20 months and has NEVER eaten at dinner time :0/

[sharanb]

Should I be worrying or not. My daughter Madison has always been good at eating breakfast and quite good at lunch but has never eaten at dinner time. She doesn't snack a lot between lunch and dinner, in fact she only has a yoghurt. She will sit in her highchair and just play with the food until she is bored and then cries to get down. Every day I persist but ...... nothing! She is not under weight or skinny but surely I need to do something about it. It can't be a phase she will grow out of as it has been over a year. Should I not worry about it and hope one day she grows out of it?

[Lolly]

Do you eat with her? Have you tried a different time, a bit earlier or a bit later?

At the end of the day though, if she isn't hungry you can't make her eat! How are your nights? How much milk is she drinking now?

Laura

[Mom to M&M]

I totally wouldn't worry about it. It seems rare for toddlers to have 3 good meals a day. My often only has 1 good meal a day, if I'm LUCKY then two. She might be tired and full enough from the rest of the day. Like Laura said, I'd just watch her milk intake (I'd keep her at 16 ounces/day tops, and that includes yogurt) and encourage her to sit at the table while you eat - if she's hungry she'll join in!

[sharanb]

We all eat at the same time which I thought would encourage her more but no. She has 8oz of milk in the morning before her breakfast and then I offer her milk before bed but she normally only takes 2-3 oz. Might drop the night time milk soon. She sleeps absolutely fine. Goes down at 7pm and wakes at 7.30am. She does drink quite a lot of squash during the day, but I can't stop her drinking if she is thirsty. Getting tired of making her a nice dinner every day and having to throw it away :0(

[Lolly]

I dread to think how many dinners I have thrown away .

How much squash would you say she is drinking? I'm sure you make it very weak but the flavourings etc can make you more thirsty so I wonder if it is worth just offering water for a while to see if it makes a difference. Maybe limit the amount a bit too in case she is filling her tummy with liquid.

Laura

[Mom to M&M]

By squash I'm guessing you mean juice? I'd make sure it's quite diluted - maybe like 3/4 water? Otherwise can be quite filling. But otherwise it sounds like she's doing great! And if she's eating what you are eating anyway you don't need to make her a nice separate dinner - just make slightly more of what you're already making and if she doesn't eat it you have a little bit of leftovers. Or if you're making her a separate meal and she doesn't eat it, can't that be her lunch the next day?

[Tweakster]

My kid has had toast every night this week lol
Tonight is lasagna but he probably won't eat it either. 
Yes I hear you all on the make and throw away.  I'm tired of it.
We've done the all eat at the table during which he has played, thrown and just generally been a PITA.
And we've also done the leave food on the table and he's completely ignored it, it's gone cold, he refused to eat it. 

If she's thirsty offer her water.  The sugar in the squash could be wreaking havoc on her blood sugar and making her more thirsty too.

My DS is nearly 23 mths and is just not hungry at night these days.  They do get most of their calories throughout the day.  If she's happy, sleeping well, staying on the growth curve and the doc has no concerns, then I would just learn to live with it.  They change it up again in no time.  She'll soon hit a growth spurt and eat you out of house and home.