I forgot about the kids!!

My daughter is underweight so I do give her what she wants, but her options are only healthy. She can have fruits or yogurt or oatmeal or a whole wheat waffle. She is 22 months old and I even let her snack between meals, but it is always something healthy. If she eats her dinner and is still hungry i will let her have pretzels or wheat goldfish or whatever. Maybe I shouldn't let her snack all day, but I snack pretty often so I let her.

What you make is what's to eat! End of story. It will take an adjustment period but they will figure it out. It is not going to hurt the kids one bit if they fuss and refuse to eat a meal here or there. But they will learn a life lesson in choosing healthy options and portions. Stick to it, you are doing it right!!

I agree with what the others have said so far. My niece was having this problem but they had some 'junky' food still in the pantry that she knew was there. So her mom locked that up in the closet and just opened the fridge and pantry to her and said, this is all there is, and you can have whatever you want that is here.

Of course then her only options were cheese, yogurt, fruit and veggies, ect.

She was picky for about a week and a half or so, but then came around and started with the healthy stuff. Now we just went to the beach and instead of eating chips or goldfish like the family, she had ranch and celery with me!

To be honest, I do not think that she should be 'punished' for not eating what you give. At that age eating certain foods is a stage. My kids pediatrician said that we were to introduce healthy choices but if they wouldn't eat it to give them something that they would eat.

To not feed her what you want her to eat, or have her go hours without eating can be detrimental to their development. Think about how you feel if you go hours without eating... it's not a good feeling. Even if it is toast, crackers, a hot dog, the most important thing is that she eats SOMETHING ...

I know she is young but maybe have her help in the process of preparing her food?

IMO, forcing her to eat your food that you pick out or nothing is cruel. Again, just my opinion.

What you make is what's to eat! End of story. It will take an adjustment period but they will figure it out. It is not going to hurt the kids one bit if they fuss and refuse to eat a meal here or there. But they will learn a life lesson in choosing healthy options and portions. Stick to it, you are doing it right!!

Exactly!!! I sat at the table for hour until my plate was clean (shades of "mommy dearest", lol). My parents always said they weren't running a restaurant and even at that time food wasn't going to go to waste. Some people may say well look what happened, you ended up fat. However I have NEVER blamed my parents for my weight... as soon as I was able to start making my own choices and buy my own foods I still chose to buy crap.

Oh, Momma, I know it's hard. Parenting is NOT for wimps! Stand your ground, you got some great advice I've read already. You MUST win this one. It's called a lifestyle change. All must go along for the ride.

Be strong! Perhaps battling with the kiddos also burns calories..?

Stand your ground. It won't be long until she learns that if she wants to eat, she's gonna have to eat what you give her.

The terrible 2s and threatening 3s are all about control. Provide two or three choices (healthy ones) that they can choose between. Then...that's it. Eat it or not but the choices don't change. They get on board pretty quick after a short while. Getting the "junk" out of the house is also a pretty smart idea. On the other hand...with 4 of my other grandchildren here, their mother brought in marshmallow cereal. I was pround of the one grandchild I am raising. She said "No thanks. I want my unhealthy ice cream for dessert at dinner, not first thing in the day." OMG seeing my daughter's face was priceless. hehehe.

One of the things i'm trying to teach my children is to eat only when they are hungry and stop when they are full. Now when she starts complaining about hungry give her a apple. Or put her plate in the fridge for later.

When my kids were little they were picky eaters. I found the healthy things they would eat and went with those. There are lots of foods that are kid friendly. Sometimes it is the way you put them together or what you call it. We used to make a hedgehog snack which was low fat cream cheese with sliced carrots stuck in it and sprinkled with raisins.

Part of my reasoning is probably because of having to clean my plate and eat stuff I hated as a kid. I didn't want to impose that on my kids. Now as teens they eat well, healthy and a variety of foods.

Make the food fun! Kids like fun and give her a couple of choices ask her..would you like the banana or apple..and you can even create little thing..a smiley face pancake..whole wheat pancake, slice banana and strawberrys.
They also are more likey to eat the "healthy" food if they help cooked it get her involved maybe one night of a week she can help you cook dinner..stiring something, dumping the measured stuff into another bowl. Kids want to feel like they are doing something and when its done she can say I made dinner and she is more likey to wanna eat because she "made" it!

Hope this helps!

Maybe make the fruit into a chilled smoothie for her in the mornings and give her a half wheat bagel or sandwich round with a little peanut butter for something solid.

You could make the fruit into a smiley face and see if she might be more acceptable to seeing a fun picture with food. Make a game out of eating the eyes, the nose and so on.

You could also set it up like a little buffet and get a small stray type plate and allow her to pick what fruits she wants.

I make "good stuff" into muffins, waffles, pancakes, breakfast "cookies" etc.

Fruit and veggies available when they want or mixed into smoothies. My oldest was underweight a long time with tonsil/adenoid issues and not being able to eat solid foods. I don't let him skip meals. They try whatever we are having, if they don't like it, the option of a plain sandwich is always there.

As for "leaving till the next meal", my oldest (the underweight one) would starve himself, literally- we're talking 1-2 days. The textures of some foods are "off" to him. There are foods I don't like too, I wouldn't want to be forced to eat anything.

Our Dr told us it tends to balance out over the week anyways Don't make food a battle, it is the one thing they can control- what goes in their mouth.

I'm having the same problem with my 3 year old. My 4 1/2 yr old has adjusted wonderfully. With the 3 year old, I have found that if I give him something new (healthy) on the same plate with something he's used to (also healthy), then he will at least try the new thing. He loves yogurt, so if we have something new/different for dinner I give him a small amount of yogurt also. For some reason the familiar food helps him to try new things.
Also, he went through a a stage when he didn't eat anything, and his pediatrician said it was fine. She said he would eat when he gets hungry. I figure this will work the same way. I let the kids know up front that this is what they are having and if they don't eat it, they aren't going to get junky food later.
Also, it helps to not keep the junk food in the house. My kids still ask for pop tarts every morning, even though I haven't bought them in 2 months. If they could choose, they would have pop tarts and cheetoes forevery meal.

My kids both went through a picky stage, but I have always had the "you have to at least try it" rule, they don't have to finish it, but they do have to try it.

Now for a 3 year old that can be trickey....maybe next time give them strawberry yogurt with banana and show them how to dip it the banana into the yogurt.

Another thing I do still, is I puree extra veggies into marinara sauce (like when we have spaghetti or lasagna). LOL That way they're getting something they REALLY like, but it has extra veggies they don't "see". I'll puree zucchini, squash, carrots, etc... I also make breakfast smoothies - last week I made a strawberry & kiwi one for my son and he LOVED it. My daughter loves banana and almond butter smoothies. She has 1/2 of one for breakfast w/ toast.

Does your toddler like oatmeal? You can make homemade oatmeal and add banana or strawberries or raisins or blueberries or some peanut butter....YUM!!! just another idea on how to incorporate fruits w/ meals....

There's lots of little ways you can get your children to eat healthier, you just gotta find little tricks. I like the idea of encouraging your toddler to help you make snacks (peanut butter & celery w/ raisins = ants on a log) - your toddler could put the raisins on the celery "logs" (as an idea).