h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How do you get a two-year-old who is only interested in sweets or breakfast cereal to eat REAL food. Short of making chocolate coated chicken nuggets, or something.

Wait until they're older?

Hey, yeah! Now why didn't I think of that? Thanks Mark!

Don't joke! They actually make chocolate flavoured peas and carrots and stuff now, designed with kids in mind. I hear they're pretty gross though.

There are two books called Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, An Author Returns to the Kitchen by Lori Colwin (who has sadly passed away, a loss to American literature). Both are very good, but one (I don't remember which) has an article worth reading called "Real Food for Tots." The secret, she says is to involve your child in planning, shopping for and cooking meals. She also says that kids will pick up on the slightest hint of food anxiety in parents. My own mother made sure to limit sweets and cereals in the house, which to me seemed monstrously unfair at the time but we did learn to eat correctly. You are in a tough situation. The kid is going to protest loudly when you try to make changes, but calm, firmness and good humor will help you both through the situation. Naturally, these are the resources that get used up most quickly in the over-tired mother of a cranky two-year old. Kids also are curious about what's on your plate so it helps to enjoy food and eat healthily yourself. Little kids also tend prefer their foods to be separate from each other and often don't like things mixed together like casseroles, and gravy or sauces on food. My older sister was practically religious about this as a child. On the other hand, her daughter who is three likes to dunk little food (carrots, single beans, french fries, chicken nuggets) in to separate sauces like ketchup and salad dressing but I've seen her eat duck and spazel when offered so she's an adventurous eater. I guess the secret is to be persistent, but low key and to enjoy food yourself but to not make a big deal about it. As my grandmother said, " The child will eat when hungry." Best of Luck!

My girlfriend used to be given a plate with a picture on. Eat the food to reveal the picture. Threats such as "if you don't eat your greens/fibre/vitamins/protein/nature's natural goodness you'll end up fat/sickly/all red and saggy like a politician/dead" don't work as kids have no idea that one day they'll be anything other than a kid. The trick might be to wait until they're really hungry then give them apples, pasta, bran flakes, carrots and so forth. As long as they stay clear of sunny delight you'll be safe. I think the trick my parents poulled was discouraging me from watching ITV - with no adverts I had no idea of all the wonderful sugar, additives and lack of nutritional value I was missing. Then again, as a kid I liked bran flakes and playing scrabble so I might be considerd weird.

The only way is to not give kids chocolate in the first place. If they don't know what it tastes like then they can't miss it.

When my children were little I used to make patterns with the food - so they ate down a spiral shape or made the food in a funny face. Whenever they said I don't like that - I would say - you loved it last time and convince them, they believed me and ate whatever it was!
I also think give them long enough time to eat and let them play with the food and get messy. Playing with spagetti is great fun and they are almost certain to get some of it in their mouth!! I gave my children a really wide range of foods when they were little, everything and anything, all sorts of strange tastes and they like just about everything now they are older and like to try new things. They still like chocolate though!

Thanks for that. Had a minor success tonight. Got him to eat some peas . The fish fingers and chips went uneaten, though.

Sounds it! Might be worth a try though

Got three or four plates with pictures on, Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine... no good.

Too late

I thought I was onto a good thing when I found a way to make 'Tubbie Toast'. Too fiddly to do all the time though.

My mom got us to eat veggies by letting us put applesauce on them. My youngest sister still does it with her son, though he is older, 7. It's rather frightening to watch. Applesauce on fish sticks doesn't sound very appetizing but a friend of mine has her 2 yr. old & 5 yr. old eat them with a choice of "White Sauce" (Ranch Dressing or mayonnaise) and "Red Sauce" (ketchup). I was surprised at how excited they got over the whole little ceremony. I just realized that in all my examples there was more than one kid. All those moms let sibling competition foster about who was the better eater. Little kids can't stand to be left out of things and older kids don't like to be shown up by their younger siblings. This can blow up though because when one younger sister at age 7 declared she didn't like peas and suddenly the youngest (then age 6) declared she didn't like them either, though she had eaten them her whole life up to that point without any problems. She's 30 now and hasn't eaten peas voluntarily since.

Oh, the other thing is, make sure that he gets positive attention away from the dinner table so that he doesn't have to use food fussiness as the major attention-getter. Truthfully, he's really quite normal. Age two is when kids start discovering that they have a separate identity and can make their own decisions. That is usually expressed by declaring "NO" loudly at every opportunity. They don't call them the "terrible twos " for nothing. I promise though, if you can both survive this stage, he will grow out of it…..and think of other ways to torture you. Think back fondly on these days when he is eating you out of house and home as a teenager.

Cutting everything up in little child-sized pieces might be easier.

Try making pretty patterns with their food. I find that adding food colouring helps (in mashed potato etc). Also if you make tham chips cut the potato into shapes.
The other option is to not give them any sweets in the day and then cook them a meal, if they are hungry they WILL eat
Good luck

Why do people insist on pandering to the ridiculous demands of children! If you just remove all sweeties, chocolates, etc from the environment of the little horrors, then eventually they will have to eat REAL food or starve!
Additionally, dont make a big deal about mealtimes. Dont fuss over them if they wont eat, simply ignore them and their complaints. If there is no payback for the fuss, then eventually tedium and hunger will get the better of them and they will eat something.
It may sound like a cliche, but we didnt have any of this mollycodling when we were young, and we didnt have any food related hang-ups did we?

Did we?

I want chocolate NOW! *stomp* *shriek* *wail*

Actually, given the choice between brussel sprouts and starvation, your average two year old would starve.

Someone once said that left to their own devices children would naturally choose a well balanced diet. I think that's balderdash.Why would we stop doing it as adults? Why do so many people have dietary problems - undereating or overeating on purpose?

When I was a kid I could eat anything I chose as my mother was going barmy serving me beans on toast and mashed potatoes. Given the choice I chose sweets.

Food manufacturers understand addiction and produce accordingly. Children do become addicted to sugar and other additives. Don't blame yourself. The food manufacturers do it deliberately.

Two year olds can drive you demented. Sometimes you can mix stuff into their food in a way they don't know. Pureed veg in the mashed potato and so forth.

I don't know... It's reckoned that in Mediterranean countries where extended families are all present at mealtimes and where mealtimes are seen as a happy social occasion there is a much reduced occurrence of eating disorders. My mate also reckons that whenever you get a craving for a specific foodstuff (bananas, Farley's rusks, strawberry flavour Yop, Ribena etc) it's because your body is in need of a particular element/vitamin/enteric bacterial strain etc and your limbic system and insula translate this need into a conscious desire for a particular sort of food it knows contains the missing potassium/riboflavin/lactobacillus/ascorbic acid and so on.
Kids might therefore be able to seek the food their body is secretly asking them for. maybe all this charade with the crisps/sweets/sunny sodding delight is just part of a kind of species-wide altruism in response to their knowledge that the world is overpopulated. Maybe it's due to the fact that mankind has thwarted natural selection somewhat and the kids are seeking to subject themselves to unnaturally harsh selection pressures so that a new breed of people able to live on buggerall nutrition are founded. Maybe with all the heavy metals, carboniferous hydrocarbons, low-grade radiation and organic waste finding their way into the food chain the human race will become detritivorous so that we might rescue the planet from the shit we heap upon it.