Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...

Dinner's hardest for us, but DS has remained at 75% weight since he was born. For breakfast he has a granola bar and cereal, for lunch deli meat/sandwich and snacks, and for dinner some of what we eat followed by yogurt for dessert. I don't know; he is 16 months and weighs 32 lbs., but he doesn't seem to eat enough to me.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...

If DC has one decent sized meal a day we are thrilled. More often than not DC has 3-4 "normal" meals a week.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...

1 good meal a day, usually breakfast. He does not eat a lot in 1 sitting. He is a total grazer. A piece of fruit here, some cereal there, some cheese a bit later, etc. Very frustrating but I'm kind of over it now. Used to stress me out terribly. I've come to deal with the fact that this is the way he is. As long as he is getting nourishment and maintaining his weight, is healthy, etc. I'm fine with it.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...

They usually eat a good breakfast and lunch. Dinner is hit or miss, depending on what we're eating.

Typical meals here are:

Breakfast -
cereal
1 banana
bowl of oatmeal or 4 mini waffles

Lunch
half a sandwich - usually sunflower seed butter and jelly or grilled cheese. Sometimes they'll eat turkey.
fruit - they will share a pear or orange
If they are still hungry I'll give them some crackers or pretzels.

Snack
usually yogurt

Dinner they eat whatever we eat.

Message edited 11/14/2010 5:33:04 PM.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...

Ryleigh usually doesn't give us a problem.

If she does, I know she's either not feeling well or her teeth are bothering her.

This kid ate 2 bananas for breakfast and wanted another one

She will eat fruit until the cows come home. Other stuff she'll eat too, but we have to hide the fruit from her, or else she'll eat the fruit and nothing else.

Strangely enough, we've found that her new favorite meal is Campbell's Select Harvest Garden Vegetable soup.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

BUMP

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Both my kids are horrible eaters.

Some days DD will eat okay she will try to eat a meal, but I cannot say that it is healthy. She does eat some fruit, but no veggies at all. For lunch she will eat (when she feels like it) a pb&j sandwich or a bologna sandwich

DS will eat breakfast, and dinner (only eats nuggets and hotdogs and sweet potatoes). He hates lunch.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Breakfast is usually great
Lunch is a 50/50 shot of eating well
Dinner is usually a cryfest....
and we have eliminated almost all snacking which made no difference whatsoever.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Most times I am happy if half of it gets into his belly.

Breakfast is hit or miss.
Lunch is pretty good (most times almost everything).
Dinner is so-so (usually only half)

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Breakfast is the best meal for us; she'll eat an egg and fruit, or a waffle and fruit, or pancakes and fruit - or all of the above it we let her!

Lunch - I start with a yogurt and then give her pasta or grilled cheese or a slice of cheese and fruit or raisin bread. Whatever she will sit for.

Dinner - what we eat, but usually not as much as I think she needs. I'll give her fruit or veggies in order to make up for it. She's never had a problem with weight (always 75% plus) but for some reason I'm scared she's not eating enough. She snacks pretty much all day long.

At the babysitter she eats EVERYTHING. Go figure.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

DS just started giving me a problem with eating. He always ate everything & 3 good meals a day. Now he is getting picky! Breakfast is our best meal. DS will eat eggs with cheese, french toast sticks, pancakes, waffles, toast.
Lunch is hit or miss right now. He used to eat turkey and now he wont. I hide it in grilled cheese!
Dinner again hit or miss. Sometimes he'll eat very good, or nights like tonight he took maybe 3 bites!
He also used to love fruit, now he wont touch it. Only bananas. But he still loves yogurt.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

DS is a terrible eater. He would eat fruit and veggies all day if I allowed him to. Seems great, but he hasn't gained weight in one year . Breakfast is his best meal followed by dinner. I would say majority of the time he eats basically nothing for lunch. He gets pediasure 3 times per day because he needs the calories.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Zero! Every once in a while he'll eat an OK meal, but it's getting worse lately. He's even refusing his favorites which worries me. He is similar to Abby, if I didn't give him food all day, I don't think he would care. He drinks 2 pediasures a day if I'm lucky. We go for an endoscopy this week to make sure it's nothing medical and then will be getting a feeding specialist and nutritionist through EI.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

My DD is a terrible eater. Always has been. 90% of it is behavioral but I refuse to battle about food. She goes through phases of improvement then totally regresses. We've learned to roll with the punches with her and she's 5 so no longer a toddler.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

she usually has 1-2 good meals a day. breakfast and dinner. (one or the other, sometimes both on a good day) Lunch is non existant. I dont even make a "lunch" anymore. It just goes to waste. She will snack on some crackers and cheese or an apple for "lunch"

shes never been a great eater. She has however gotten better with age. She is 4.5 now and has come a long way. Although still not a good or big eater at all.

She likes healthy things...veggies and fruits best so I dont complain. Although, some days she lives on carbs alone.

Its frustrating...but as you can see by this post...you are not alone!

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

breakfast is the only good meal. lunch is truly awful and gets me so upset!! I wound up breaking up lunch into 2 small "snacks" like yogurt, then later on pretzels /cheerios /crackers.

Dinner is ok, not as good as I would like. so frustrating bc DS is so thin

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

honestly, Frankie has been so inconsistent with food the past few weeks. He will gorge one day and graze the next. Things that were once his favorite, he passes on, and things that he once hated, he now wants. I cannot keep track and it drives me crazy. His quantity of the fpod he eats, has also greatly diminished. I actually just started reducing his milk, bc of how much less he was eating, whereas in the past, it never matteerd how much milk he drank, he always at really well.

I know it's very hard, but she is thriving and she is a fine height/weight, so try not to worry about it. And now that you know she will ask for something if she wants it, just keep asking her of she is hungry and put the food done. She will eat it.

Message edited 11/15/2010 8:56:21 AM.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Breakfast and lunch are usually good. Dinner is eh to nightmare-ish. The one thing I don't stress over is food.

Breakfast:
One carb - bagel, pancake, eggo, english muffin etc.
Banana and/or strawberries
If it's the weekend I'll make her a scramble egg

Lunch:
Most days she eats at daycare. They have a good variety of foods. And I always send in a fresh fruit to go with it.

Snack:
Goldfish, cheeze-its, applesauce, yogurt, etc.

Dinner:
Depends. She likes those graduate raviolis. I will also give her chicken nuggets with sweet potatoes and peas, soups, grilled cheese, etc. and she always gets fruit.

She loves her milk thankfully. She will drink 15-18 oz/day.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Charlie is a good eater - in that she will try most anything (last night she had salmon) and will eat all of her portion, most of the time. I don't stress the day to day but look at how she eats on a weekly basis.

She eats a solid 3 meals a day with breakfast & dinner being her strongest meals. Whatever fruit or veggie isn't eaten at breakfast or lunch, she snacks on during the day. I don't make these gourmet b/fasts that include every food group so sometime between lunch she will have an apple or some carrots or cucumber or peppers.

She also eats whatever we're eating - I never make another meal for her. The only exception to that 'rule' is when I make chili - it's too spicy for her so she'll eat whatever leftover we have or a waffle with peanut butter & jelly - which is a favorite for breakfast.

Charlie has always been in the 25-50% but always consistently grows/gains so I'm not concerned about the %.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Probably just breakfast. That's it. The rest of the day is grazing and maybe chicken, if I'm lucky. He eats like a champ in daycare. Which just burn my butt to be honest. He will eat for strangers, but not me.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Breakfast is our best meal as well. He does great with snacks...usually apple slices, or some kind of fruit or cheese...he gets one non healthy snack a day. But dinner some days is I have noticed though that the things he will eat are mostly breakfast foods. Have you tried maybe giving her breakfast foods at dinner??
But either way so long as she is maintaining a healthy weight I say let her eat when she eats.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

I guess what it boils down to is that I have my own issues with food that despite a life altering surgery 8 years ago, I can't get past. It is simply not my mentality to not want food - healthy or otherwise. The irony of it all is that I so desperately do not want my fate for my kids. It has always been my determination to raise healthy active kids. I don't give her junk - maybe a "taste" here and there of something sweet. She is active. She has been in "classes" of one kid or another since she was able to crawl whether it be gym, music or swimming. I want her to eat healthy.

Thanks everyone for the support. It is good to know that I am not alone in this and that Abby is typical. Now if only I could be disinterested in food.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

This thread made me feel alot better. DD is 15 months and has always been a picky eater. She goes in phases but right now we are in a bad eating phase. Shes honestly been only getting one good meal per day (breakfast... lunch and dinner have been awful) and I was freaking out about it. I'm glad to hear that with some kids its a common thing.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

Dinner has been an issue for us lately. DS will spit everything I give him. I feel horrible, because I feel like he is not eating enough.

Re: Moms of Toddlers - How many TRUE decent sized and quality meals...(MAJOR UPDATE IN OP!!!)

my dd is the same way. she is 2 years/3 mos and weight 26.5 lbs. most mornings i can get her to eat something small for breakfast. not a big mea, it is usually some cereal, or an instant breakfast, or occaionally she will ask for pb & j and have a few bite sof that or nutella on a sandwich. she used to eat scrambed eggs, or eggs in a tortilla wrap, and ask fo rthat al the time, but now she wont. lunch and esp dinner meals are so hard and totally out the window! she goes to pre-nursery school 2x a week. i find that on those days, she almost always will eat her snack willingly w/her classmates. she will sometimes come home on those days that she has school only and eat some lunch, but forget about dinner ijust about every nite. she will have one or two forkfulls of whatever is on her dish at nite at the most, start trying to play with it, or usually, she will just refuse it. she is also a grazer and snacker, and will ask for "fish" goldfish crackers, pretzels, or "bears" the teddy graham bears, or cookies, or chocolate, now that my dh gave her a square of hersheys chocolate bar here and there. she will snack on bananas, apples, grapes, or oranges and will sometimes as for them too, but then will eat only a small amount of it. sames goes for salad, amazingly she likes it, but will eat a forkful or three, tops. on eof her fave things is "c milk" which is chocolate milk- usually ovaltine or instant breakfast, i think if she could she would live off that and her goldfish. we cut the milk down to 2x a day morning and nite b4 bed. she used to be such a great eater up to when she was still on stage 3 food, and the beginning of solids, but now she refuses most meat items, and only will eat breaded chicken cutlets or nuggets, or i can sometimes fool her with breaded thin steak and ketchup. even then, its a tiny amount. she is a bundle of energy for what little amount in a day she consumes, which amazes me. in sept her ped ran her bloodwork and found her iron level to be a lil low, so he had us get liquid supplements and a prescription multi. 3 weeks ago we restested, and her levels are back to normal. we are staying with the supplements for now and he doesnt seem to be concerned that her appetite is the way it is. we tried giving her pediasure but she isnt a big fan, but will readily accept ovaltine or instant breakfast. i am happy to hear that we are not alone on this. i often say i wish i could be like her and say no to eating!