Wow - I'm surprised how many times this has come up and that some people are upset that they don't have a meal plan for their dc who is under 3. I LOVE the fact that they consider all under 3's 'infants' - you don't have to pay for a park ticket and they can stay in your room for free, etc. Believe me - it works out much better if you want your kid to have $5.00 mac n cheese at a restaurant to pay for that rather than have them considered a 'child' by Disney.
And if you don't want to pay for your child - just eat at buffets.
There is so much food on the DP that you can share, but if you don't want to - bring some PB&J from home and have him/her eat that for CS meals.
It would be tough to allow people to buy DP for a 2 year old child, why wouldn't a family with an infant (or 6 mon old, etc) just pay $11 a day for this extra person and eat at all of the best places with the extra credits? How can Disney determine whether a 9 month old child should be able to get it vs. a 2.5 year old child? I'm sure some 9 mon olds eat as much as some of the 2 year olds I know.
All I know is I have a dd who will be 3 about 3 weeks after we return from our upcoming trip, and I, for one, am NOT COMPLAINING! She's riding this trip for free for the last time and I'm going to enjoy every moment.
By the way - IMO when Disney advertises that families eat for 'free' I'm guessing that they in the fine print are really referring to all paying guests. Since a 2 year old isn't a paying guest, no DP credits.