DD always wants my food!!

[nona]

i feel like i can not eat in peace ever these days! my DD is always wanting to eat off my plate, even if the same as hers. i realize this is normal behavior but i don't recall my DS doing this as much. She does eat better / more when i let her (basically she just grabs and i have no choice) but i never get to finish my food or it gets completely contaminated by her lol.  if she doesn't like it she will spit it out on my plate. so annoying!!!

TBH, I don't like my kids to drink from my same cup, etc. One reason (and maybe i am completely cray-cray) is that i get cavities easily so i don't want to share my spit with her bc of that.

Sometimes I'll try to eat standing up away from her and then she begs me to sit down and then 5 min later she wants me plate (even if same as hers) or she wants on my lap.

how do you handle this?

[goldmom]

Is this for all the meals? Can you set limits such that if she starts eating from your plate you tell her not to and if she does then you have to put your plate away, and then you won't eat. Not sure if you can handle not eating then with her and having to wait until she's not around! Maybe just try for a day or two to see if she'll stop taking from your plate and will eat from her own instead - no exceptions.

When DS doesn't really want to eat dinner after barely eating anything, I sometimes help him by putting food onto his fork for him, so that he eats more and doesn't come back later asking for something else to eat.

[nona]

pretty  much, mainly breakfast and lunch though.

yea i could but i know it would make her mad and then she will shove her plate probably etc. she can be quite dramatic. i guess i can be tougher. i feel like i need to eat breakfast before she wakes up and after she goes down for a nap.  such a dumb problem LOL but it has been driving me nuts lately.

[~Lori~]

Heather, we deal with this somewhat with my DS2.  But he is soooooo picky so if he wants something, I tend to give it to him.  HOWEVER, 2 nights ago at dinner, he was throwing a huge fit about his dinner, so I took it away and dumped it on my plate and started to eat it.  He then wanted it from my plate.  I dumped it back into his bowl after that and he wouldn't eat it!!!!!  I was about pulling my hair out.  I think a lot of it is these cherubs are trying to exert their will and be independent.  But I do agree boundaries have to be in place...I better start working on that

[creations]

Have you tried a central serving dish so that all the food comes from the same place but is served to her plate and to yours?
Mine had a phase of wanting my food or needing me to 'test' his food. I came to think of it as me acting as court jester, tasting the kings food to check for poison. In a way it sort of makes sense that they are safer if they know it is your food, it puts them at less risk of eating the wrong thing. However it's a PITA esp when you keep showing them it's all the same. I found this helped:
- serve the plates from a central dish
- put the food down in the same pattern (peas on right, carrots on left or whatever) on each plate so they look the same
- during serving name each food (even if they know what the food is and you know they can recognise it) as you put it on the plate
- after serving ask if LO would like you to test it for them, 'to check if it's good' take one piece eat it and say 'mmm, yep that's good to eat'.
- I also found it helped to chop foods in the same way for each meal so carrots always in batons rather than sometimes in rounds, sounds a bit silly but makes the item more familiar.

I wouldn't mind giving LO some off my plate, I wouldn't mind serving my plate then serving onto their plate, but I would draw the line at what you describe. Everyone needs a chance to enjoy their meal including you, there's a lot I'll share with DS but him spitting food onto my plate is a no go, ever.  you could maybe try some of the above tips I found helped, if it's more extreme then I'd leave her plate almost empty, one small piece of food which she isn't going to eat, then when she wants yours pick up a piece eat half of it and put the other half on her plate. She has to take it from her plate to eat it.

[cuckoochick]

I think creations' advice is great. Do they have separate tableware to you, ie kids' plates? If so mYbe try the same dishes?

I don't think I could stand the grabbing and putting chewed up stuff on- maybe have a side plate available for anything they can't keep on their own plate?

[creations]

If so mYbe try the same dishes?

Oh yes, good point, we do that here too. DS has a small plate (side plate) but it's the same as our dinner plates. Also cutlery which looks like adult cutlery but smaller size rather than anything that looks like child's cutlery.

[nona]

what do you mean having a central dish? may seem obvious but i usually put everything on the kitchen table and then we help ourselves. ?

.she actually did not do this for breakfast or lunch today. i fed her what i was having so much better.

i think i am really lazy with her about some things bc i have my other child to worry about it! i need to be a bit more structured with her.

[creations]

Just serving meals (where possible) the way you describe, a dish of food you put on the table and then everyone helps themselves from that, serving it onto their own plate - rather than serving onto individual plates out of sight iyswim. It just shows all the food is the same.  tbh I serve DS's onto his own serving dishes because I make his cooler than ours so we don't strictly do this ourselves but it can help where LOs are being fussy about their food.