my heart to do it, but I don't want to encourage bad food choices either.
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we try but they almost never like it when they taste it because we ask. they have to eat it because they want to so i just keep trying and present it over and over again in different ways.
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