5 Ways To Get Your Toddler to Eat

I guess I should have said 5 ways to get MY toddler to eat, because I know that every kid is different. Over the course of raising four toddler girls though, at least one of these has helped with each one. The reason I'm writing it now is because Danica is right snack dab in the middle of this phase, so it's on my mind a lot. Also, when I am going through something as a mom, I like to know that there are others out there suffering right along with me...muahahaha!!

3 out of 4 of our daughters are "difficult" eaters they are not necessarily being picky about the type of food...although that can be a problem too. Usually though, the issue is that they have something more important they would rather do than eat. It's a problem I have wished upon myself on more than one occasion.
Like I said, these may not work for your kids, but over the years, I have found that at least one of these strategies will work with our girls. Most of the time.

1. Give them a knife.
Ok, I can see how that might sound bad, and raise some serious child safety red flags, so let me explain. I'm talking a butter knife or plastic knife. This trick works best with Danica, our two year old meat-a-tarian. Just last night for instance, she gobbled up all of her roast beef, then asked for more without touching her potatoes or cooked carrots. I have found that toddlers love to be independant, and usually light right up if you give them a small responsibility...so I handed her a butter knife and asked her to cut the carrots. She stopped whining and set to work. It took time, it was a bit messy, but she cut and ate every piece of carrot on her plate, and then asked for more!
To get her to eat the cut carrots, I employed my number two trick;

2. Pretend they are an animal.
For the example above, I pretended she was a bunny. The trick to making this one work for me is that I have to talk in a silly high voice and pretend like she's the bunny. Or example: "wow, look at all those carrots! Do baby bunnies like to eat carrots? Are you a baby bunny? Great! Ok bunny, time to eat your dinner!"
Now, my girls love to play pretend, especially if it involves animals of any type, so this one works like a charm almost every time. Although my almost 8 year old night look at me funny if I tried it on her :)
With Myka, who is my "crazy in a good way" child, a bunny might work, but more often she prefers being a tiger or other large carnivore. I don't know where these kids came from :p

3. The good ol' airplane trick
It's an oldy but a goody. Some days it doesn't work, and some days I have to get REALLY silly to get it to work, but for the most part, it's been a reliable ways of getting those last few bites into them.

4. One Bite for Me, One Bite for You.
Another game that can help them focus on the task at hand. I lift the fork or spoonful of food, lift it to my mouth and say, "can mom have a bite?" Usually she comes back with, "no, me bite!" If she doesn't, I'll eat (or pretend to eat) the bite and make sure I show how delicious it was! Sometimes it takes a couple tries, but it usually catches on pretty quick.

5. Let them eat off a parents' plate.
Some days they want independence, and other days you can't peel them off of you.
I don't think I'd recommend this one for older kids...I mean, there's a point where they just have to eat their own food. However, for a picky young toddler, it can be great! Danica for instance, would not want to try new foods when she was a bit younger, but if she saw me or her daddy sit down to enjoy our food, she would run right over and eat twice as much as we had put on her plate.
I remember one instance, when she was about 18 months where she did this and I exaperatedly asked her, "why are you eating all my food when yours is still untouched?"
Addison then piped up, "it's probably because you used to breast feed her so now she thinks all food needs to come from you!"
Brilliant :)

If all else fails, I let them go and try again at the next snack time or meal!

Myka, the three year old, took this picture :)

Now that I have shared the tips that work in our family, I feel like I should share my opinion on "cleaning their plates".
I believe that children listen to their bodies remarkably well...at least much better than we as adults do! I think that most of the time they know when their bodies need more fuel, and when they are ok without it. I also believe that kids won't starve themselves.
Because of all of this, we try to teach our children to eat until they are full, but not necessarily until every bite of food is gone from their plate.
I do try to dish them up portions that I am confident they will finish if they are in fact hungry. Myka went through a phase where she absolutely would not touch her dinner, but if I left it on the table when we were done, she would come back a little while later and quietly eat it when she didn't think anyone was paying attention.

What I do now that she, Addison and Tegan are older is say this: "you can be done, but there is nothing else to eat tonight, so only stop if your tummy is actually full. If you say you are hungry at bedtime, the answer will be no." Usually after hearing this, Myka will sigh and say, "ok, I'll eat a few more bites."

The tricks mentioned above are for the really "picky just to be picky" times or the "I'll take two bites then run off to play...then come back in 20 minutes hoping for a pudding" times. How do I tell the difference? Well, I'm the mom. That's how.

I know all my mom friends can relate! Lol
I hope this can help someone, and if it can't, I hope you at least enjoyed the read :)