2 Year Old Not Understanding Value of Food

Next time skip the English muffin altogether and favor the banana!! The banana is much better for him.
I don't think you can teach him "the value" of it at this point, he's way too young to understand what you mean.
However, you are the one that provides him with the food, so it's up to you to decide the size portions that you give him each time!
To avoid waste though, you could eat what he doesn't want. My son who just turned two also doesn't eat all the food he's given. And I usually end up eating it (I'm currently nursing his baby sister though so the extra calories are good for me).
You could serve yourself a small portion just in case you have to eat his portion as well if you're worried about how much you could end up eating.
Also... the best way to teach children is by example. Does he see you or your husband throw away the food you don't eat?

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You can separate the english muffins in half, then cut the half into quarters. Give him a quarter and put the rest in a Ziploc. Also, we cut our bannanas in half or thirds when we give them to our dd. When she wants more, (they stay good after being cut) I cut the little brown end of the third off and give it to her (by cutting the brown off, it looks fresher). This is a good time to start separating your snacks in the tiny snack size ziploc bags. This creates a very small snack for your toddler. I don't think your DS is purposely trying to waste food...but maybe experimenting with different tastes and trying to make decisions on his own. Try talking to him about his senses and teaching fractions through kitchen math. He can even cut his muffin with a butter knife. Talk to him about waste and maybe check out a movie at the library about dumps, recycling and composting. I am sure he would love it.

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My twelve year old does not understand the value of food. Kids never do until they grow up and start paying for it. So I think that it is unreasonable to think that a two year old would ever get that concept.

I think that you did the right thing not giving him the banana when he had not finished the English muffin. There is no real science to this, and more often than not you will probably be throwing away a little food. What I do to reduce waste is small portion sizes, they can always have more, but we start out small.

If it can be saved, I save it for a later snack or a meal tomorrow. With the younger ones, I give them their meals in courses.... start with one food, then once it is gone, we move on to the next food. I don't know why, but the less choice they have they seem to waste less.

Also, if your son knows that this is a way to push your buttons, it might make it more fun for him to not eat his food when you want him to. I would not let him see at all that this bothers you, or he will continue doing this and enjoying it.

This one really gets me too! The only things we've found that work, as far as not wasting, not necessarily getting our kids to understand the value of food, is just giving small portions and encouraging them to really think about what they want. I often let my 4 yo son choose his lunch, but I make sure he knows what's available, so if I pull out something else, he doesn't decide, oh, I wanted THAT! Of course, I get flak from my mother for letting my child make too many decisions, so there's the problem with that. The other thing that I try to remember is that IF I want my children to be exposed to new foods, one of two things are going to happen: 1) he's gonna like it and eat more or 2) he's not gonna like it, meaning I might have to throw a little away AND feed him something else. When we had a compost pile, I tried to justify it that way: everything we threw went back into our garden! It makes me angry, but I also think it's part of being a kid. We should definitely try to teach them to take what they can eat, but there are so many things to learn at mealtime, they can't possibly learn them all at once.

It sounds like you're on the right track. I just give my 2-yr-old son a small portion if I'm not sure he'll eat it. And I say "if you eat it all gone, I'll get you some more." I don't worry about him eating enough, because I know that kids will eat when they are hungry, and if they don't eat much, it's okay. As long as their weight & health are okay. But you're right, they definitely don't understand the "value" of food yet. So I think this is the best way to regulate it. Good luck.

I'd sure teach him now because my daughter just had a friend over for the weekend (7yr.old) and she obviously didn't learn this and drove me nuts with wasting food at our house to point she's not invited over again.

If he is eating a meal and likes what's been offered (has eaten it just fine before) tell him he can't have anything else until he finishes that, if he finishes what you originally gave him then give him a tiny portion of what he is now asking for.

I would say that when he asks for more put like one bite on his plate and if he says he wants more than that tell him he can have a little more when he is done, as for the muffin I would just cut a little peice off for him. good luck

B., yes this can be hard to balance out, first of they will only eat when they are hungry,,one thing you can do is make times that they eat, like have breakfast together, and lunch and dinner, this is not always easy to do, but when you have regular times for eating, it does help structure , however, you simply say i will get you this, if you will eat it all, if you dont eat it, you wont get anything else till you finish it, my oldest son refused to eat for two days, until he puked, but i could not force him, but i knew he would eat eventually , so no problems since, however some kids will see how far you go in getting him something , if you get him stuff every time, he will expect you do everything, so when he has eaten, look at the clock, and usually when you eat is when they will eat, if he just ate a few minutes ago, say ok ill get you something in such and such a time, if you are still hungry, any way just enjoy life and have a great day D. s

Tell him that he cannot have anything else until he eats the first thing he asks for, such as the english muffin. If he does not it, then, he does not get anything. He probably is not very hungry anyway and may be bored, so make sure he has plenty to occupy his day when it is not meal/snack time. Kids won't starve themselves and will eat when they are hungry. Also let him know that you are not running a restaurant so there is only 1 choice. Does he do the same thing at meal time? Ask for something else than what you make? Good luck.

just give him one bite then! my son is very much into the whole im not gonna eat it unless i feed myself thing. last night he had to have the whole carrot, not just a piece, and he did fine, but he didnt eat it all.
try to save things as best you can. sometimes you cant save something for later, but most of the time you can. even toast, kids will eat that later. so try to save what you can.

you have the right mind about wasting. its appalling how much food that each person, each family, each community, each town/city and the whole country wastes! so... just do your best to give smaller portions and see how that works.

I think you are right in not limiting or forcing him to eat foods. Just as you talk of others that don't have enough food, it is important for you son to have food security. Meaning he knows there is enough to eat. Limiting or forcing food can undermine his ability to recognize hunger and fullness, which leads to weight issues.

Maybe asking him "how hungry are you". If he says a little give him very small amounts. I would also not let him tell you what he wants. Give him options and let him choose from those. To many options could lead to his being choosy and deneying one food just to get another.

It is possible that he is testing you. He wants to know that he can eat has much as he wants. Offer foods only at scheduled meals and snacks and continue to let him eat how much he wants.

I just wanted to congratulate you for doing the tough job here! It would be so easy just to capitulate and give them whatever they want, and much harder to teach them your values. Good for you.

Same problem at our house. I hate all the waste, so what I've been doing is this:

Give him one bite of whatever you are going to feed him. If he eats it and wants more, give him more. If he doesn't eat it, offer a second choice, but that's it. If he is hungry he will eat. If he doesn't eat, try it again 45 minutes later. Once you figure out what times of day he will eat the best, it will be easier to feed him with less waste. I also put whatever is left on his plate back in the fridge for next time.

And whenever his cousin comes over I feed him the leftovers- LOL- that kids will eat ANYTHING!

Something else I have found to be helpful: fix the same thing for him as you are fixing for yourself. If that means you have to eat macaroni and cheese or if if it means he has to eat gourmet meals (or whatever you like), either way is ok. My son eats WAY better when we all have the same meal. (Goes against what I thought would work, which would be to fix him something I know he likes no matter what I am having.)

I used to re-offer the same food the next time my son got in his highchair and that way he didn't just ask for food because he knew he could-or whatever else goes through a 2 yr old mind. This seemed to really help him not ask for more if he wasn't going to eat it...he is 2.5 now, but I used to do it all the time when he was about 18mo. Hope this helps.
A.

Hi B.,

Visit a farm at regular intevals and grow your own tomatoes, pumkin plants, parsley, or whatever. Have him help you take care of it and he will see that it takes a long time and work to grow food. Keep asking: can we eat it yet? Talk lovingly to the plants and be in a good mood around them and he will pick up on the importance of respecting plants and being thankful for their produce.

S.

He really can't understand fully yet the value of food. He is in the self stage wehre it is still all about him. I have 5 kids (16,13,4,3,5 months) and the only one that gets to eat when ever is the baby. We have three meals a day. I let my kids choose their breakfast and lunch. I have all of them help in some way with dinner. The kids will snack all day long and then won't eat dinner so I limit them to the number of snacks. I will not let them get something new when they did't eat what they wanted last time. They understand that when I give them a snack, or cook a meal that is it. They can eat it or not but don't ask for something else when you didn't eat what was given before. It is hard for them in the beginning but when you keep at it, then there is no problem.
Good Luck

We went through this with our kids who are now 8 and 5 and sometimes still do. What we would tell them is, "When you are done with your ____, then you can have some _____." Often they would forget about the second thing they wanted.

You've got the right idea also of giving smaller portions. We would cut bagels into fourths for our son. You might consider that for English muffins, too. We would also cut half slices of bread, half bananas, and I would zap veggies as needed. We would also tell our kids, "There is more if you are still hungry," when we would give them these small portions.

This way you're not forcing them to eat more than they need, it does reduce waste, and I think it helps kids get better in tune with what their bodies tell them they need.

But still sometimes food just gets wasted. I think it kinda goes with the territory when food is plentiful as we are fortunate to have.

We had that problem too. We said, "This food is good food. It is not garbage. If you don't want it now, you can have it later." We put it in the fridge and brought it out at the next meal. They finished it before starting their next meal. Pretty soon they understood and the behavior stopped!