Help! Almost 3 Year Old Doesn't Eat!

I would say feed him what he'll eat and give him vitamins. He has plenty of years to widen his variety. But, he'll eat when he's hungry, try not to worry so much about it. My parents never made us eat what we didn't like, we very picky and never made us eat when we weren't hungry. The doctor said make them what they will eat, they'll be fine and we both are. Hope this helps.

I dont know how abnormal that is. Most kids have a pretty boring and repetitive diet of what they like. Dont feel bad.
My sister in law made such a HUGE deal out of my nephew not eating, that it became a big power struggle with them when he was only 3 and still continues now that he is 9.
I say, feed him things that he'll eat if you're concerned and don't comment on it. I worry about giving food too much power and making it a source for a disorder. It's just food.
I understand not wanting to make a separate meal for him, but what can you do? My oldest child is super picky. She has a choice - eat what I prepare completely or eat Ritz crackers dipped in a bowl with peanut butter. I refuse to even spread it for her, because I already made one meal. That's at dinner though. Breakfast and lunch are always kid type things anyways.
Once she turned four, I started making her take three bites of what I made and then she could move on. That worked for us because of her personality. That would NEVER work with my second child. He would just go hungry. So sometimes he does because he refuses to eat anything we have out. He sure eats his breakfast the next day!

I had the same problem with my now-4 year old. Our Pedi said not to worry...they'll eat when they were hungry but I was sick of fixing a meal for us, one for him, and another for the baby.

I used bribery...if you TRY one of everything on your plate then you can have a Gogurt (or whatever got him excited). I would put one TINY scoop of everything on his plate and he would have to have at least one bite of each item. It was amazing how he would take his one bite and then eat his choice of food and then go back to his plate to eat again. We did this 'you have to try one of everything approach' for about 1 full week (at all meals) and there were some times that he would cry and scream for chicken nuggets. We stuck our ground...Try one bite of everything and then you can have a chicken nugget. He would even take a bite and chew on it for about 5 minutes because he didn't want to swallow and half the time he would gag and act rediculous. But he found that he likes fruit and will now eat raw carrots and every meat we put in front of him. We also called all meat chicken and added katchup to his plate.

Good luck. My biggest advice is one you start something...be consistent and don't revert back.

The experts say that you need to make, on average, 15 attempts in order to get a child to try eat a new food. And also to do it in small portions; for instance, only put 10 peas on the plate, every day for 15 days, and ask your child to try one or two. Don't overstress it . . . be casual and don't overreact if he keeps saying no.

Now, as a mother of a 13 year old who is a very picky eater and has been since she was 18 months old, I learned not to sweat the small stuff. Make sure you're giving your son multivitamins. My daughter is still only willing to eat a few items prepared in limited ways, but I try to make the most of it. She is pretty good about eating fruit, so I always makes sure she eats some type of fruit with her meals. The only veggie she eats, to this day, is corn, although occasionally she'll munch on raw, fresh green beans. I think she partly inherited her picky habits from her father, who is not a man willing to try new foods. And I do wish I had tried harder when she was younger, but I fretted so much that she would starve that I caved in! But I learned my lesson and was much better about it with my second daughter, who is a good eater.

Hi L.,
Lucky you if he eats 4 different types of meals! ")
Sorry I just couldn't help myself. I have an almost 4 year old (in July) that LIVES on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken nuggets and chocolate milk and apple juice! He loves most fruit of course but in general eating is difficult for him. Some children at this age go through a stage of not wanting to eat certain foods not so much because of taste but texture. The best thing you can do is make sure he is on a great multi vitamin and maybe see if he'll drink some of those milkly toddler drinks for added calories. Keep introducing your regular meals with him in small amounts. My advice? Well it's not much but I would suggest that you try and not make a big deal out of it and also keep in mind that in a few years he'll be eating you out of house and home! Honest.
C.

The best advice I ever got was at a parenting class on natural consequences. And it worked! If the child won't eat what is served (no fixing special meals for her) then she doesn't get any snacks and only water until the next meal. The doctor assured me that at that age, they are unable to starve themselves and will eventually eat what is served. It took about 2 days of this for my daughter to eat the evening meal. And she only tested whether I still meant it twice after that. Amazingly enough it also worked on her 6 year old cousin who came to visit for a week. His mother had gotten in the habit of fixing him a separate meal. I wouldn't do that and didn't allow her to do that either. I explained to him the rules of the house after telling his mother that I wasn't having HER feed a 6 year old at my table! So he didn't eat supper. He ate breakfast, but not lunch. He didn't say much at snack time when my daughter got a snack and juice and all he got was water. He didn't eat much supper either, but he ate all 3 meals the next day! And he continued to eat whatever I served for the rest of the week. My husband and I enforced the rules and told his mom to take a break from parenting. She tried to stick to the routine at home, but eventually gave in to her son and that was the end of him eating whatever she served until he came to visit us again. It is a pain for several days and you feel horribly guilty, but if you stick it out, it does work. Both my daughters will eat a wide variety of foods now.

Well, some may think I'm overly mean for this, but we've had to do it a few times for our would-be picky-eater. Note that our pediatrician approved before we did it - I think she actually suggested it and said a child would not starve him/herself over a dislike for food.

As a normal routine, at the start of dinner, we give our daughter (who is now 3-1/2) some of each item we are eating (not a large amount, quantity isn't the point here). If she doesn't finish all the items, she can't have seconds. If she doesn't eat at least some (a few good bites) of everything, we put her plate in the fridge and reheat dinner for breakfast. If she doesn't eat it at breakfast, it goes back into the fridge for lunch, etc. We don't force her to clean her plate at dinner, but if she refuses to eat at least a bit of everything at dinner so that we're reheating her food the next day, she has to finish that plate of food before she gets to eat anything else.

We've had her skip both dinner and breakfast on several occasions (probably less than 10 total, but we started this when she was pretty young). Usually, she's hungry enough by lunch to eat it, though we've had her skip lunch too. She's never made it all the way through to the next night's dinner, though. The latest she's ever gone was the end of her nap (afternoon snack). By then, she'll eat whatever it is...and she's convinced by then that it's "yummy!" We've even been known to serve the same thing for leftovers that night (just because we were planning to anyway, not for her benefit) and she'll eat it again.

Yes, this can make for a miserable day...hungry, tired, whiny child. But we don't let her whine and ruin everyone else's day, either...if she won't stop whining she gets to spend time in a "crying chair" away from everyone else. We also remind her that if she's hungry we have food for her in the refrigerator.

And once we do this - and show that we'll follow through - she doesn't push nearly as hard the next time. Most times nowadays if she's refusing to eat something, all we have to do is say that if she doesn't eat at least some of everything now, she'll have it for breakfast...and she starts eating.

For us, one key here is not to give her too much for her first serving. We're not trying to get her to eat a huge quantity of a food she doesn't like. But it's amazing how her tastes have expanded just by repeated exposure to foods that, at first, she didn't want to touch. It used to be she didn't want any veggies or meat...only starches and cheese. Now she likes peas, carrots, and corn (not a lot of veggies, but it's a start) and she'll eat others if we serve them. She still isn't a big fan of meat (I think it's a texture/chewing thing) but she'll eat most meats if we cut them up small enough for her.

Hope this helps!

B.

Hello L.,

how much milk does he drink? does he drink pediasure? when I was giving it to my son (because he didn't want to eat) he ate even less. by the way, how is his fiber consumption? is he ever constipated? are his bowel movements soft or little pellets... if so, cow milk can be the problem. if you're "bloated" you wouldn't be too hungry either. I personally could not tell when my 3yr old was bloated...so I'm just asking questions to see if any thing will help you. good luck and keep trying! I add baby pear food to my kids' chocolate/strawberry milk in the morning (not big fruit eaters... well... not big eaters so I have to be sneaky.
~C.~