Often, our understanding of the amount of  solid food a child 'should' be
eating is dictated(surprise, surprise) by the baby-food companies, and not
by
actual research.
Parents think that a reasonable serving of food is the 9ounce jar of
'toddler
food'.

Ellyn Satter, RD, in her book "Child of Mine"(Yes, the breastfeeding info
contained within is not up-to-date) does provide a table on page 494 of the
actual amounts that nutritionists consider a 'serving' for children of
various ages.  For ages 1 to 3 years:

Meat, poultry, fish-------1-2 Tbsp
Eggs--------------------------1/4
Cooked dried beans------1-2 Tbsp
Pasta, rice, potatoes-----1-2 Tbsp
Bread---------------------------1/4 slice
Vegetables-------------------1-2 Tbsp
Fruit-----------------------------1-2 Tbsp or 1/4 piece

You can see that a parent who expects a child to wolf down  3/4 to a cup of
jarred baby food, could easily look at a child who consumes one tablespoon
of
applesauce at snacktime as "not eating".  But the child has actually
consumed
the equivalent, for an adult, of an entire piece of fruit.

Sooooo....I would be prepared to say that if the child in question is
offered
appropriate foods at family meals and snacktimes, enjoys the seemingly
miniscule amounts of food he does consume, is growing and developing
appropriately, then there is *no* problem.

Karen Kavesh in Philadelphia
whose normally developing second child also showed no real enthusiasm for
more than small amounts of food at 18 months.

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