Meal Plan for 2.5yr old

[shaanmom]

Hi Carang,
Thanks for your comments! The only reason I was asking for ideas from Indian moms is that I am one, and it's just to get more ideas for the food we make at home, to get him more into that kind of taste.... I know that my issues are relevant to every race/ethnicity!! ;-)

A couple of my friends (moms of teens) told me to relax, and that kids start eating "properly" only when they are around 5 - till then they tend to fuss & pick a lot.

You're right, he def doesn't starve - if there's really nothing he wants to eat and there are major tears & tantrums, I usually end up giving in to a peanut butter (unsalted organic) & jam whole wheat sandwich, which is a lot healthier than plain white rice!

 

[mama-to-be]

I'm so glad I read your thread. I have an almost 2 1/2 year old and she used to eat almost everything. She now skips dinner (doesn't drink milk or anything as a substitute) and has been doing so for almost a week now. She does snack in he afternoon tho and am wondering if she's just not hungry at dinner time as a result. But she used to be able to snack and still have dinner.

Generally her breakfast is at 7am, lunch at 12:30 and dinner at 6:30. Snacks on fruit or nuts or a few biscuits in between meals (nothing major).

Have your toddlers gone to bed on an empty stomach before???

 

[MilkMonster]

my son usually is fussiest in the morning. i really don't get it because he should be hungry after a whole night. anyway, he has gone to bed without dinner a few times but usually if he's not feeling well. in those cases he will eat a huge breakfast the next day.

i read somewhere that for toddlers, you should look at their intake on a weekly or monthly basis and not day to day since they can be very picky.

it's so hard because you worry so much that they are not getting the nutrition they need and at the same time don't want to give them food issues. my husband's brother STILL won't eat onions and he is in his mid-30s, he was forced to eat them as a child. lol

there are certain things i know he likes for sure like salmon and rice, so we eat that quite often. but then i worry about too much mercury (!!!)

we have breakfast (roughly) at 9am, lunch at 1pm snack at 3pm, dinner at 6pm

sigh. kids.

 

[carang]

what's the most difficult is trying to figure out if the child is just being stubborn OR if they truly don't like something. it is natural that everyone has likes and dislikes, but when they are so little, they could say, 'i dont' like it' to something one day, and then eat nothing but that the next. that's where the stubborness comes in... that's why i always ask my son to eat one or two bites.

he even had ceasar salad last night!(only 2 bites, but that's a start!... my 2 year old ate 2 bowlfuls of it!)

 

[shaanmom]

Hi mama-to-be, i had days where my son would go to bed without eating. But this backfired coz he would get up in the middle of the night howling for milk - of course, HE'S HUNGRY! So annoying.... so we try our very best to feed him at night, anything even cereal & milk if all else fails. You may try restricting ALL food about 3hrs before mealtime, that usually works for me. If your LO still insists on something then try to give her only water, and if she persists, then "food" versus snack, even if it's only say 5 or 6pm (our guy eats dinner a bit later). My final course of action (in desperation, but which generally works) is a bottle of pediasure. At least I can be assured that with a full tummy, he also got a meal's worth of vitamins etc...

 

[shaanmom]

Hi MilkMonster, my guy is generally improving in his eating. Breakfast is an all morning affair with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I would say he's most adventurous at breakfast and usually can be persuaded to try something new.
Actually my issue is not so much how he is eating, but what he is eating. I just find that he's not happy to try anything new which kind of restricts us when we go out for meals or overseas for holidays. After all, it's very stressfull if the only thing he will eat on a week long holiday in a beach resort is pasta with cheese!