2 1/2 Year Old Will Not Eat...

You might look into the possibility of food allergies/intolerances. Sometimes a picky eater is picky 'cause their body doesn't like certain foods. And strangely enough, prime suspects will be things she will always EAT as well as things she always avoids.

Some things that helped me get my son to eat were feeding him while he was watching TV (I'd put it on while I cooked--he was rather high needs attentionwise--and if I gave him food he'd pick at it while he watched) and trying to make things more interesting. Cutting food into fun shapes, letting him use chopsticks, doing lots of foods w/things to dip into, etc. He's 4 1/2 now and some of that still works sometimes!

Best of luck!

How much are you giving her to drink? If she is filling up on liquids, she is not going to be hungry and that is especially true if she is getting starchy foods during the times she does eat.

I had to limit my children to only getting drinks after they ate their meals in order to get them to eat.

Also, is this something that just started or
is it an ongoing thing. Some children go through drastic changes in eating habits whether they are going through growth spurts or not. Good luck!

Make it a GREAT day!

S.

my daughter and your daughter must talk cause that is exactly what she was like. OK joking aside that is what my daughter was like. She is 2 1/2 also and that was all she wanted to so since about 18 months was drink and not eat. So I would give her milk and smoothies and juice all the time. Then I decide I had had enough. So first I just started giving her a meal with nothing to drink. After she ate about half of it I would give her a drink. Then I decided no more smoothies or juice. and that helped a ton! Now for breakfast there are no smoothies so if she is hungry she eats a waffle or oatmeal etc. I thought it was going to be hard to break her but once it was out of the house she just realized it wasn't there so she can't have it. But also remember that if there is food to eat a kid won't starve themselves so don't worry about that. My daughter is 3 feet tall and weighs 31 pounds so for a 2 1/2 year old she big for her age. So again just take away all the liquids and you'll see a change.

I agree with Tiffany. Don't give her anything to drink until she has eaten something. Do remember that kids this age tend to eat less than they did before. I would recommend that you do not let nutitional drinks like Boost become her diet. She needs to eat real food. Just let the drink be her dessert and make sure you are giving her a multi-vitamin every day.

C., I'm going to assume that your daughter is healthy - that she isn't losing weight or having other problems. If I were you, I would first check with my doctor or pediatrician. Then, with doctor's OK, I would (gasp!)leave it alone for a while.

Two-year-olds do this so often it is practically part of the job description. They know by this time that Mama is boss over a lot of things, but the food they eat is something THEY can control! What a feeling of power - and sometimes they can control Mama's behavior with it, too! They're not being mean - they're just being two. You, on the other hand, need to pick your battles carefully, and you want to pick the ones you can win.

Stay cool (and watchful), and keep your sense of humor. Serve healthy meals and snacks at regular times, and give her a chance to eat, but if she doesn't, let it go. Don't let her (polite) refusal get a rise out of you, and don't serve any food between scheduled times. Believe me, when she is hungry, she will eat.

And keep up the good work in teaching good manners - that's great!

My son was a huge milk drinker -- more than 30 oz a day -- and he wasn't eating much. So we switched from milk to water for most of the day and only gave milk AFTER he at his meal for a while. That worked for us. He still really likes milk (still drinks about 24 oz a day) but he eats his meals too.
You don't mention what she's drinking -- if it's fruit juice, you can just drop that completely. Whole fruit, not just the juice is better for you. If it's milk, just limit it to what her pediatrician recommends.
Good luck!

Is she drinking only water or is she drinking juice and milk? If she is drinking juice and milk, it might be filling her up enough so she doesn't want food. If this is the case, maybe try giving her only water so she gets hungry. At least she answers you politely! LOL

My girlfriend had this happen and for the longest time they would just add instant breakfast to her milk to help with the calorie intake. You can also do yogurt milk...adding the drinkable yogurt to her milk or letting her drink yogurt, or doing smoothies. Myu kids love green smothies and they are drinkable. I put 3 cups oj and one banana in the blender then add 1/2 pound of spinach. Other than the fast that it is green you can't tell by taste that there is spinach in it. I can drink way more greens than I could eat and it would sure help her get her vegtables. Try not to control it but maybe find ways to add nutrients to what she will do. Good luck!

A few things I learned that were just good tips from Children's Feeding Clinic --
Reserve all liquids until after meals (no milk, juice or water before/ during meals).
Everyone (parents included) must sit together and eat all meals. The only rule here is that he parents MUST eat and model eating (smelling, tasting, exclaiming).
Play eating games -- restaurant, etc.
Then in order for us to get more calories we added carnation instant breakfast (1 packet divided through the day).

Now -- really the first question -- is she growing, is your doctor concerned? If the doctor is not concerned it may be just fine but keep offering foods and don't let her fill up on liquids first. Have set meal/snack times and keep to them.

Good luck

What is it that she is drinking so much? If it is milk or juice then stop giving her so much of it. Give her only 1 cup of juice and 2 cups of milk at the most, then water for every other drink. Maybe she is not eating because she is getting too many calories from her drinks. Good luck!

Hopefully this is all just a behavioral thing, but please know that what you're describing is a classic symptom of type 1 diabetes. It's definitely worth ruling out!

Along with some of the other great advice you've been given...just keep offering a wide variety of foods at each meal and don't allow her to leave the table until mealtime is over (for a 2 1/2 year old that can be 10-15 minutes without tantrums). Make sure you are not offering too many snacks. A 2 1/2 year old may not need regular snacks every day...try giving snacks only when your daughter asks for them and not before a meal. I've stopped allowing snacks after dinner as well. My daughter has a habit of refusing her meals then asking for a snack 20 minutes later. I will allow her to sit down at the table and eat what we had for dinner but she does not get a "snack". Also...at 2 1/2 you daughter doesn't need as much milk as she needed before she turned 2...it sounds like (if she is happy and continuing to grow and develop normally) that she is getting the calories that she needs in liquid form and possibly snacks...not the best source of calories as you are obviously aware but relatively easy to fix.

Hi C.,

A "nibble tray" worked great for my son when we experienced the. Use an ice tray or a muffin tray and in each bin put different fruits and veggies, nuts, beans, etc and put it down at her level and let her graze. If you'd like to learn more about family nutrition, check out this webinar by Dr Sears, it's sponsored by Juice Plus and I think you'll really enjoy it. https://www.nsavirtualoffice.com/uploads/fckeditor/nsa/Fl...

Feel free to call me if you have any questions. ###-###-####

L.

What is she drinking? Unless it's just water, she's probably filling up on that. Limit milk to 16 oz a day, and no juice, punch, or soda.

I have one son that I wonder how he sustains life! He will drink milk or juice all day and barely take a bite of food. It makes me nuts. Basically what I have done is made meal time a set thing, we always sit down (breakfast, lunch and dinner) I put the food in front of him an we all eat. He of course sits there and chats and screws around but sits there. I do not put a drink with his meal anymore. When he asks for something to drink I just tell him he has to have so many bites before I will let him have a drink. It seems to work pretty good. He still doesn't eat much but is healthy so somehow he is getting enough. See if that works and if her check ups are ok then you are probably fine. I do give him a multi-vitamin just to be sure he is getting that at least. Good luck.

I agree with the other responses you've received, but would also add that while you are offering food, until she starts eating, only offer water as a drink. My son went through a phase where he would only drink - but he was drinking milk and filling up on it so he wasn't hungry. While milk is super healthy, it is not meant as a meal replacement and so when we switched to him drinking water, it wasn't as filling so he started eating more. Then we slowly brought milk back in, but only in small doses at meal time. Hope that helps - good luck!