Dinner times a battle!

[SusieQue]

Hi ladies, I'm hoping someone will tell me this is just a phase!  My 19MO is becoming a real battle at dinner times and won't eat anything unless it's in cake/burger form (e.g. potato cake or vegetable burger) or it's one of the Organix toddler meals (how he knows the difference, I have no idea!).  The thing is, I can't always feed him something separate from what me and DH are eating, nor do I want to encourage this kind of separation, and I don't like to feed him the toddler meals all the time as they aren't "fresh".  But I'm worried he's not eating enough veg (or none at all on some days).  He eats a good lunch (usually scrambled egg or tinned sardines and toast) and loves lentils, but when i tried hiding some veg in lentils (mashed up carrot and broccoli) for dinner he wouldn't touch it.  Is this just something we have to ride out?  Tonight he point blank refused to even try some of his roast dinner so he isn't having anything for dinner - not sure if I should be offering him something else, but I don't want him to think that if he doesn't like what's in front of him he'll get something else.  This has been going on for about a month now and dinner times are becoming very stressful!  We try not to make a big issue about him not eating his dinner but inwardly it's very frustrating!  He used to be such a good eater and has now become a little fussy pants!

Does anyone have any tips on how I can get him eating a proper meal at dinner?  And should I be worried he's not eating much veg or any dinner?

Thanks very much!

[Lolly]

I wouldn't worry about it too much to be honest - keep offering what you are having and he will eat if he is hungry. I always make sure there is at least one thing as part of the meal that they will eat but we all have the same when we eat together and that is it.

Evening meal time is hard for toddlers as they are tired at the end of the day even when they have napped well. If he has eaten breakfast and a good lunch he will have had enough, many toddlers eat better earlier in the day. My DD at nearly 4 still eats like this so if I know she has had breakfast and a decent lunch it's up to her how much tea she eats.

The other thing to think about is snacks and milk - if he is having those in the afternoon it could be filling him up too much. You can also keep a record of what he eats over a week to see what the balance is, just looking at a day doesn't give you the bigger picture. Remember too that toddlers still have very little tummies which don't take a lot of filling!

Laura

[creations]

Agree with everything Laura said.
Just wanted to add, if you are really concerned about low veg intake maybe try giving veg at breakfast or lunch (or snack) instead of waiting for dinner.  Slightly different but my LO wasn't eating protein and by dinner it was kind of a case of me pinning my hopes on him having a bite of something protein, it wasn't the right time of day to offer a food group that wasn't his favourite and was too late in the day for me to have any further opportunity to get him to eat some. I changed to making breakfast a protein meal (which he eats without question, clears his plate and thoroughly enjoys!) and basically means if he only eats veg and carbs for dinner it's fine.
Frozen peas, canned sweetcorn, batons of sweet pepper, carrot, celery make nice snack food so LO gets the taste for veg in it's true state rather than in burger form, even if he doesn't eat much at all with the family (but like Laura said, cutting down on snacks can also lead to better appetite for the evening meal).

[SusieQue]

Thanks Laura and Creations - will definitely try giving him his veg at lunchtime as he seems more receptive to food at lunch time.  I actually dropped his 3pm snack last week as I thought that was contributing to him not eating dinner, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference.  He still has a bottle before bed but no other milk in the day (apart from with cereal in the morning) so I don't know whether subconsciously this is making him not eat his dinner (because he knows he is getting a bottle later).  Or maybe he just isn't hungry!  I never look for the obvious answer though

Thanks for your advice x