23 Month Old Is a Very Picky Eater

Its funny I just posted this same thing a few weeks back... you might try and find it to see what some of these people told me.

Does your child like chicken nuggets? My 22 month old loves them so I bought the vegetarian kind made by Morning Star Farms in green box. They look and taste just like chicken nuggets but they are made from a soy vegetable protien. My son loves them. Also I got the Juicy Juice Healthy Suprise Grape Juice, has no added sugar and is made with carrot juice so he gets a vegetable serving in there.

Now, I know how you feel. I was like he can't NOT EAT. He has to eat. People were telling me "HE WONT STARVE". Well, I let him out of his booster seat and I just take the plate to the living room (not the ideal place you want your child to eat) and as he was playing with his toys he would come by and get a bite. My son is picky....he won't even taste something new...so he almost never eats what we are eating.

My friend said her daughter did well at around age 3 when she made a chart and gave her sticker for every new food she ate....after so many stickers she got to go out for ice cream.

hi, i have a three year old daughter. she will try any thing now, loves all kinds of fruit, veggies, spicey ethnic foods and even a big variety of seafood. (she really wants to try sushi, but i don't know if she can have raw fish yet!) but the point is up until she was two years and eight months, she would only eat carrots, strawberries, cheese and the gerber gradutes turkey sticks. If your concern is he just about getting a variety and not nutririon ( he sounds fine in that area), he'll probably grow out of it. I did! my mom always tells me how would only eat pb&j for years! now i'm a chef, and my daughter will eat anything!

I couldn't do the starve thing either. I just didn't feel it was right for us. What I did was fix his plate with what we were eating and then have some of his food on it also. I would have him take one bite of everything and then he could move on to his favorite. I just didn't make a big deal out of it and my husband and I would fawn over what I had made and sometimes he would take a few more bites. My son is now 4 and eats almost anything I put in front of him including broccoli and spinach. He just doesn't like anything with corn in it. He says it feels bad.

I was having the same problem with my 20 month old son until I bought the book "The Sneaky Chef" by Missy Chase Lapine. It has all different creative ways and recipes to get kids to eat things other than just PB&J or as in my sons case, hot dogs. Some of the recipes haven't worked on my son however some of them have. It's worth it to make a Barnes and Noble run to check it out, it might help.

S.

You could try reverse psychology...Make your dinner and make a big fuss over how good it is, but then also say that he can't have any, that it's only for big people, etc. Then let him "talk you into" letting him try some. Depending on the child, this may work.
Good luck, and don't worry, he won't starve to death. My husband ate only french fries and oatmeal until he was in kindergarten and he is now a very healthy eater.

First, talk to the Pediatrician... if the Ped. is not concerned... and you still are.. ask for a Referral for a Feeding Evaluation from a Speech-Language Pathologist and an Occupational Therapy Evaluation to address your child's food aversion.

He may be resisting new foods if they are of a different texture than what he's currently eating.. which are mushy...

Good Luck!

J.