How do you get your little ones to eat???

My ds is a little older (26 months), but he won't eat either....I tried everything I could think of at one time, finally, I gave in. I put it in front of him, and I gently encourage him, "want a bite? Here, take a bite..." But if he doesn't want to, he doesn't have to. Yes, I still think to myself, the poor kids going to starve, but so far he hasn't. There are times when he tells me "I hungwee." Then we go through every cupboard/fridge/freezer, trying to find something up to his standards , he takes two or three bites then tells me he's done.
Of course, never making him stay in his chair and finish all of his food, and allowing him to get up once he was done has created some issues. We cannot go anywhere to eat because he refuses to sit in a chair for even a minute now. He jumps, runs away, etc. So I completely understand you worrying about starting a bad habit. Do whatever works for you mama. If you're okay with him watching a little t.v. while he eats, then I say hey, at least he's eating. It's not like by putting on the t.v. you're forcing him to eat, it seems like that just keeps him occupied enough so that he sits still to eat, right?

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Right- he just doesn't like to sit still! :LOL I think I'll take a little piece of advice from each of you- it all makes sense- he's a HUGE nurser and nurses all through the night still- I was just trying to get some more food in his tummy & see if I can get some more sleep at night. I don't push at all, I encourage and stop when he's done. Right now he's eating some organic crackers with some organice unpasteurized cheese- yums- but I'm chasing him around while he plays! :LOL It's working! That's for the advice ladies!

What helped us the most was moving child-sized furniture into the kitchen. We have a low table and 3 kiddie stools in there, and we all sit and have meals there together. DS is free to get up and pick out a book, then return to the table and continue eating. Or I might be doing dishes, and he'll have a snack by himself, all within reach on his little table.

We have a small book rack installed in the kitchen with board books and other books that are easy to wipe off. I try to keep food-related books there, like L Ehlert's Growing Vegetable Soup. I got this idea to read during mealtimes from Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook, and it really works, as I have something else to do and am less likely to press my son to eat. Ds likes to climb into my lap, and we'll read together while I might occasionally offer him food. But for the most part, Ds eats in spurts--eating one food, then losing interest--, so we'll read in-between "courses" before introducing another food.

(The book rack is actually a simple wall-mounted wire magazine rack we got from IKEA several yrs ago for less than $5. I couldn't find an image, but here's something similar http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/store...roductId=33873

Anyway, DS hates being confined to a high chair or booster, so this arrangement allows mealtimes to go on longer since we're not restricted to the 10-15 mins he would tolerate a high chair. It also means we get to spend more time in the kitchen together, which allows me to clean up or do bulk cooking, etc. We realized that ds eats very slowly, so eating in the kitchen also helps my own impatience so that I can let him eat meals or snacks at his own pace.

I still wish he would eat more, but now we're working on having more structured mealtimes instead of grazing. You can definitely wean yr child off the tv for feeding. Good luck!

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My ds ate anything I put in front of him. Dd likes to mix it up. Monday's favorite food will be Wednesday's "No". I promised myself I would not make food a big issue at our house so I'm pretty laid back about it. For breakfast and lunch dd can pick (I give her only 2 choices) what she wants to eat. If she eats it, great. If not, she's done and I take her out of the high chair. She eats a lot better in the livingroom whilst wandering around. So when she tells me she's hungry I'll put out a plate of crackers, steamed carrots, peas, apple slices, or whatever. It leads to a lot more vacuuming but I'm okay with that. At dinner she gets what I give her and if she doesn't eat it I'll give her something else near the end of the meal. I only give her healthy choices so when and where she eats doesn't really concern me.

As far as I know no otherwise healthy child ever voluntarily starved to death, so I'd keep offering healthy choices and your dc will eat when he's hungry. Honest.

I decided to let him sit in his high chair and see if he wants to eat- if not, I let him down and leave little bits of food on his high chair. If he wants it, he eats it, if not, I won't worry about it. He did wind up eating a lot yesterday while wandering!
Then at night he sat down and ate an entire thing of yogurt w/ wheat germ & sesame seeds in it!

I could just eat him up! :LOL

ETA: Where are my manners? THANK YOU LADIES!