Hi Ladies,
My DS is 22 months old, spirited and extremely persistent. We never ever had a ‘fight’ over food with him. I have never forced him to eat anything. I pick my battles and we are pretty relaxed with his choices of food as long as it is healthy ( we never offer anything unhealthy. He never has crisps and fizzy drinks, juice only on the odd occasion, sweets, cakes only on special occasions and birthdays). We used baby led weaning with him, so we have always allowed him to make a mess and eat with his hands. Now he is a very neat eater and eat pretty well with a fork and spoon.
My main question is: when do you start reinforcing ‘the going to bed hungry if he doesn’t eat what is offered for dinner’? I feel like he doesn’t grasp that concept yet? But its hard work as he has never eaten any cooked meals at home.
He eats very well on nursery days (2 days a week). He eats everything, including casseroles, lasagnes, pasta, tuna sandwiches etc… At home he won’t eat cooked food at all. On the odd occasion he will have plain pasta or pesto pasta. He won’t even eat omelette, something he used to love
At home he will eat every single fruit,cereals,raisins,breadsticks, cucumber, tomato, anything pickles(especially Gherkins ), olives, bread, oatcakes, rice cakes , cheese, yogurt, pizza and beans. But apart from that he won’t eat anything else when he is with us.
Is it a phase? Will it pass? I know spirited can be very sensitive to textures but how come he eats everything at nursery then? He pretty much knows that we will offer something else at home if he refuses the cooked meal (even if it’s a bit later after we have taken him out the highchair or table), but I really don’t want and think it’s not appropriate to fight over food. I don’t want him to have problems with food when he grows up, yk.Plus he is so persistent that he knows exactly what he wants to eat and there is no way I can convince him otherwise.
I guess I’m looking for people who BTDT. Or some ideas , although we have tried pretty much everything. And at what age,you ladie,s started reinforcing’ the going to bed hungry’?
Thanks for reading