That's a great menu! Sadly, my toddler's weekly menu wouldn't take long to type; she won't eat much other than veggie sausages, bread and rice.

I hear this sort of thing all the time and I’ve watched friends and family battle it with their own children! “My son/daughter just won’t eat anything but…” (fill in the blank with whatever your child’s food preference is!)

So what are you supposed to do? Ultimately it helps to start from the beginning, when first introducing solid foods to your children, but what can we do now that we are in this rut? I have some strategies you can use and adapt for your own children. I found these strategies in the book Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health. I found this book at the library and fell in love with it (well… the basic concepts it teaches anyway ~ it is written from a wildly atheistic and evolutionary perspective [so read it with a grain of salt if I may use that pun here], but the nutrition concepts are great!)

Throughout this week and next (I'm breaking it up into multiple posts because this one is already pretty long) I would like to share with you some basic strategies for encouraging your toddler to eat healthy. So the first strategy is...

Number 1: Be willing to compromise!

Our toddlers are growing, changing, and maturing every day. Part of this maturing is a growing desire to control their own lives. This started from day one and will continue throughout their lifetimes. Meal time is one of the first things they try to take control of. You’ve experience it… the “you can’t make me eat that” attitude or response from your little one. And they’re right… can we really make them eat anything? No! Likely it will end up on you, on the floor, or anywhere else.

It gets worse… even if you have succeeded in forcing them to eat something they refused to eat, you may have won the battle but you are loosing the war! If your toddler learns (or has already learned) that you are willing to do battle over meal times, he/she is likely to accommodate by refusing for the simple pleasure of demanding his/her own way. I feel very strongly about disciplining our children and about teaching them obedience the first time, etc. That said, I try not to make meal time the primary training grounds for these lessons. The other danger is found in giving in. When we “give up” on “forcing” our children to eat what they should, we are giving up on the good nutrition we know they need for proper growth! But what can we do?

Start by setting yourself up to succeed! When I said to be willing to compromise, I didn’t mean to compromise your standards of nutrition or to compromise on the level of obedience you expect from your little ones! Those two things are non-negotiable! Your toddlers need to eat healthy foods and they need to obey! Both are for their own good.

You can compromise by sharing control of the situation. You control what foods are available at each meal and snack and your toddler controls how much he/she wants to eat. Don’t put pressure on your little one to eat a certain amount or even to eat certain things (at least not at the beginning). Perhaps for a while (while retraining what your little one can expect from meal times) meal time rules can be limited to not throwing anything on the floor, or keeping things on a plate whether they want to eat them or not (these are what we focus on in the obedience arena during meal times and I am blessed to have very little on the floor in a given week). If your toddler is hungry, he/she should eat something you’ve made available to him/her.

Borrow ideas from my sample toddler menus here and here to get you started. Choose foods you have introduced before and start with the things your toddler likes, but offer a variety. Then, whether you are spoon feeding or your toddler is self feeding, let him/her decide how much to eat. If you don’t think your little one has eaten enough at a meal, be prepared to offer a snack after a while when hunger strikes again, but be sure to offer healthy options.

I will continue with more strategies of what Works for Us in posts throughout the week. Let me know what you think of today’s strategy by leaving a comment! Or even better, if you’ve tried something similar with your little ones, let us know what your experience has been!

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When your Toddler Won't Eat Anything ~ Part 2