If you have a toddler that's not eating well or has become picky, you're not alone. A lot of parents notice that around a child's 1st birthday or maybe age 2, kids become picky. They don't like foods they used to or they only want certain foods. Maybe they just hone in on 1-2 foods and eat those day after day. If your child's going through this, it's normal. There are things you can do to help your child through this phase and make it not last as long. After a child turns 1, they don't need as much food as they did during the 1st year. They may have seemed ravenous and always wanted to eat during that 1st year, and then after their 1st birthday, it slows down. A child only needs about 1000 calories a day at age 1. That's not much food, so we may be trying to feed them more than they need, giving us the perception that they're not eating enough. But 1000 calories isn't much and it's spread over breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack in the morning and afternoon.
Your job is to offer healthy food options at each meal. It's great if you sit down and make it family meal time. This helps a child understand healthy eating habits. Make it a time where you sit down and there's no distractions, including phones and TVs. As they grow older, it's not only a time to eat, but a time to be together, socialize and make memories together, so it's important for a lot of reasons. If you're cooking dinners and your child isn't eating anything, don't stop cooking new food and introducing it. Research has shown that children may need to be introduced to a certain food 10-15 times before they'll like it. Persistence will pay off. The worst thing you can do is make something separate for your child. This will encourage picky eating and before you know it, they'll be 6, 7, 8 and still wanting you to make a separate dinner, so try to stop that behavior when the child is young. If there's a certain thing they like, you can include that in the meal, but that also encourages them to eat other food.
Young toddlers often eat a lot of food for breakfast and lunch, and maybe not for dinner. Or they ate a big dinner last night so they may not need a big breakfast the next morning. If you notice your child is cluster-eating and getting more at one meal and not so much the next, that's OK. Sometimes, toddlers get their nutrition in days at a time. For example, they may load up on Mon., Tue., Wed., and not eat as much on Thur. and Fri.. These are normal behaviors. It's just important that your child is getting what they need overall. One of the worst things you can do is make food time a fight, because if a child starts to develop negative feelings towards food, they may dislike foods that they would have liked otherwise and be less likely to try them.
As tempting as it might be, avoid offering dessert as a reward for eating healthy food, because then it makes eating healthy food seem like a chore. Actually, eating healthy food is the reward. That's what nourishes us and makes us run efficiently. There's different ways you can involve your kids in planning meals. When you take them to the store, let them pick out fruits and vegetables, and you can teach them colors by doing this. When you go home, you can involve them in the planning and prep. You can teach them to count by counting different things you're using while you make the meal. There are age-appropriate things they can help with while cooking. For example, they can stir things that aren't hot or they can use a brush to brush on cooking oil. There's different ways you can involve them or make it fun, and after you've cooked it together, you can eat it together.
Kids are all about colors, they're all about making food fun, so if there's anything you can do to make vegetables and fruits more appealing, do it. One of the things is celery with peanut butter on it and raisins that look like bugs. Boys will eat this up. As they get older, can eat celery, and it's not going to cause a choking hazard, these are fun things you can do, especially for snack time. Arrange food on their plate in a way that makes it fun to eat. Remember your responsibility is to offer healthy food options at each meal and for snacks. Your child is going to determine what and how much they're going to eat. As long as they have healthy options, you're doing the best you can.
If you have specific concerns and questions about your child, you feel like they're not meeting certain developmental milestones, you're worried about their growth or just feel like they're not getting the nutrition they need, talk with your pediatrician. After asking you more specific questions and assessing their growth and development, they'll be able to give you tailored information and advice and determine if further investigation or intervention is warranted. If you're concerned, start a food journal. It's helpful to give this to the doctor so they can see a history of what your child's eating and what you've offered.
