I cant get my 2 year old to try new foods!

Question

He sticks to what he likes, and wont even try new things. He gags when he sees spaghetti. What do I do?!

Answer 1

My grand kids were picky at that age. What I did is make it fun, for instance, my granddaughter was into dr. Seuss , green eggs and ham. She would never even try scrambled eggs I got up and made her breakfast one morning, I made her some pretty green scrambled eggs and shes been eating them ever since. If you make their food interesting enough they will try it.

Answer 2

my 2 yr old son is not much of a finicky eater, but when he's try to pull the whole "no, I don't like it " bit, I simply tell him that he must finish what is on his plate and that he will not be able to eat anything else until his next meal. That seems to do the trick. Occasionally, he will say he is full after only being at the table for a few minutes, at that point I ask him to take 2 more bites and then he can get down and go play. More often then not, he ends up eating the whole meal though.  

Answer 3

My daughter was like that too.  And she would find it if you tried to disguise foods in something else.  But I started just putting a little bit of the new food on a plate and also giving her a very little bit of something she liked a lot.  If she ate the thing that was new she got to have more of the thing she liked.  Also I always told her, you don't have to eat it all, you just have to try it.  It can take kids sometimes 20 times or more trying something for their tastebuds to adjust to it so I just made sure she tried it every time and now she eats almost everything.  Good luck.

Answer 4

dont buy into it, if they wont eat and only mess around then tell them either well your done, and remove them from table, or use the tecnique of placing them in the room till they eaten a compromisable amount

dont give them something else, make sure to not let them snack between meals so they are hungry at the meal times

Answer 5

You are at a critical juncture! If you handle this poorly you may wind up with one a 'picky eater'.

Do not offer or even purchase his old foods.

If you must give snacks, give 'real' food only and give it at the table. Children who graze on crackers and Cheerios aren't hungry enough at meal time to accept new foods. A half of a tangerine and a piece of fontina cheese with a whole grain cracker is plenty.

Take a festive and confident approach to new foods. Serve them with a huge smile and show how much you enjoy them.

Do not get into any food ruts and do not repeat foods on subsequent days. Try to serve items just once a week - that hugely expands the child's diet.

Include your child in food preparation. He is old enough to get really excited about cooking. Keep him safe but get him in the kitchen with you.

Take your child to farms and orchards to pick or purchase foods.

Model great eating behavior and make bold eating a virtue. Take you child to a lot of ethnic restaurants and seek out new foods.  

Answer 6

Make it fun!  

Make shapes out of sandwhiches....let him eat with his hands...

Get him involved in making the food!  Let him stir (when safe), cut something easy with a butter knife...

If he's a really boyish boy and likes gross things, you can try saying it's something else.  Like spaghetti could be worms (one of my kids loved this!)..but this can be tricky at age 2, cause they might go and EAT the real gross thing!

Don't give up!  New things are scary, but if you put spaghetti on the plate enough times, it will look familar.

Be creative...but don't make him something different from what you are eating.  Limit snacks and just have fun with it

Answer 7

Cut new foods into tiny bits and mix with the food he loves. I don't have this problem. My 2 year old daughter will try anything she sees me eating.