Toddler Girl at her second birthday. She ate all the icing and left the cupcake.

I wrote previously about how we did Baby Led Weaning with Toddler Girl.  BLW is sometimes touted as the path to perfect eating habits later in life, so I thought I’d give you an update on how it’s worked out for our family now that Toddler Girl is an opinionated two year old!

ADVERTISEMENT

When TG was around one, she ate a good variety of food and lots of it.  One night she ate five pieces of french toast with applesauce!  Mr SH had to eat six so that he wouldn’t be out-eaten by his baby girl.  She refused to eat lettuce, sandwich meat, or long noodles (she would just laugh at them), but otherwise? Nearly anything.  People were amazed.  She was constantly compared to toddlers who didn’t eat “enough to keep a bird alive.”  Fast forward a year and a bit, and I have a child who will sometimes  eat three grapes before chirping “All done!”


Eating her first s’mores at our family reunion. She was very disturbed by how sticky it was and I had to finish it.

Here’s what we do to make sure she eats well:

Have realistic expectations: Babies eat a ton, toddlers don’t.  It freaks us out.  It’s seems counter-intuitive that the bigger kid will eat less, but remember that they aren’t growing at that incredible rate they did in that first year. They are small people, and they eat small portions.  They also don’t eat the same amount at every meal, so look at a 48 hour period, rather then one meal before you start to panic.

Have thoughtful snacks: I always tried to give TG fruits and veggies for snacks, but she somehow kept eating crackers and cheerios because she loved them, and I wanted her to eat.  Then I stopped buying crackers.  She gets all the cheese, fruits and veggies she wants (lots of grapes and mini cucumbers, a banana first thing in the morning, and whatever she can steal while I’m cooking). She’s stopped asking for other things unless they are out where she can see them.  Since I cut the grains out of her snacks, her mealtime eating has improved drastically. I was amazed. No more crackers in this house!

Don’t fight about it: This one is hard, but remember that you can’t force them to eat!  Be encouraging, but if they are really done, stop trying to make them eat.  You might have heard this before, but it’s the parent’s job to provide nutritious food, and the child’s job to eat it.  Do your job, and then chill.


Farmer’s sausage on a bun by the campfire.

That said, sometimes they actually are still hungry, but they’re just bored of sitting in the chair!  You let them down and they want a snack five minutes later.  Here are a couple ways we encourage her to eat more when she’s distracted.

Cucumber!:  We all eat the same thing at the same time and cheer for it.  We’ll all hold up our cucumbers and yell “cucumber!” and take a big bite.  She loves this.

Dip:  She loves to dip things.  We go through a lot of ranch dressing, sour cream and sriracha sauce.  Sometimes her combinations are a bit odd, but maybe she’s on her way to being an innovative chef?

Helping: Sometimes she says she’s all done, but is really just frustrated with the utensils, so we help her out.

Small Pieces:  Don’t ask me why she prefers smaller pieces of veggies when she’s fully capable of eating sticks, but she’ll eat more if I cut them up.

Manners: She can say “all done!” for 20 minutes if she likes, but she’s staying at the table until we’re finished.  This prevents her from trying to finish fast and get back to playing, and it’s just good manners.

Despite her feisty toddler ways, TG is a pretty good eater.  I thank Baby Led Weaning for the variety of food she likes.  She loves her veggies and thinks spicy food is awesome!  She’s less picky than some adults I know, and if she doesn’t like avocado?  Well, I’m not a fan of onions!

Do you have any fun tricks for helping your toddler to eat well?