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Lovely replys, to be honest their not my children but I have them with me often ,my neice does her best, were trying together , the 6 year old getting a Bit better but the three year old stands his ground
If they aren't your kids, they might also be holding out because you are the fun aunt/uncle too. My son tries this with my sister allll the time. She's the party aunt and comes with party food.
First of all, I don't agree with the notion that kids, particularly toddlers, should not snack. Generally many nutritionists suggest eating smaller portions more frequently throughout the day. In addition, small children with small stomachs often need to eat more frequently. This is the reason why nearly every preschool and elementary school includes snack times. On top of that, snack time is a wonderful opportunity to incorporate healthy food. My kids get most of their fruit intake during snack times.
I also have found the approach that "you eat what you are given or you don't get anything," only works well on some kids and can backfire on others. My husband really wanted to do this when our middle dd was a very picky eater. When she was about 5, we tried this. She would refuse to eat dinner and by the time bedtime came she would be crying from hunger, but she still would refuse to eat her dinner, which I saved in the refrigerator. Instead she would be up late crying, which would keep us up. This kept happening many nights, and we made no progress on her eating. Instead it turned dinnertime into a really unpleasant part of the day. Finally, my husband had to admit we were getting absolutely no where.
Instead, I kept encouraging her to try things. I do have a rule that a child cannot get dessert or any treat-type items after dinner unless they try a couple of bites of whatever they don't want to eat, and they eat something healthy. After a while my middle dd progressively started eating more, and she now will eat what is served. She also is really healthy. I actually have had to ask her to stop eating fruit because I need to save some for the rest of the family. She will eat six or more clementines in one day if she could. She also loves raw carrots and some other healthy things.
With that said, I admit we still struggle a bit with our youngest though. She is the pickiest of our three children. With her, I often debate with myself what to do because she doesn't like meat, which I know really isn't a necessity. I have given up for now on getting her to eat red meat. She has had many mealtimes when she will only want to eat the vegetables and the rice or side dish. Then she is still hungry, so that is a bit of pickle for me. Sometimes, I do just let her eat cheese or peanut butter toast then to get her protein. I find it hard to get upset about a kid who mainly just wants to eat her broccoli for dinner. Hopefully, we will work that all out in time though.
Cants get the toddlers to eat anything else, but chicken nuggets, fish sticks, hot dogs, grill cheese..
Any suggestions? Oh, yes they'll eat pasta but no sauce just butter.
This, too, shall pass. We went though that phase of 'kid food' and it was awful. Chicken Nuggest and hot dogs AND spaghetti with just butter. My son is now 18, trim and athletic. He loves salads, fruits, and keeps his body healthy.
Just keep trying to introduce new foods. Sounds like typical toddlers.
I had a hard time getting my daughter to eat breakfast. She just wasn't into food in the morning. But, then she wouldn't get to eat until lunch at the preschool I took her to, other than a little morning snack. She was really thin, and I was worried about her.
I talked to the doctor about it, and he asked me, well, what is her favorite food? I said, pizza, hands down. He said, pizza is actually a really well-rounded meal, feed her pizza for breakfast!
LOL! Worked like a charm! She'd ask me at bedtime if she gets to have pizza for breakfast again, and I'd say yes! She'd wake up ready to eat. Too funny. I never though of pizza as being healthy.
That said, if you can't get them to eat pizza there are probably healthy tofu or soy nugget options. As I recall, Trader Joes carries some fake chicken nuggets that are really good, but are made of soy. Chicken-less Nuggets, I think they're called. Trick them with fake junk food lol!
Kids can be funny about what they like to eat. We lived in San Francisco until my son was 12, and he readily ate Thai food, falafels, schwarmas, dolmas, Ethopian food, Burmese food, etc., but he never liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or hamburgers!
I agree about having your kids try things on several different occasions. I always made him take one bite of a new food and if he didn't care for it, we'd try a few months or even a year or two later. Eventually he would eat almost anything. He's been vegan for 7 years now and cooks delicious seitans, Indian food, and other homemade goodies. And he now eats peanut butter and jelly!
Forcing kids to eat things they don't like never made sense to me. My mother hated peas, so we never had them, even though I liked them. But I hated Brussels sprouts when I was little, and had to sit at the dinner table for hours until I finished them. That never made sense to me - that the adult's dislikes dictated the meal, but the children were forced to eat things they hated.
This, too, shall pass. We went though that phase of 'kid food' and it was awful. Chicken Nuggest and hot dogs AND spaghetti with just butter. My son is now 18, trim and athletic. He loves salads, fruits, and keeps his body healthy.
Just keep trying to introduce new foods. Sounds like typical toddlers.
I gotta wait till these toddlers are 18, might be dead by then, one thing there both big water drinkers, apart from morning OJ it's water rest of the time , milk sometimes, they've never tasted soda thank goodness., lemonade when they go outs a big treat for them.
There's many recipes online where they will teach you how to make eating healthy look fun. Try things like creamed spinach and involve that along with daily meals.
I had a hard time getting my daughter to eat breakfast. She just wasn't into food in the morning. But, then she wouldn't get to eat until lunch at the preschool I took her to, other than a little morning snack. She was really thin, and I was worried about her.
I talked to the doctor about it, and he asked me, well, what is her favorite food? I said, pizza, hands down. He said, pizza is actually a really well-rounded meal, feed her pizza for breakfast!
LOL! Worked like a charm! She'd ask me at bedtime if she gets to have pizza for breakfast again, and I'd say yes! She'd wake up ready to eat. Too funny. I never though of pizza as being healthy.
That said, if you can't get them to eat pizza there are probably healthy tofu or soy nugget options. As I recall, Trader Joes carries some fake chicken nuggets that are really good, but are made of soy. Chicken-less Nuggets, I think they're called. Trick them with fake junk food lol!
We did something similar with our daughter. She was just not a breakfast eater - though she liked breakfast foods overall. We found healthy 'non breakfast' items she'd want to eat in the morning. I felt better because she got protein before school (which she really needed) and it wasn't a battle. Talk about a win/win!
All those suggestions...now I'm embarrassed Yes they do also eat many of those other things mentioned, jello, celery sticks, cheese , apple slices ect, yogurt , it's just the main courses there fussy , thank you , lots of other good ideas you suggested too.
So stop cooking the nuggets, crumb some chicken thigh pieces and serve it with a waldorf salad, dressing on the side. Voila! Kid is participating in the adult meal.
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Yes they do also eat many of those other things mentioned, jello, celery sticks, cheese , apple slices ect, yogurt , it's just the main courses there fussy , thank you , lots of other good ideas you suggested too. 
