My Toddler Won’t Eat! Reasons and Solutions

When a toddler won’t eat, parents may feel a little worried. It may help to know that selective eating and occasional dips in appetite are common and normal. Your child may simply be expressing a preference for certain foods or a fear of new ones. Sensory problems can also a factor for some kids.

There are times when a toddler refusing to eat could be a sign of a medical issue like food sensitivity or viral illness. If your child’s change in appetite persists or they are experiencing weight loss, vomiting, or other symptoms, check with your healthcare provider.

Common Reasons Toddlers Won’t Eat

There are several common reasons why your toddler won’t eat. They may be tired, distracted, or afraid of trying something new.

In some cases, your toddler may just not be hungry during mealtime. It’s common for kids to have phases where they eat a lot, and phases where they seem to be hardly consuming anything at all. Short periods of low appetite are common and normal. If the problem persists, check with a healthcare provider to see if there is an underlying medical issue.

Rest assured that most of these issues resolve over time. Parents can help by providing positive reinforcement to help make mealtime an enjoyable experience.

Selective Eating

Toddlers practice “selective eating,” which means they tend to favor certain foods and avoid all others.

Their favorites may stay the same for a while or change over time, but they start life looking for one thing in particular—sweet flavors.

Babies are born preferring sweet flavors, which conveniently attracts them to breast milk. Their sweet tooth is even keener than that of adults and doesn’t begin to decline until adolescence. Babies must learn to like savory flavors.

Toddlers learn to eat by copying their parents and siblings. So, if family members are eating an array of foods, your toddler is more likely to mirror that behavior given some time. Just be prepared to stock up on whatever foods they gravitate toward, at least for a while.

Fear of New Foods

Sometime during their second year, many toddlers develop a fear of trying new food. This is called neophobia, and it is the most common reason toddlers refuse to eat.

The fear of new foods is stronger in some toddlers than others, but most of them eventually outgrow it.

It takes patience and persistence for parents to help kids overcome this. You can help your toddler by exposing them to new foods regularly, eating meals together, and showing them that new foods are safe to eat and not at all frightening.

Sensory Likes and Dislikes

Children can have twice as many taste buds as adults. This means their sense of taste is much more sensitive, especially to strong or bitter foods like vegetables.

Some children make food decisions based not only on taste but the information they gather from their other senses. They may reject a food based on one or more of the following:

• Texture
• Smell
• Appearance
• Movement (think of how gelatin wiggles, for example)
• Color

The best response is to let the toddler explore or even play with their food. In doing so, they’re learning important things about each of these characteristics, making them more familiar.

You can also try doing what you can to make their food look as appealing or fun as possible. Cutting food into cookie cutter shapes or turning a plate of sliced vegetables into a cartoon scene may help.

Keep in mind that if your toddler’s preferences seem extreme, it might be a sign of sensory processing issues. Kids with food-related sensory issues might only be able to tolerate foods that are soft, for example, or a certain color.

Sensory issues may lead to problems with nutrition, so it’s important to contact your healthcare provider if you suspect your child has a sensory problem.

Occasional Lack of Appetite

Children are known for having good interoception skills, meaning they are able to feel and understand the sensations of their own bodies. This includes hunger.

If your toddler won’t eat and insists they aren’t hungry, let it go. Keep offering meals and snacks, even if they get turned down. As they go through growth spurts and days of varying activity, they’ll fill up when they need to.

Some toddlers drink a lot of milk or juice, which can fill them up so much that they aren’t hungry at mealtime. Limiting between-meal drinks to water can help with this.

Learning how to manage a toddler’s appetite can take some practice. Take your first cue from portion size: If they regularly leave food behind, try cutting back on how much you offer them. Or let them serve themselves.

Toddlers usually get hungry every few hours, so a small snack a few hours before a meal should mean they’re hungry, not starving, when it’s time to eat.

Fatigue and Distraction

Just like an adult, a child who won’t eat may simply be too tired to go through the motions of having a meal. They may also be wrapped up in an activity that keeps their mind (or their priorities) off food.

This can happen when:

• They have been very active that day.
• They slept poorly or not enough the night before.
• They are happily playing with something or someone and don’t want to stop.

If dinnertime fatigue becomes a regular occurrence, try making lunchtime your toddler’s big meal of the day and prepare a lighter plate for dinner.

Medical Reasons That Toddlers Won’t Eat

As you probably know from your own experience, you can lose your appetite if you feel ill. Toddlers are no different, though they may not always be able to tell you exactly what’s bothering them.

Some medical conditions that may cause a lack of appetite or a toddler’s refusal to eat include:

• Teething
• Constipation
• A viral infection, allergies, or any other condition that causes a sore throat or fever
• Food sensitivity, such as celiac disease (a reaction to the protein gluten, found in wheat, barley, and rye)
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), or chronic acid reflux
• Eosinophilic esophagitis, a build-up of a particular white blood cell in the esophagus (potentially due to food allergies/sensitivities or acid reflux), resulting in a swollen, raw, painful throat

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is an eating disorder in which a child limits the amount or types of food they eat.

What makes ARFID different from ordinary eating issues is that children with the disorder limit food intake to the point that they do not consume a healthy amount of calories or nutrients. They often experience growth and development issues as a result. Having less energy than their peers is also common.

It is estimated that 0.3% to 15.5% of children and adolescents are thought to have ARFID. Unlike some other eating disorders, children with ARFID don’t have a distorted body image. They feel anxiety related to food itself.

The exact cause of ARFID is not known. Many experts believe that a combination of a child’s temperament, genes, and triggering events (such as choking) are possible causes.

Other causes of ARFID may include:

• Stomach or gastrointestinal issues like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease
• Eosinophilic esophagitis
• Allergies
• Psychological conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), high anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Sensory food aversions, meaning a child consistently and persistently refuses certain foods based on specific characteristics
• Fear of illness, choking, nausea, or allergies, either because they or someone they saw experienced one of these while or after eating

What to Do When a Child Won’t Eat

As hard as it might be, stay calm if your toddler refuses what you offer or causes a fuss at mealtime. Remember that when they’re hungry, they’ll eat.

There are a number of things you can do to help your toddler learn positive eating habits:

• Set a good example by eating an array of foods from all food groups.
• Offer your toddler a variety of foods, including new ones. But don’t offer more than one new food per day. Offer each new food in small amounts: 1 tablespoon for each year of age.
• Serve new foods with old favorites. Include at least one type of food you know your toddler enjoys with each meal. Mix rather than hide new food with familiar ones. You could also offer favorite condiments, like ketchup, alongside new foods.
• Eliminate distractions, such as TV and cellphones, during mealtimes.
• Involve your toddler in meal planning. Show them pictures from recipe books and ask them to make menu selections for the week ahead. Explore new food choices together at the grocery store.
• Recruit them as a helper. While it’s not safe for a toddler to use things like sharp utensils or the stove, you can have them toss ingredients you’ve already prepped into a plastic bowl and mix them up.
• Serve snacks and meals about the same time each day. Give your toddler a five-minute heads up before you sit down to eat so they don’t have to make a mad dash to the table.
• Make mealtime an enjoyable family time. Talk about your child’s day and make the dinner table a safe, collaborative place.
• Praise rather than pressure. If your child doesn’t want to try a new food, don’t force it. Give lots of positive reinforcement when they do.

Guidelines for Toddler Nutrition

Toddlers need less food than adults do. An active toddler needs between 1,000 and 1,400 calories a day.

The amount your child eats may vary widely from day to day. For example, they may seem like they’re eating constantly on some days and eat very little on others. This usually balances out over the course of a week or so.

Make sure to offer your child a variety of foods throughout the week, including dairy, vegetabes, fruits, grains, and proteins.

Your toddler may not eat from all of these groups every day. They may refuse their turkey sandwich one day or push away vegetables the next. As long as you continue to offer healthy choices, you can help them to meet their nutrition needs over several days.

Milk is also important for toddlers to provide the calcium and vitamin D needed for strong bones. Kids from 12 months to 2 years old should drink whole milk, which helps them get dietary fats needed for healthy development. After the age of 2, you can switch to 1% or non-fat milk if you prefer.

If your child has a milk allergy, you may be able to substitute soy milk with added vitamin D or other foods with calcium, such as broccoli, spinach, and fortified cereals. Check with your healthcare provider to make sure you’re helping them get the right nutrients.

When to See a Healthcare Provider

It can be tricky to know when a toddler is refusing food in a developmentally appropriate way and when poor eating is something to be concerned about.

In general, you should pay attention to what your child eats over the course of a week rather than the course of a day. If your child eats very little during a seven-day period, it may be time to talk to their healthcare provider.

Some other more specific signs that your child needs to be evaluated include:

• Weight loss or no weight gain over a six-month period
• Bone fractures
• A diet that is consistently limited to 20 or fewer different foods
• Refusal to eat anything at all over the course of two or three days
• A strong emotional reaction to certain foods
• Anxiety that seems related to food
• Refusal to eat whole food groups such as dairy 
• Gagging or vomiting
• Signs of jaundice such as yellowish skin

Summary

Dealing with a picky eater is different from dealing with a toddler who won’t eat. Neophobia is a common reason why toddlers reject foods. They are more than wary of new food; they may even fear it. This form of food refusal usually fades with time.

A child who won’t eat may be influenced by sensory issues, a lack of appetite, and different taste preferences. A child who is tired, feeling pressure to eat, or is experiencing medical issues may also shun food.

If your child eats very little during a seven-day period or longer, it may be time to talk to their healthcare provider.