How to you get a 2 year old who is on half table food/half Gerber 3 to be willing to eat all table foods?

Question

My 5 year old didn't have this problem. She was easy to convert to table foods by 3 years old. My 2 year old will turn 3 on June 29th. She will eat some table foods like yogart, pudding, green bean casserol, stove top stuffing, things like that. She used to eat nutter butters but stopped after 2 months. Even if I made sure she didn't have them every day so she didn't get tired of it. She is going into daycare in August and they only use table foods for 2-3 year olds. My 5 year old starts K5 an I'm not worried about her. My 2 year old will only eat cherrios if I feed them to her by hand or they will wind up on the floor (like half of every thing else). I'm thinking I will have to just keep putting food infront of her that they will eat at the daycare and if she's hungry hopefully she'll eat it. Any suggestions? I've done the whole put it infront of them 15 or so times. Sometimes she will eventually eat it sometimes not. Suggestions will be appreciated to make this transition easier.

Answer 1

just give her the table top food... evenually she will eat only that, then slowly add more kinds of food..

Answer 2

it truthfully sounds like a sensory or a muscle thing to me. can she talk? If she has poor muscle tone in her mouth, it may be hard for her to handle table food. it may also be a sensory thing...the texture of whole foods may be unpleasant, even painful for her. I would start with small things like canned peas and carrotts. Let her try to feed herself while you feed her the baby food. every week or so add some chunkier textures and reduce the amount of baby food you give her. I would definatly ask her doctor for a referral to a feeding clinic. A little boy I Know is 3 and wears size 18 month clothing. we share a speech therapist and she was so excited the day she got this boy to suck the salt off a cracker!!! he goes to a feeding clinic to help his mom figure out how to get him to eat...he just won't do it.

Answer 3

It sounds to me like you need to try the "here's the food, eat it or be hungry" technique. It sounds like you have a picky 2 year old. Don't worry so much. Just make whatever you want her to eat, tell her that's what's for lunch/dinner and leave her with it. If she doesn't eat it, don't give her something else. Do the same thing for a few days and she'll get the drift real fast. She knows she's being picky because you'll give her what she likes instead.

You'll be much better off giving her less choices and she'll adjust much better to daycare. Good luck, I know it's tough.

Answer 4

My 23 month old son eats nothing but table food and has done so now for about six months. I just stopped buying baby food. My thought is that he will either eat whats in front of him or go hungry. As long as she is physically capable of eating it, i would just stop the baby food altogether.  (plus you'll save money:)) She will probably get mad but after a few days or so i am sure you will see her start to develop a liking to real food.  It does tend to have more flavor. A trick would be to let her 'season' her own food.  buy her a shaker that's just for her and put some seasonings in it (not salt) and let her add it to her own food. Or let her dip it all in ketchup, that always works when my son won't eat something.

Answer 5

don't worry to much I bet she will just follow what the other kids do the usually do

Answer 6

There are some conessions you can make (for example my seond daughter wouldn't eat carrots and apples until after her third birthday because of the hard texture so we gave her canned carrots, she still had to eat carrots with the rest of us, they were just different) and others where you kind of have to stand your ground. With our daughters once they reached the age of 2 1/2  we kind of have a standing rule, either you eat or go to bed hungry (that is they have all night to come back to dinner but there's no alternative). I know this sounds mean and cruel but honestly, it worked for us. I also know there are docs that say don't force it as it will cause eating disorders later on...of course the other school of thought on that is that if they only eat certain foods they'll also develop eating disorders.

I will admit that I have stopped serving certain foods that my kids just refuse to eat...sloppy joes for one. Seriously, whose kid doesn't like sloppy joes? Anyway, other than that they at the very least need to try everything on their plates if not finish it (we give modest proportions so we're not stuffing them or anything) especially if they want some kind of dessert (which in our house is minimal compared to many of my friends...my kids think 10 M&Ms is a HUGE deal whereas other friends of theirs will eat a whole little baggie of M&Ms).

Dip is also very important to my girls. Personally I don't care if they dip everything they eat into ketchup or ranch dip so long as it gets eaten. Usually to help chicken or veggies go down they'll choose one dip or another. I understand you can't offer her dip at day care but perhaps if she expands her pallate at home this summer she'll be more open to new things in August when she starts day care.

At this point your daughter, barring any fine motor issues, should be feeding herself Cheerios. Is she throwing them on the floor or are they just falling because she's having difficulty getting them into her mouth? If she's throwing them I would tall her, "If you throw them you will be all done." Then, and here's the hard part, you have to follow through with that. It might take her a time or two but if she wants snack badly enough she will learn to feed herself if no other option exists.

Having worked in a day care in the past I also know that sometimes being surrounded by peers who are eating whatever is in front of them can be powerful and your daughter might just dive in and eat stuff she's shunned before.

Hope some of this helps, I realize some isn't directly related to prepping her for day care but perhaps setting the stage at home (which it already sounds like you are) will follow her to day care in August.

Best of luck to you both!

Answer 7

You have it better than I do! My daughter will be 3 in November and she is not eating table food at all. I am in constant contact with her doctors and no one can figure out why she will absolutely refuse to eat table food. Her doctor told me that he does not want me to have the attitude of if she eats it then great if she doesn't then she just doesn't eat. She is on the small side for her age and he is afraid that if I stop feeding her baby food she is going to lose weight and it could be dangerous for her. I am at my witts end with her and don't know what to do. She goes to daycare also and her doctor had sign a note allowing them to feed her baby food. She has a therapist that comes to her daycare 2 times a week also to see if she can help out with the problem. She is starting to get better and I am hopeful that by the time she turns 3 she will be on table food! Hang in there! There is always someone in a worse position than you are! Work with the daycare and I am sure you can both come up with a compromise!

Answer 8

Try mechanical soft foods.  This is a transition between baby foods and solids and are a step up from dissolveables like the gerber puffs.  These don't require as much chewing.  Things like over cooked carrots but what really worked for my 19 month old is soup.  Especially the progresso soups.  Then we went to pastas, and mac and cheese.  After a few months it wasn't an issue and he eats anything now.  He still gets free therapy through early intervention.