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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Two Yr Old WILL Not Eat!!
ChaserT27 11:34 AM 05-19-2011
Ok so I have a little one turned two in November. Had a hell of a time getting her mother previously to feed this child table food as well as to lose the formula. Her mother swears she only gives her baby food now once in a while.

This child will NOT eat for me..anything but junk food or baby food. (I tested her on the baby food the other day and she mowed it no problem!) When she was eating baby food it was not like stage three jars with substance..it was stage two veggies and fruit only.

No matter what i serve - she refuses. I do not know what to do here, she is here 9 hours a day, 5 days per week now and will only eat junky stuff or baby food neither of which I plan on serving her!!!

Her mother said previously she had issues with her and she is very picky (won't eat spaghetti sauce with herbs, or if the chicken is cut up wrong etc.) And yes I believe at her age..she has OCD but I have tried EVERYTHING over the last 3 weeks and she still refuses.

Any one else ever have this issue?
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E Daycare 11:41 AM 05-19-2011
Yup! I have a almost 2yr old who doesnt eat anything but junk either and is still on his "baba" at home. Here I only serve milk in sippys, WHITE milk at that too and only water, no juice. Hes the one that comes with nutter butters at 7:30am because the mom had issues getting out the door and the same mom who said "well we are going to McDonalds for chicken nuggets and fries because its better then no calories" after a day of him not eating here. She has him on pediasure because he wont eat anything says his mom.

No he wont eat anything of substance. Give him a freakin chicken nugget or let him spot the cookie jar and hes all for it. I made coffee cake yesterday and boy did he want 2nds of that!

Im hoping its not the age as my own ds is the same age and literally eats anything. Right now his go to is shredded carrots with hummus. I started feeding my son right from the start, and I dread him becoming picky like my dck. All of my dck have had some sort of problem with eating. No matter what I make at any given time one of the dck wont eat anything on their plate.

Sugar. Im just gonna fill their plates with GRANULATED sugar. Seems to be the only thing they want anyways.
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NiNi.R. 11:46 AM 05-19-2011
How strange for a two year old to still like baby food. I truly believe that hungry enough, kids will eat whats in front of them. One of my DCK, who was 18 months at the time,used to be very picky. At lunch she would push her food around, throw her plate on the floor, anything to keep from eating. When snack time rolled around she was so hungry she would want to eat an entire meal. So by the end of the day all she had ate were a bunch of crackers (or whatever we had ate for snack that day). When I discussed this with DCM she told me to serve her lunch and if she refused to eat it, save it for her for snack. By 3pm she was hungry enough she had no problem eating what I had previously tried to serve her for lunch. After about a week of that, she learned to eat what was in front of her when it was time to eat.
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ChaserT27 11:50 AM 05-19-2011
LOL Granulated sugar plates

No it is not the age, it is def. the upbringing (and lazy parents...sadly!) I have three children one 17, and two 6. All three will eat pretty much ANYTHING and always have. The 6 yr olds were even better then their older sister as I was older and wiser when I had them LOL

My DCK (with the exception of this one) eat everything I serve..veggies included!! But they have been with me full time since before table food so they are not used to junk food. Previously this one was part time 3 days a week and was only present for snack in the afternoon.

I am at the if you are hungry...you will eat but I am getting annoyed at how food is being wasted by trying! I am part of a food program so it is a well balanced - portioned meal..nit simple mac n cheese!
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MN Day Mom 11:53 AM 05-19-2011
Yep I've dealt with this many times. My best advice is put in front of her what you are serving everyone else. If she doesn't eat it, well then she doesn't eat it, but you offered it to her and that is all you really can do. I also would be avoiding baby food at all costs and I also wouldn't be giving this child anything even remotely junky... rule in my house is if you can't eat the good foods then the not so good foods aren't an option.

A child will not starve to death by being a picky or fussy eater.
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boysx5 08:33 AM 05-20-2011
I have an almost three year old here two days a week most days he eats nothing mom and dad still give him a bottle so I guess he fills up on milk I serve it and if he doesn't eat I just tell the mom or dad and don't worry about he doesn't eat for them either.
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sharlan 08:36 AM 05-20-2011
You cannot force feed a 2 yo. Don't make it a fight, offer the food, and let it go. I would definitely hold the milk back, though.
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MG&Lsmom 09:38 AM 05-20-2011
I have a 2.5yo DCB who has been with me for almost 6 months and was the same way until 2 weeks ago. He has major issues with texture and what form or container the food comes in. His only foods were white. Bread, microwave mac&cheese, crackers, cheerios, cheese, bananas, canned pears in syrup, donuts & milk. DCM was getting worried because he wasn't eating at my house and he had lost some weight. They just feed him whatever he'll eat so that they can say he ate. The DR okay'd this apparently.

2 weeks ago I finally got tough with him. He opened his mouth to cry, in went a piece of chicken. Guess what? He was SO hungry he ate a whole chicken breast. He was literally starving. He wouldn't put the food in his mouth himself, but after 2 "forced" bites, he started screaming for more. You could hear his stomach growl and almost see him salivate. Flame me all you want. But DCM was gearing up to report to the DR that I was not feeding him. He's eating now. Eating well too. And he's more eager to eat if I feed him the first couple of bites. I walk away for 2 mins, plate is normally empty.
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jojosmommy 12:11 PM 05-20-2011
I have had some picky eaters and it is usually the ones that get cookies in the car every morning and afternoon. Oreo faces when they come in and mom bribing them with the cookies out loud on the way out. If you are too lazy to put any effort into feeding your own kids healthly foods I am not going to bother either. I serve only healthy foods here and if they don't like it the dont eat it. I don't even tell them what they ate, most the time they don't ask or care anyway.

I would hold off on the milk; usually if they are too dependent on milk they won't eat the other foods. And no way would I bother with baby food. Too expensive and probably not enough nutrients for a child that age/size anyway.

I think if you always conceed to your child and just give him something "to make sure he eats today" like the nugget example the kids know they will never be hungry enough to actually HAVE to try anything else. Nuggets are only a short hunger strike away.
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cheerfuldom 12:13 PM 05-20-2011
I had a two year old like this as well and her parents basically depended on me to feed her and they would offer her pediasure at home. She had no clue how to feed herself either. I could get her to eat by spoon feeding her or sitting right next to her for constant instruction during meals. Stubborn and picky plus mom and dad catered to it so there wasn't much I could do. I just stuck it out because they recently termed anyway.
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youretooloud 12:18 PM 05-20-2011
I stopped taking kids with feeding problems several years ago. A picky eater and a child with an actual feeding problem are very different.

If a parent calls and says her 15 month old only eats pureed foods, or they waited til 12 months to start any solids, I usually don't want that child. The stress it puts on me just is too much. It's not my "thing". I'm fine with some problems, but not with others.

I would suggest they talk to a doctor about getting the child into a feeding therapy program. http://www.reflux.org/reflux/webdoc0...m?OpenDocument

http://www.njpfa.com/services/feedingtherapy.html
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Live and Learn 12:55 PM 05-20-2011
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink!

Give him the same food as everyone else and get on with your life.

He has learned somewhere that refusing to eat will get him extra attention and possibly a custom made meal. Don't reward him for this behavior.
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Hailee 02:23 PM 08-30-2019
My son just started daycare 4 days ago and is having a hard time eating.. so I googled it and this is what came up.
This thread actually makes me feel bad about myself.
You don't know what those parents have been threw..
Thanks for making me feel like a shitty mother.
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Ariana 02:34 PM 08-30-2019
Originally Posted by Hailee:
My son just started daycare 4 days ago and is having a hard time eating.. so I googled it and this is what came up.
This thread actually makes me feel bad about myself.
You don't know what those parents have been threw..
Thanks for making me feel like a shitty mother.
Do you feed your 2 year old child junk food, baby food and pouches? If so then this is the wakeup call. You’re welcome.
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hwichlaz 09:50 AM 09-04-2019
Originally Posted by Hailee:
My son just started daycare 4 days ago and is having a hard time eating.. so I googled it and this is what came up.
This thread actually makes me feel bad about myself.
You don't know what those parents have been threw..
Thanks for making me feel like a shitty mother.
What they are putting their kids through is 100 times more important than what the parent is going through. You caused the problem, so fix it.
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Heidi 07:17 PM 09-04-2019
Originally Posted by Hailee:
My son just started daycare 4 days ago and is having a hard time eating.. so I googled it and this is what came up.
This thread actually makes me feel bad about myself.
You don't know what those parents have been threw..
Thanks for making me feel like a shitty mother.
This thread is 8 years old. The above mentioned 2 year old is 10 now! I wonder if he's still eating only baby food?

As far as being a "shitty" mother, hopefully you base your self-esteem on more than a few comments from strangers on the internet.

As for what you've "been through", I don't know what that has to do with what you feed your child. Everybody goes through stuff. Just educate yourself and do your best.
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gonecrazy 06:53 AM 09-06-2019
I have a 2 1/2 year old in my care who does this at times. He's usually a really good eater but there are times when he just refuses. I think it's totally a control issue with him because those are usually the days that his behavior is horrible too. I put the meal in front of him and tell him to eat. If he refuses or says he is done I tell him again to eat. If he just sits there I give him about 5 minutes then I take the food and send him on to the next part of our routine (playtime, nap, etc). I don't try to force him to eat but I don't make anything else and he gets nothing else until the next meal/snack time. On those days he also gets nothing junky or sweet to eat. My routine for kids his age are milk for breakfast, water for lunch and in between and he can have milk at snack time if he asks for it. If he doesn't ask he gets water then too. No juice and no flavored milks here either.
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LostMyMarbles 02:09 PM 09-06-2019
Originally Posted by MN Day Mom:
Yep I've dealt with this many times. My best advice is put in front of her what you are serving everyone else. If she doesn't eat it, well then she doesn't eat it, but you offered it to her and that is all you really can do. I also would be avoiding baby food at all costs and I also wouldn't be giving this child anything even remotely junky... rule in my house is if you can't eat the good foods then the not so good foods aren't an option.

A child will not starve to death by being a picky or fussy eater.
This all the way. Eat it or don’t. No your problem.
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Meeko 04:56 PM 09-06-2019
I offer food. They can take or leave it. Done.
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lblanke 07:02 PM 09-06-2019
Did you see the recent news story about the teenager who went blind because he would only eat a few foods? Developed a severe neuropathy and optic neuropathy. His weight ad calorie intake were normal, but he had had low B12 (probably other vitamins, too). Perhaps a sensory processing disorder?
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Tags:2 year old, 2011, won't eat
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