Toddler Feeding Troubles

There comes a time when he will have to feed himself and finger foods will not cut it. I don't think that you want him thinking it is acceptable to using is finger for all food. And you certainly do not wanto be feeding him... My advise, assuming that your child is old enought to use silverware and he is doing it just to be a stinker... Tough love. If he doesn't eat he doesn't eat. He will probably eat the next meal. He won't do anything that is going to hurt himself, it is not in human nature, he will eat when he is hungary. Of course if he is just learning how to use silverware that is differnt. Then you have to find foods that he likes and just let him tear into it. Make a big deal about it when he does the behavior that you want to see.

My toddler often refuses food when he's not hungry, how can I tell? The moment he sees someone setting up the table, he run as fast as he could to get to the table, sometimes he even tries to reach up and get his own spoon. Make it a point not to feed any snack or milk formula to you toddler 1-2 hours before mealtime, he'll be hungry and he'll eat anything that's offered to him. I'm not saying that you should starve your kid, it's just a matter of training him to eat on the right time.

While making meal for him, let him help u a bit, like passing something adding something, this will create interest for food in him generally. Let him try ut is hand in the plate and feel the texture of the food.He will gradually start putting food in mouth and start tasting it...Also try "one spoon" rulei.e allow him to eat a small spoon and taste the food first..

First I would be sure to have his ears and digestive system checked out by the Pediatrician. Rule out any medical conditions that may be the cause. I have seen from ear infections to ulcers in babies causing them to have the same reaction as your little one. Once you have ruled out any problems there, then take the best advice my Pediatrician gave me, relax. Children have to eat and when they get hungry, they will. Under four, you may have to adjust to his meal times until he is old enough to better understand and then slowly work him to yours.

Hi writermom! I'm a mom to 2 toddlers and what has worked for me is this: i make sure that the two kids always eat at the table with me and my husband. i don't feed them in front of the tv or while they're playing or running around so they won't get distracted with other things. what i did with my two year old and what i'm doing with my one year old now is, i give her a spoon of her own to play with--which might work with your son since he needs to be playing with something--while i'm feeding her. she imitates what we're doing so she puts her spoon in her mouth too, as if she's feeding herself. once in a while, i let her feed herself too so she'll get used to it. i hope i've helped somehow.

Take your emotions out of the equation. He can tell you are anxious and you give him attention. Kids are like animals, they can feel the energy around them. Before you feed him, go in a seperate room and get in a good, calm mind set. When you come back in he will feel it. Put the food in front of him and go about eating your meal or cleaning the kitchen. For the most part ignore him or make small talk not related to food. He creates havic because he gets attention for it. If he feeds himself, great, give him some praise. Don't overdo it or it will take away from his own sense of accomplishment. If he doesn't eat, don't offer to feed him. Babies naturally want to feed themselves, my six month old takes the spoon from me to feed herself. It has nothing to do with food for him. It is all about the attention and control. He is testing boundaries. Let him try to use his fingers in applesauce and let him experiment and make a mess. This is very good for brain development. If he gets hungery he will eat. I know this works because the same idea worked for me when my son went to preschool. He was all excited to go but when the time came he through a fit and screamed and clung to me. This was not normal behavior for him and that made me anxious. After two weeks of doing that I just cleared my head and set a positive tone. He screamed when I left and I told him in a cheerful voice I would be back when he was done, put him in the teachers arms and promptly left. He didn't get the reaction he wanted and he hasn't done it since.

How old is your toddler because age has a very big impact on his eating habbits. If you find that he will eat finger foods with no problem then just offer him finger foods. When he is ready to eat with a spoon he will dont try to force anything on him. If he is not eating the baby food then stop giving it to him he is telling you he is ready to move on to the next level which is finger foods. Have him eat at the same time as you do and he will see you using your utensils and eventually show an intrest in them and try to use them. Over all be patient he will get it in time.

I think you are the best judge but you should try and delay the time of meal till he is really hungry and put away all toys during meal time.Try cooking something light at home and feed him that. give him solids like fruits you can use these tips Ripe bananas have a brown skin with spots. Mash a little bit. Other fresh fruits can be ripe cantaloupe, peaches, apricots, pears, prunes -prunes are especially good for constipated babies. you can use these recipies to feed your toddler than baby food they are nutritious,easy to prpare and tasty. (garnishing is optional for all dishes) Kheer or rice pudding Rice - 1/2 Cup Milk 4 cups Condensed Milk 1 cup Sugar - 2 cups OPTIONAL Cashews, Elachi powder and Saffron Preparation 1 Fry the milk powder in Ghee (Golden color). Keep it aside. 2 Cook 1/2 cup rice with 1 cup water and 1/4 cup milk. 3 Meanwhile, boil milk, in reduced flame, add condensed milk. 4 Soak one spoon of raw-rice and 10-15 cashews in milk for 10 minutes. Grind it to a coarse paste. Add to the boiling milk. Add 2 cups of sugar, stir till it dissolves. samolina pudding 1 cup suji (semolina) ¾ cup sugar 1.5 cup whole milk 1.5 cup water 3 tablespoon ghee, butter or margarine 1/ teaspoon cardamom (Elaichi) 2 tablespoon raisin Garnish 2 tablespoon raisin 2 tablespoon cashew nuts Preparation 1 Heat ghee, butter or margarine in a wok. 2 Add Cardamom and heat few seconds in medium heat. 3 Add Semolina and heat for few minutes with constant stirring in low-medium heat. 4 Add sugar and half of both raisin, and cashew. Heat few more minutes in low-medium heat. 5 Add water and milk. Mix well and heat until you get desired consistency. (Usually somewhat like watery dough or thick pudding) 6 Garnish with remaining raisin and cashew nuts. 7 Serve either hot (preferred) or cold. 3)Ravai Uppamma (Semolina Upama) 2 Katories / cups of Rava or Sooji (cream of wheat) 1 Katori of mixed vegetables such as Carrots, Green peas, Cauliflower etc finely cut and boiled till tender 1 medium size onion 2 green chilies or as per taste 1 tablespoon of chopped curry leaves 1 tablespoon ginger finely cut 1 teaspoon mustard seed 1 teaspoon black gram Dal (washed) or Dhuli Urad 2 tablespoon of oil Salt to taste Optional Garnish: Roasted Cashews Preparation 1 Roast Rava or Sooji (cream of wheat) in a non-stick pan till golden brown. KEEP IT SEPERATELY. 2 Put the required oil and add mustard seeds and black Gram Dal or Dhuli Urad. 3 When it starts fluttering, put chopped onions, green chilies, curry leaves and finely cut ginger 4 When onion turns brown add the roasted Rava or Sooji and sauté nicely.Add salt and cooked vegetable (optional) and sauté nicely. 5 Then in a medium flame add about 4 Katories/cups of luke warm water and mix well. 6 To avoid lumps keep on stiring till the Uppamma. 7 Surve hot with cocunut chutney. 8 If desired add roasted cashews before serving. This can be made only with samolina no need to add raisinsdfor the kid or grind them in mixer if you wish to add them.This serves four people so adjust accordingly.They all are tasty and your child will definately love them

I don't think there is anything wrong with your toddler. Your toddler is at a point were they are learning and there is so much to see and to say busy. Is far as using a spoon your toddler for use one someday. Mine did when she wanted to be a big girl.

my daughter was the same way until we started eating with us and she ate what we did now she is actully eating she is still picky she mainly likes pasta;s and stuffings.i would just keep on trying it will get easier.try different things.

i understand making toddlers eat is the biggest problem faced by all the mothers.if you encourage him and praise him for all that he has eaten i guess he will coperate with you to eat.he just wants all to rcognise his performance.

my girl is 3.5 years and she eats everything i eat sometimes even the spicy one...we parent usually force our kid to eat when its really meal time...remember if your kid is still having milk then most probably during our mealtime the kid might be still full and don't feel like eating yet...for me i would wait when she will ask me for milk then i will tell her she hasn't eaten any solid yet...telling her she needs to eat before she can have her milk...then later she not ask for milk as she is full already...

its normal for a toddler to be very picky in foods... let him choose food so that he has the interest and you can give him finger foods... to be able the toddler handle food in the table you should prepare food in a table which your child likes... for example you show a two types of foods, then let him choose which she or he prefer... or like in juice, for example let him choose between an orange juice or a grape juice... i hope you get my point... :) i cant barely explain coz i'm getting too sleepy here hehehe :) jaz be patience, its normal for them :)

this is a very typical problem. my mom went through this with my brother and sister, i also went through this for a while with my daughter. luckily, my daughter "changed" her ways. what is important is not the quantity of food you feed your child but the quality of food you give him. how old is your child? I used to force feed my daughter, we'd spend hours and hours trying to get her to eat. she outgrew this behavior when I started giving her chinese vitamins and i think it improved her appetite. she's now 4 and I'd say she isn't a very picky eater anymore.

I had a picky toddler too and I was always worried about him getting enough to eat. It used to stress me out so bad because I was always worried that he was going to starve. I finally took him to his Ped and was told that he would eat if/when he was hungry and to pretty much let him feel he was in charge of his eating. I relaxed some, he ate when he felt like it and now he's a happy, healthy 5 year old who will eat pretty much whatever you put on his plate (shhh...this includes veggies...LOL)

This is very very typical. I think most parents go through this stage with their toddler. To introduce him to spoon feeding himself, grab something he'll likely eat. And be warned! IT WILL GET MESSY!! Lol. My son's favorite was a chocolate pudding cup. Hand the cup to him along with a spoon. My guess is, he'll pick up the spoon and experiement, or he may use his fingers! But, he'll soon find out that using the spoon will get him more pudding at a time. Other than that, a child will eat when he's hungry. He's not worried about weight issues I promise! Lol. If he's a happy, healthy child, let him pick his own schedule. As long as he's not losing weight, or becoming sick often, he's perfectly normal.

how old is your son? will he eat non-finger foods with his fingers? Honestly i don;t have children yet, but i volunteered at a nursery for teen mothers, so i have some solid experience with them. The kids I helped with were between 1 & 2, and they would eat regular foods, meats, peas, green beans, fries, fruit, etc. with their hands. They always had a fork and spoon available, but most didn;t use them at first. So I would say to try and let him eat any foods, not just finger foods, with his hands, which will get him used to the idea of feeding himself and eating regular food, and provide a fork and or spoon for him to use when he's ready. Also, after a while if he still doesn;t like the fork/spoon, take note of his absolute favorite foods and try to get him to eat those with the utensils so maybe he will at least be motivated to eat with them to get his favorite food. In the end, all kids mature at different times, so try not to stress too much, you're stress will only cause him more stress and thats just a nasty cycle! Good luck!

Maybe he is just not hungry when you are trying to feed him. They say that kids will eat when they hungry & it is best to let the child decide when that is. I am sure that in time he will get to the point to where he will feeding himself. He may be one of those kids that has to do everything on their own time line. I know how frustrating it can be in the meantime though.

If he only wants finger foods, then give him finger foods. By allowing him to feed himself, not only will you gain feeding time for you and the rest of your family, but you will allow him to further develope much needed motor skills. Try the ravioli by gerber. my daughter lived on that and cut up veggies for the longest time. also small sandwiches too worked well. If he isn't showing much interest in food, throw out the toys at meal time, you want him to pay attention to what he's eating so he makes healthy choices in the future and this will also help good table manners in early childhood. Try cutting down on his snacks before mealtime to help build up his appetite or cut his bottles in half before his meals. I hope this helps.