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I am on bench from 1 nov 2022. I am PA.
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Hey - am a dad of two, gonna brain dump what my wife researched and did which worked well for us (in case it’s helpful for you )
For context my son will be 4 soon, daughter is 6months old (and we’re South Indian)
She went through an online course - “happy healthy eaters” and used an app called “start solids” - and we did our own watered down version of “baby led weaning” where we present the food to the baby, allow to explore texture taste smell etc and create a giant mess in the process but slowly making eat and then deal with the cleanup afterwards once the kids sleep (highlighting that too since it’s not insignificant workload wise)
Son now has a very healthy relationship with food, eats a variety of fruits and veggies - we’re vegetarian (except me) and he eats eggs too - no meat or fish
We plan to do the exact same thing with my daughter since we figure we have a working approach
We don’t do screen time for my son on weekdays (audio books is ok, music is ok, the occasional iPad story) but we allow him 1 hr of tv time each on Saturday and Sunday (not with food)
We also don’t watch much tv around him (only after he naps and that’s a brief window before we need to sleep)
Meal time is protected as family meal time for the most part - atleast dinner
We also got a couple vacuums to make cleanup easier, added home cleaning (2x/month) once it became a bit much for us to manage
We’re trying to declutter and downsize and rotate toys etc and it’s a constant WIP and we could do better there.
Figure we’ll accept the messy home for now and not be too hard on ourselves.
Second all of this. Dinner time we all sit down and eat together. No screens. Give them a healthy balance of food and don’t cater to their wants. Eventually they will eat
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Aww. I also have a 2.5 yo daughter. She went through a bunch of phases. For a while it was only carbs like rice and pasta. Then it was only meat. For a while it was bananas. Then no bananas. We just kept exposing her to well-balanced meals (carb, veg, protein, fat), a daily multivitamin, and didn’t force her to eat anything. If she didn’t eat it for breakfast, it would be there again for lunch, then again for dinner. After that we gave up until the next day. We also wouldn’t give her extras of snacks so that she was actually hungry for her meals. I’m also not beyond blending or finely chopping veggies and legumes for pancakes or muffins. Some days she would barely eat, some days she would eat 3x more. My daughter has also leaned out but she’s also grown a ton. Have you had the 2.5yo appointment yet? Ask your pediatrician if there are any concerns. Otherwise I would just keep exposing and try to wean off the devices so she can learn her hunger cues and develop healthy eating habits. Just the opinion of a nutrition-focused mom of 2! Good luck!
No judgement on the screens - but I get SO much more out of my kids when they have limited screen time. I can tell when we’ve had a day that they are more in front of the tv. We completed removed my daughters tablet about 2 years ago except for travel and it has helped a ton! (She’ll be 5 next month).
We’re also finally reaching a stage where she tries different food. We don’t force her to eat anything new, but she likes blueberries, strawberries and bananas, so I try and incorporate those regularly. We’re now trying to get her to just try one thing that we’re having, and she’s actually doing it. Just one little bite, be it of our chicken, or broccoli, or other sides.
I would say be consistent, don’t let them get away with deciding yes or no to things when you’ve made something you know they eat, but know it’s so common at this age to be picky. It does get better!
It helps to focus on balancing their diets across the day and week rather than each meal.
I try to not put too much pressure on my son to finish his meals. But I’ll take the uneaten food and re-serve it or turn it into something else (fruits go into smoothies, meat gets chopped up into rice and yogurt or quesadillas, etc) for snack after the meal. Playing around with different form factors helps.
My son loves copying me so we eat what we want him to eat in front of him and he feels left out and demands it too.
For veggies, you could try blending them into pasta sauces, soups or toddler friendly pav bhaji and make it fun for them to dip into.
We also avoid declaring that my son doesn’t like something. We say he hasn’t acquired the taste for it yet or isn’t feeling it today and will check again another time.
Also, drenching everything in ghee helps lol.
At that age my kids would only eat macaroni and cheese. I started introducing other foods. The rule was that they had to try it. If they didn't like it that was ok.
My kids grew up eating everything. Their friends were shocked to find that they liked broccoli.