20 month old won't eat healthy dinner anymore

[lovesteaandcake]

Any advice welcome here.
My 20 month DD always used to be a fantastic eater. There wasn't anything she wouldn't gobble down with enthusiasm. In the last few weeks she has just stopped eating any healthy dinner I give her. As soon as I give her the plate she just holds it up & says "done" & then if I try to encourage her to have some, we get a lovely little tantrum. If I give her (what I call a Saturday tea) ie fish fingers chips & beans, she eats the lot.
She eats well during the day & doesn't refuse fruit, but if she doesn't eat her dinner, I don't offer anything else as I don't want her to think she can get her way, if that makes sense? So she goes to bed without a dinner. She has her beaker of milk before bed, & she sleeps ok, so she is not crying that she is hungry.

I just don't know how I can get her to eat healthily again, & I'm not happy in always leaving her without a dinner if she doesn't eat what I've cooked for her. Like I say, she does eat during the day but I'm starting to worry a bit now.

Please help

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Once we stopped the bedtime milk dd became much more interested in her tea.

[AngryGnome]

If it has only been a couple of weeks, I would be tempted to say don't worry too much. Ds has just turned two, and from the moment he was weaned he ate everything, very healthy. Then when he got about 18 months, he started to go through phases where he would just eat appallingly - a month where pretty much all he would eat was toast and white rice/pasta, a really long period where he refused pretty much anything except porridge. Buut each time, he eventually came back round and started eating properly again.

I think it is just a phase they go through at this age. The way I have found to deal with it most effectively with ds is just to ignore it, let him eat what he wants, and then in time he comes back round again. If ne sees it gets a reaction out if us, then he will keep doing it! Obviously, if you are very concerned than speak to your HV. You could always try hiding 'healthy' things in her food as well, eg make your own baked beans, home made fish fingers, pasta sauces made with carrots etc?

Good luck!

[lovesteaandcake]

Thanks for the advice angrygnome. That sounds like a plan. I do worry if I just let her eat what she wants she will get into bad habits. Probably just worrying.

Tonight she had a small bit of broccoli & some braising steak but refused everything else. I'm going to try a risotto tomorrow to see how that goes down.

[KLou111]

This sounds so much like my 18 month old!
What I did was cut out ALL snacks, so he had milk, breakfast, lunch, dinner, milk. Obviously a drink with his meal, but I found this worked as he was hungry. If he didn't eat his dinner, he didn't get a yoghurt.
HTH

[doughnut44]

I'd say just keep trying - if she is hungry she will eat but if you pander to her she will become a fussy eater.
As far as I am concerned the best thing for a family to do is to eat together and all have the same thing.
A friend of mine has 4 children heats through cooks 5 different meals every night.
I do one and if they eat they eat and if they don't they don't. I have 3 strapping children.