Meals have been such a chore these days with my 2 year old. I'm resorting to chasing him around the kitchen hand feeding him. He can pretty much distract himself with anything around that's not related to him eating his food. We tried to allowing him a toy at the table but that didn't work. Should I start putting him in timeouts for not eating his food? I don't know what to do anymore. I'm worried about him not getting his nutrients.
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Haha I wanted to give Charlie timeouts for not eating too! Did some research and sadly, timeouts are designed to stop a toddler from doing something bad... they're not really for starting a toddler on positive behavior.
There's a great book called Magic 1-2-3 that talks about how to get kids started on longer tasks like eating, etc.! I was gonna blog about it, but haven't had the time yet:
http://www.amazon.com/1-2-3-Magic-Effective-Discipline-Children/dp/0963386190Definitely worth checking out!
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I absolutely hate doing it but I have just started letting my daughter watch Sesame Street videos on Youtube while eating and she will eat a ton. I have just gotten really tired of fighting her and she could care less if I let her have a toy, book, color, etc. Sigh.
I am interested to hear what everyone else has to say about this!
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@mrbee: I just downloaded that book recently after you recommended it in one of your posts. Only read the chapters to stop negative behavior so far. That's what I needed at the time. Will go through rest of it to see if their techniques will work. .
@Andrea: Yeah, we've been letting him watch YouTube videos sometimes too. But that still requires me feeding him. I feel like I'm just creating all sorts of bad habits to get him to eat. I hope this is just a toddler phase, but they always say to enforce good eating habits early on - I just don't know how at this point.
I'm using mrs bee's bento method for his lunches and it worked like a charm for 3 days. This week he's coming back with half his food untouched. He was such a good eater when he was younger.
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@BoogieBea: How old is your son? When my friend's daughter reached 2-2.5 yrs she started to say "Sit down to eat or go hungry". Her daughter went hungry for a few nights but then started to eat. My daughter is not quite 2 so I'm not comfortable doing that yet.
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How is he snacking? Are mealtimes the only times of frustration? I saw that if I cut back on snacks, it would make her more hungry for mealtimes, resulting in her eating much more. She liked to graze on snacks a lot though at that age, so I just kind of let her do that (ensuring they were all nutritious snacks). This way, it was less frustrating for both of us and she got her nutrients in.
Two year olds are so hard to feed, I know... It's a phase that lasts a long while.... I know how frustrating it can be. It does get better. LO is almost 4 now and her appetite has definitely improved over time.
If you are worried about him not getting his nutrients, ask his ped about starting a multivitamin. Is his growth an issue? If so, ask about pediasure, a nutrionist consult, or other ways to help him gain weight. Otherwise, just know that they do get harder to feed at that age. Totally normal.
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@NYCaliMama: your point about snacks reminds me that sometimes i will let her have snacks for dinner if all else fails. at least she is eating something.
i just started her on a multivitamin, too.
have you had any issues with your LO eating meat? that's the only food group my LO isn't crazy about. i substitute beans and tofu and sometimes that works, sometimes not.
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@NYCaliMama: @Andrea: We've been giving him snacks too. And sometimes we give it to him after dinner, if he didn't have much to eat. I know it's a bad habit since he might think he will always be able to eat something else if he doesn't eat his dinner. But sometimes, I feel like it's a matter of just getting food into him. He just started on multivitamins as well. He's under weight for sure (5% for weight) but the doctor didn't seem too concerned since she said a lot of 2 year olds have eating problems. he's not into meat either. fish was always our go to but lately he's been pushing that away as well. I find that I really need to switch things up with him. he'll get bored of something no matter how much he liked it initially.
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@BoogieBea: oh yeah, i forgot to mention fish. my LO doesn't like that either.
it is frustrating that they don't like the same thing for very long. except for breakfast. my LO doesn't seem to mind having waffles every single morning so at least that one meal is easy. i don't look forward to when she decides that is no good as well.
i think as long as they are getting a variety of foods, even if they pick here and there throughout the day it is probably fine. i read somewhere that they are getting more nutrients in than you think even while doing that.
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i don't have any great insight for you as we totally let charlie watch youtube during dinner. he is so into the video, he opens his mouth and lets me feed him (still less than half the time though). i usually feed him korean food, so it's soupy/stewy, and he prefers foods with softer textures like that. it's easier to get him to eat more of that than food he has to chew, and i can sneak in veggies/meat at least in the broth. charlie is not a fan of meat either.
i also started giving him a multivitamin after the recent thread here on hellobee!
i'm guilty of giving him snacks when he won't eat dinner. i know he's smart enough to not eat just because he wants the snack, so lately i have been withholding the snacks. it's tough and i feel stressed about mealtime every day.
but they're not going to let themselves starve which is what everyone always says. pickiness and toddlerhood go hand in hand.
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@Andrea: he's a starch junky. Potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, but only the pasta (he'll push the sauce aside - I try to sneak veggies in the sauce). He likes fried foods so I'll make him baked breaded chicken. I make him oatmeal for breakfast every day during the week. It's not difficult to get him to eat that if I feed him. At least it's good for him. Weekends we'll make pancakes or waffles. Feeding him just gets progressively worse through the course of the day.
@Mrs. Bee: He likes soups as well. But just the soup part and maybe some noodles. We went to have Korean food for lunch last weekend and he really liked sul lang tang.
Lately he's been into baby food again because his 6 month old sister just started solids. So may be able to get him to eat some nutritious foods by making some purées for him as well.
Met with our early intervention specialist today (we meet with her because he had a speech delay). She said to just start small and tell him that if he wants to play/watch videos that he must have 5 bites of whatever first. I'm going to try that. He's been into counting these days so whenever I incorporate some sort of counting into the task, he'll be more reluctant to comply. She said then you can start building up to 10 bites, 15, or even finish your plate. But warn him that if he doesn't eat, he won't get a snack and follow through with that.
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@BoogieBea: my daughter loves starch, too, but not pasta anymore. which is a bummer since as you said, you can sneak meat and veg into the sauce. so i am making more things that i can mix in with rice to try and do the same.
i think telling them to take a few bites first is a great idea in theory but it doesn't always seem to work for my LO. but she isn't quite 2 yet so maybe she doesn't completely get what i am trying to do. oh well, no choice but just to keep at it!
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@Andrea: I guess we just have to take it day by day and try to be creative to stay on top of their antics.
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