From toddler to preschooler
Refusing dinner
AllStar
Hey ladies,
My 14-month-old toddler has been refusing her evening meal for 2 weeks now. During the day she eats fine, but in the evening it's a drama. Before this she used to eat almost everything! Suddenly it was over.
Her eating schedule now is:
Breakfast: Oatmeal porridge
Snack: Rice cake, Marie biscuit or fruit
Lunch: 2 slices of bread with toppings and a piece of cucumber (I introduced this to get some veggies in anyway)
Snack: Fruit
Dinner: 'whatever the pot serves'
Before bed: Bottle of semi-skimmed milk
I find it super difficult, because we've tried everything. If we keep offering her food she throws tantrums (up to vomiting). We try to ignore these as much as possible (providing safety and closeness but no attention). We've let her feed herself. With spoon or fork. With that she launches her food at the dog. Letting her eat with her hands. Taking over and trying to feed her our food. NOTHING helps!
I've also not put her at the table a few times now and let her come to us from her play herself. Hoping she would get curious and come look to get some food that way. She does come, but the moment she realizes there's food, she doesn't want to know anything about it.
She does eat when we get fries! That's what the lady loves. BUT the carrots she gets alongside them she won't eat either.
Does anyone have the golden tip for me? I absolutely don't want to give food any negative charge. Are there moms with experience with this?
My 14-month-old toddler has been refusing her evening meal for 2 weeks now. During the day she eats fine, but in the evening it's a drama. Before this she used to eat almost everything! Suddenly it was over.
Her eating schedule now is:
Breakfast: Oatmeal porridge
Snack: Rice cake, Marie biscuit or fruit
Lunch: 2 slices of bread with toppings and a piece of cucumber (I introduced this to get some veggies in anyway)
Snack: Fruit
Dinner: 'whatever the pot serves'
Before bed: Bottle of semi-skimmed milk
I find it super difficult, because we've tried everything. If we keep offering her food she throws tantrums (up to vomiting). We try to ignore these as much as possible (providing safety and closeness but no attention). We've let her feed herself. With spoon or fork. With that she launches her food at the dog. Letting her eat with her hands. Taking over and trying to feed her our food. NOTHING helps!
I've also not put her at the table a few times now and let her come to us from her play herself. Hoping she would get curious and come look to get some food that way. She does come, but the moment she realizes there's food, she doesn't want to know anything about it.
She does eat when we get fries! That's what the lady loves. BUT the carrots she gets alongside them she won't eat either.
Does anyone have the golden tip for me? I absolutely don't want to give food any negative charge. Are there moms with experience with this?
Replies
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Anonymous Guest #2
Not personally experienced it myself, but my niece (3) can also be a bit difficult with food sometimes. My husband (her uncle) turns it into a little game when we eat together, like at a family BBQ. He pretends to pick food off her plate, and she usually quickly shoves it in her mouth to stop him from getting it. I’ve read everywhere that you decide what’s eaten and your child decides how much, but I don’t have any real-life experience with how that works out. I can imagine it’s frustrating. -
AllStar started this #3
Thanks for your reply. She's still so young, of course, so she doesn't understand that I can't explain to her yet that she needs the food.
Usually, mealtime is also a game for us. (Big bite, little bite, bite for papa, bite for mama, bite for teddy and bite for doll
)
She should indeed be able to indicate when she's done. Enough is enough. We are fortunately once again in agreement that the plate doesn't have to be empty. But not eating anything at all, I find that nothing either haha -
Anonymous Guest #4
As long as she eats something for the rest of the day, she won't starve
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Amy #5
I wouldn't push too much. We have a 2-year-old toddler who lately eats very little to nothing at dinner, whereas before he really ate everything. He especially doesn't want vegetables, except for carrots and peas.
We just eat together in a cozy way, chat, and he decides for himself what and how much he eats. If he doesn't eat, tough luck. After that, he always gets a dessert, but not more than usual. He's crazy about fruit and bread, so he eats well during the day. I do notice that little by little, he's eating more in the evening. Also, sometimes a bit of vegetables.
What always hits the spot is pasta with red sauce, and then I chop all the vegetables very small, and they go down without protest.
It took a while before I stopped stressing about the lack of food in the evening, but I kept reminding myself that he's not lacking anything.
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