Not a bite - WHAT

[Laura's Mum]

Ok

I thought I would cope with this the second time around.

BUT

Cate has always been a great eater - in fact since she started on solids she has almost always eaten more than Laura at a meal (no mean feat though I have to say; Laura eats next to nothing).

Anyhow, for the past 10 days or so Cate has flat out refused to eat a bite at dinner time. For the first day or two I let it go....but it is driving me nuts.  For the last few days I have been offering a snack after bath (something boring like a slice of bread - and she STILL doesn't eat it).

She has a good breakfast and lunch and has a decent snack mid-morning and around 2 hours before dinner ........but she should be ready for SOMETHING at dinner time. 

Has my memory really faded this much?  Is this normal??  She is going around 16 hours with out food (ie from afternoon snack until breakfast - eeek)

Advice/thoughts??? Anyone??

[Deb_in_oz]

Ugg! i hate all the food issues - from the very beginning we always worry whether they have enough / too much to eat!!

is Laura not eating much still and does she get attention for not eating??  could it be something like that - competition for attention???

is she eating a lot at that last snack?? see if you cut out the snack if she eats a little at dinner.  if she has nothing after lunch i think it would be reasonable to assume she should want something at dinner and if she refuses then i woudl think something is going on.  if she eats then i woudl figure she was filling up at snack time.

if alex has so much as a single arrowroot biscuit or raisins for a snack she always cuts right back at the next meal (therefore she rarely has a snack and it is usually to compensate for a small meal rather than in advance of one)

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

My memory is already fuzzy - but Nathan went through a stage where he wouldn't eat dinner, just didn't seem hungry or not sufficiently interested.  I ended up offering him anything that he wanted just to get a little bit into his tummy.  It went on for a few months, and now he's eating a big dinner again.  Actually it was around that time that I would make sure that he had "dinner for lunch" - since dinner was when I was giving him the meat/vege meal - so I swapped it so I knew he'd had a good balance of everything during the day and if he ended up having toast for dinner it didn't matter too much.

[tylersmommy]

Tyler's not a big dinner eater, and usually isn't interested in a snack before bed either. It comes and goes, but even if he does eat dinner, it's a few bites at most. I've started offering him veggies at breakfast (weird, I know) since that's always when he eats the most and is least picky. I also rarely give an afternoon snack anymore. He just doesn't seem interested in it, and if he is, dinner's shot for sure. HTH!