3 year old will not eat!!!

schwab--

Good luck.

The world is unfair to three year old's because Mommies Make the Rules.

crossing my finger schwab!

thanks for your advice and support!

You don't necessarily have to be a chicken to recognize an egg.

I tOO have a 3 year old son (almost 3) who fiercely refuses to eat. On his own he stopped the bottle back in March. After that, he's only accepted water. I've finally graduated him to take ice cream. As for solid foods, well...
It's PB&J (grape only), cheese & PB, pizza, french fries, carrots with ranch, corn puffs, fruit bar snacks, pasta & cheese (sometimes). He's a mood eater I have discovered because he will eat things other than PB&J only ocassionally. He just began asking for Applesauce. Anyways... I have changed our bulk grocer. We now shopmainly at Trader JOe's. Surprisingly, they are less expensive and have high-quality foods. In addition to my son's First Flinstone's Vitamins (1/2 per day), I have found ways to offer my son healthier versions of what he'll accept to eat. I still offer other things to inspire him, but at least I know he's getting the best of what he will actually consume. I feel so bad that his main diet is PB&J and water, but at least he's eating. I'd be bored of it. But I knowmore foods than he. Anyhoo...
If you have a Trader Joe's check out these things or things of the liking to your child.
***Quinoa Bread: 7g protein PER SLICE! and it's SOFT and YUMMY! YOu may have to ask them to hold a couple loaves for you, as they sell out almost as fast as they ship in daily.
***Corn Puffs with White Cheddar Cheese (these are a healthy snack, like cheesepuffs, but good for you)
***Any of their pastas that are whole grain... I was not a believer until I tried. YUM.
***Dried fruit Snack Bars. Like Fruit Rollups, but all natural 100% fruit, delish!!!
***Whole Grain Multi Grain Chips. Amazing and healthy snack. I use cream cheese & some salsa for mine to dip or as a spread. YUM.
Basically, just check out the store and look for things your child will eat. You'll get the best nutritional value from foods at Trader Joe's. Hope this helps. It works for us... for now.
Still concerned that he's not eating more variety despite my attempts, but again, at least he iS eating. A least I caN offer better quality for a higher nutrional content. This is the best i can offer you dear. Good Luck. Please post how things are going. I will do the same! ;P

Hi,
My 3yr old wont eat most foods. He'll have cereal for breakfast. Will only eat grated cheese roll for lunch & refuses point blank to sit and eat anything other than fish fingers & smiley faces at dinner. Absolutly nothing else! He has never eaten a vegetable, hidden or not!
I serve up everyone with a dinner & he will refuse to sit at the table & basically goes to bed hungry with just a multi-vitamin tablet! I have tried doing this for a week & after a week I gave up! I can't see him willingly go to bed hungry anymore. He knows I wouldn't cook 2 meals. But now I am just doing the same everynight!
What can you do?
Sue

What do you mean that he refuses to sit at the table? Who's in charge at your house?

Wow, I can't believe what I'm reading. How do kids get so fussy? I'm completely with GW, Chai, and JPB on this. Who IS in charge over there? If they won't eat anything, fine - let them go hungry for a while. When they're hungry enough, they'll eat, believe me.

Obviously you're not going to give them disgusting food so there's absolutely no excuse for this behaviour. I don't believe in making kids eat things they hate, but this is ridiculous. There must be SOME foods they can tolerate, if not like, besides chicken nuggets or whatever. Guess I should say some healthy foods.

Anyway, I've raised kids who ate pretty much what I put in front of them - they both disliked certain things (my son hates raw tomatoes, any kind of onion, and mushrooms, for example) but I never had the problem with food that you guys are describing.

I just don't get how kids a) get to be so picky about food, and b) are able to control their parents this way. That would not be happening in my house. It sends all kinds of wrong messages and sets up a lifetime of bad habits.

I miss noddy.

Me too.

Three year olds are notoriously defiant. It's part of being three.

I have an almost three year old who is picky picky picky. She won't eat most fruits, chocolate milk, pb&j...many of the things most three year olds like. So I had to branch out.

Buy some new things. I found my daughter loves yogurt. So when she won't eat anything else, I offer yogurt. You can't make your kid eat or enjoy what you enjoy but you can set firm rules.

I tell my daughter that she'd better eat because that's dinner. If she doesn't, well, she doesn't. Some times, I will fix her oatmeal before bed because she likes that but the key is not to cater to them. If she knows she'll get something else if she doesn't eat dinner, then she won't eat dinner.

Don't be above bribing either. Sometimes kids just don't do something because they've learned they don't have to, not that they don't like it. I'll tell her she can have pop IF she eats her dinner. Or that she can have ice cream after she eats 4 bites of her chicken and tries the potatoes. Little kids often need less food than we think they do and unless your kid stops eating all together, I doubt there will be an issue.

Good luck!

Looks like I said this the first time around too (I also miss Noddy, so nice to see her posts here), but don't give up with the veggies or anything else. Keep offering. Many people don't realize that you have to offer many, many times before a kid decides to try it (and/ or decides they like it). They offer something just a few times, each time the kid refuses, and then it's categorized as "Junior doesn't like ___" and it's not offered again. But you gotta keep at it.

What really seemed to work with my kid was just to not stress or force anything, food-wise. No power struggles, just a bunch of (healthy) choices and keep offering, offering, offering. Simple stuff that will keep in the fridge for a while, so it's not a big deal if they don't want to eat it right away. And stuff that is fun to eat in some way, especially finger foods and dips.

She's a major omnivore now (age 9), one of the only kids I know who will eat pretty much anything put in front of her.

And as Noddy said, make sure that you're giving the kid a lot of attention outside of mealtimes, so that (getting attention) doesn't become the point of being a difficult eater.

Good luck!

Looked up that thing about how many times you have to offer food to kids, found this:



http://www.childcareaware.org/en/subscriptions/dailyparent/volume.php?id=62

Thats worth repeating.

It doesnt only apply to little children though

i have the same exact problem with my son, hes gonna turn 3 next week, and hes lost a lot of weight because all he eats is chicken nuggets, and milk. i feel like a horrible mother, i see my friends kids all eat anything they put on their plates, and my son cant even swallow a spoonful of anything. im afraid he might be malnourished

Then take him to your pediatrician.

Simple enough, feed her pretzels, chicken nuggets, and milk; when she gets a bit tired of that, she'll eat fruit assuming it's decent fruit and not fruit ground up into "baby food"....

Humans originally lived in water, which says that the original human diet was some combination of shellfish and fruit...

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS436US436&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=elaine+morgan+aquatic+ape

Vegetables were not part of that picture and are not a natural food for humans.

What do you mean by "can't"? As in he wants to but has some physical problem? Or he just won't?

"Lost a lot of weight" is a problem regardless. What I was told when my daughter was in her picky stage is that even though it seems like she is not eating much, it all balances out -- and her healthy weight (though on the low side) was proof of that.

She never lost weight though, much less a lot. That's a concern.

wow.

why do parents start feeding their kids crap in the first place?
what happened to keeping your kids diets healthy and easy?
do parents npt give their kids bananas? apples? spinach?
wow. JUST.. wow..

You can websites where they show you how to sneak good food into the crap you're feeding your child. Make your own chicken nuggets and sprinkle chopped up kale into the breading. Make a fruit and veggie smoothie - she'll never know the difference. Get creative. And if you didn't offer chicken nuggets, she'd eventually have to eat what was served. Really. She'll get hungry enough that she'll eat. You should really google this problem and see the alternatives out there and the advice from professionals. I don't understand how or why this happens.

Will she eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches? I don't know why anyone would give a kid a pretzel in the first place - what's the nutritional value in a pretzel? All that salt! What does she eat for breakfast?