BabyWhispererForums.com
EAT => Eating For Toddlers => Topic started by: maxysmum on March 11, 2009, 13:24:34 pm
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Max is 3yrs and wont eat anything, If I ask him what he would like for any meal the response is, I'm not hungry, If I just give him a plate of food he'll probably have 2 bites then say he's not hungry. I dont let him have anything like biscuits or dessert until he's eaten a least part of his meal but he's so stubborn (I'm sure I dont know where he got that from ;)) he has gone to bed without eating anything. I'm worried that he is going to develop a real food aversion but how do I get him to eat. He wakes up several time a night and I'm sure its because he doesnt eat. If I'd let him he would live on Milk, biscuits, cheese and ham ::).
Any tips will be gratefully recieved TIA
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we seem to be going through a similar phase and have resorted to a bit of AP, I let him eta on the couch or while watching a bit of Telly as its only to distract him, but I am not willing to offer food off the time table as that only indulges his bad behaviour and makes him more stubborn - if that can happen at all!! But tahts just me, everyone thinks I am being too strict but I knwo my monkey give him an inch and he will take an arm!
So as per schedule he is offered food and he can eat what he wnats I distract with story telling etc and see fi it works and he gets at leats something inside. i am avoiding forcing and if he says doen then he is off the hook as I dont want food to be a forced issue, he won't starve him self and maybe he is just not a 100% and a lil less hungry...
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Steph, is he any better eating with other kids? Does he help make lunch?
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great point.
DS loves making his sandwhich - putting butter and honey on his slice of bread/toast or puring pasta for me in teh container of helping wash the veggies..and that does help.
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Masyn is a pretty good eater, but lately I've been making her food more fun by using cookie cutters and we make different shapes out of cheese, meat and bread. I do let her eat breakfast and lunch in front of the TV too.
HTH
Heidi
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He loves to help but it doesnt make him eat the food, we've tried cutting his food into shapes and sometimes it works other times he just refuses it saying, he's not hungry. He is allowed to sit in front of the tv for his breakfast and lunch, we try to sit at the table for our evening meals but if he creates we give in and let him sit in the lounge, (he has us well and truly wrapped around his finger!). I'm not sure if eating around other children helps that much but I do try and encourage him to go to lunch club at school where he seems to eat more than he would at home.
I'm just at a loss for what to do, I really think its becoming a problem and not just him being picky. Like I said before i'm sure its why he wakes up so much at night an I think its also why he's ill all the time. Maybe I should try nutritian shakes?!?
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If he fills up on those he's not going to want to eat. How much does he eat at lunch club? Do the teachers give you a list? Have you tried keeping a food diary over 10/14 days? Rather than look at it day to day, see what he eats over a longer period. It may surprise you.
You know he won't starve, don't you? I know it's not easy - Harry has an awful diet. Would live on chicken nuggets if I let him! ::)
Does he have hungry periods? Any time where he eats more than others? More in the morning?
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hugs Steph...
Oscar goes through phases of eating very very little at all as well....and he eats even worse in preschool....I try to make sure he has a half decent brekkie (again I allow kiddy tv for brekkie time, he sits strapped into the high chair and manages a piece of fruit and a bowl of cereal and sometimes even an egg....) but then after that it all goes downhill....
O's fads change regularly....once upon a time it was eggs, then PB on toast, (thats ALL he wanted), now its cornflakes....when I ask him what he wanted to eat when he was sick recently (didn't want to force food on him) he lived on cornflakes for two days!!!
S x
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Harry used to live on 2 slices of toast and a handful of grapes.
Steph, I know it's easy for me to say, but don't make it into a battle. Food is the one thing they can control. You'll never win... :P
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He has a packed lunch for lunch club and the left overs come home with him so I can see how much he eats. I think a diary is a really good idea, i'll try it. I didnt think about the shakes filling him up good point!
I think i'll try to tackle one meal at a time starting with breakfast!
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Sorry Steph, that must be so frustrating.
I don't think I have much to add, except to agree that you'll probably never win this one if he knows how much you want it. My nephew is an awful eater - I'm sure he's worse than Max - but he's amazingly healthy, rarely gets ill, is a good weight and has loads of energy. I'm sure if my sister looked at what he ate over a 2 week period too, she's see something of substance in there, as based on what he eats on a daily basis we have no idea how he's getting by!
My boys seem to prefer having all the food put in the middle of the table (it makes washing up though!) and then they help themselves (quite often to things they then insist they don't like mind you).
Do you eat at the table with Max? We always sit down together and I'm usually more interested in my own meal than what they're eating - they have a pig as a role model!
If Zander doesn't like something (or claims not to) then I know I can usually ask him if he'd like ketchup (I don't offer at the start of the meal) and once that's on he'll eat some more. My next step when he says he's done is to tell him to take 2 more mouthfuls and then he can have pudding and he'll usually do that.
He also knows that I understand that he won't like some things but that if he doesn't try he won't know - he quite often says 'I tried it but I didn't like it' and I praise him for trying and don't push it.
Something we do sometimes if we're out for a walk near lunchtime is buy something from the supermarket - something like a bagel or a teacake - and then we eat walking along on the way home. Not a very good habit but he always scoffs the lot and usually has a second one because he's not concentrating on sitting down and eating a meal.
Zander very often has supper after his bath too (he sees it as a treat to come back down after Nate has gone to bed) - cereal/porridge usually. Does Max like anything like that? I'm sure he sleeps longer on the nights when he has supper.
Kelly x
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Stacy and Kelly thanks you given me food for thought :P I will definately give some of those ideas a go, we have found that when we are somewhere where you can help yourself like a buffett Max will go bck again and again so the food in the centre of the table may work! I also love the idea of each of us choosing a meal and how to eat it that sounds like fun!
Yesterday Max was hungry straight after school (4pm) and MIL gave him a box of popcorn chicken which he had finished by the time we had gotten home, and then he had a snack and some milk and slept all night 8).
Today I didnt bother asking him if he'd like toast or cereal I just made myself some marmite toast and he ate 2 slices ::), he's also going to lunch club again today so he will have eaten a good enough amount at 2 meals today.
I know that the milk fills him up and I try to keep it back until after he's eaten but when he's refused all other food I let him have it as I know that he' getting something in him :-\.
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things are getting worse for us and DS is barely eating...aggh I am ready to run away. he has been a poor but easy eater IYKIWM, low quantity but anything and now its awful and as soon as he sees his plate he says no porridge or no rice or whatever has been served.
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I am late here but wanted to say that I had the same issue with thomas, spoke to my oead en passant as was there and she suggested proper sit down meals when we all eat together (up to now kids ate before us) as she said that the one on one the 'feeding' kids causes can stress them out and also give them the opportunity to mess with you ;-) they can sense it stresses you out and the use it....not sure how much you agree with that but anyway, we tried it, third day now and it's going much much better!
What sort of stuff do you prepare for him?
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well most of the food we eat is quite Indian, so lentils or beans and rice or Indian bread with veggies and butter etc and he gets steamed veggies on the side always and stuff like baby tomatoes and so on.
Eating together is quite hard as he eats at 5:30 and there is no chance in hell that DH will be back by then. I have started trying to have a small bite with DS and lets see if it makes a difference.
he has also just recently become extra cranky and clingy so am wondering if its a phase....am seeing the doc the firts week of April so if its all not getting better by then, will take it up with the doc. He did suffer from a tummy bug last week which had him throwing up and that really unnerved him>
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Mukta - that's what I do, have a little something to eat with the boys at their dinner time, then I have my proper meal with DH once they're in bed at about 8pm. I definitely think it helps for you to be sitting down concerned about your own food rather than have them feeling you're watching, much better for them to think you don't care how much they do or don't eat! Your food sounds yummy btw - can I come to dinner? I promise to eat it all up! Just another thought, could you find a way to improve the taste of the steamed veggies, some type of sauce or something? I don't like plain steamed veggies myself and the boys wouldn't touch them either but if they're made more interesting some how..
Kelly x
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funnily enough kelly thats the only bit he wants to eat nowadays, 0 steamed veggies, he loves them and plain..i probably did something right when he was younger...
and you are welcome for dinner anytime....:)
so will stick to eating a baby dinner with him and take it from there and see how things improve.
Thanks!
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I take it back then, he's a star :D :D :D
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want to borrow him for a few days ;)