2 year old refuses to eat solid food

[dalvin]

Hi All,

I have a 2 year old daughter who refuses to eat chunky solid food.

She only eats if the food is pureed or mashed. She does not like chunky pieces of food in her mouth and will refuse to bite and swallow her food and will spit the food out.

I have tried introducing smaller chunky bits of food in her porridge which she refuses as well.

I am to my wits end with regards to her feeding habits. Any suggestion or help will be deeply appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Mummy to Baby V]

If a child's introduced to chunkier texture too late, she could be too "lazy" to chew. This is common among Asians who feed child porridge through 2-3 years old. (My boy started rejecting porridge at 12 months and started to take rice. Since then, I stopped mashing his food, just cut into smaller bits.)

How about introducing interesting finger food? Has she tried toasted bread, o-shaped cereals or biscuits? (Wholemeal ones are healthy options.)
Baked potatoes with some cheese are popular too.

Gradually, introduce colorful pasta (color comes from vegetables such as spinach and beetroot), noodles and soupy rice.

When you eat, show her how to chew and look really interested in eating the delicious food. This may get her interested to imitate you.

Or let her help you prepare simple snacks or meals. She may be interested to eat her craftwork.

2-year old is a good age to inject fun into everything. All the best!

 

[dalvin]

Thanks so much for the suggestions,

I actually started introducing her to finger foods at quite an early age but what she does is she would lick whatever she was holding, example garlic bread, toast bread, biscuits. The moment she tastes it and if she decides that she doesn't like the taste she would immediately throw the food away. Even when family members are eating their meals and we try to put some of the food in her mouth she would turn her face away.

As long as the chunkier bits are not mixed with porridge or soup which she can readily swallow instead of chewing and swallowing, she would not swallow her food. On the other hand, she loves fries and she would stuff a few fries in her mouth and chew and chew and chew, and like you had mentioned, I would show her my action of biting and swallowing the food, but after all the chewing she does, she would spit out the fries. She can chew her food but refuses to swallow.

As long as the food is dry and not soupy or mixed in porridge she just spits it out the moment she puts it in her mouth.

 

[kittycathyid]

Thanks so much for the suggestions,

I actually started introducing her to finger foods at quite an early age but what she does is she would lick whatever she was holding, example garlic bread, toast bread, biscuits. The moment she tastes it and if she decides that she doesn't like the taste she would immediately throw the food away. Even when family members are eating their meals and we try to put some of the food in her mouth she would turn her face away.

As long as the chunkier bits are not mixed with porridge or soup which she can readily swallow instead of chewing and swallowing, she would not swallow her food. On the other hand, she loves fries and she would stuff a few fries in her mouth and chew and chew and chew, and like you had mentioned, I would show her my action of biting and swallowing the food, but after all the chewing she does, she would spit out the fries. She can chew her food but refuses to swallow.

As long as the food is dry and not soupy or mixed in porridge she just spits it out the moment she puts it in her mouth.

hi..i hv 18mths old daughter which has same habits with your daughter, she is really very picky eater.
May i know whether you have overcome the difficulty of giving your daughter solid food? Appreciate much your sharing. thanks.

 

[lyra]

My 12 month old doesn't like to eat too,not just chunky food but porridge too. What I do is to keep introducing new n interesting flavours for him to try. Hearing ur prob makes me afraid that he too will be like ur gal when he's 2. Haha. I was kind of hoping he'll get pass this stage of not wanting to eat food. The only thing he loves is mummy's milk.

 

[tash]

Same problem with my son..he is 1yr + now..but don't want to eat anything...everything in purée/mashed if I try harder he just vomit....but don't want to eat...