Is messing with food a 'phase'? Please tell me it is.....

[ceebee74]

DS (18 months) has always been fairly good with food - although he has not go the world's biggest appetite, he has always eaten something at mealtimes, has been feeding himself well with cutlery since he was 1 etc.

This last week or so, he has turned into a nightmare - he just messes with food at the table, emptying his bowl either slowly or tipping the whole thing upside down, throwing food on the floor and not eating much at all - just playing.

Is this a phase all children go through and how do I deal with it? Do I ignore it and let him carry on messing or do I warn him and then remove him from the table....or is he too young for that?

Please help....

[LittleMy34]

DS1 did this on and off every so often. Sometimes he just didn't seem to be very hungry, quite often it was linked to teething.

If he was playing with his food i would normally tolerate it for a small amount of time and then say 'Well you're not very interested in eating, are you? Let's take that away' (not telling him off, just ver matter of factly) and just remove the food. If he cried then i'd say 'well food's for eating' and try giving it back to him, but if he carried on messing around then the food went.

He never did this for very long, it's really hard when your child isn't eating but your DS won't starve himself on purpose - if he's hungry he'll eat.

HTH

[ceebee74]

Thanks LittleMa

[ceebee74]

Sorry - littleMy

[ceebee74]

Bump - anyone else?

[needmorecoffee]

most of them do it. It could be attention seeking or he might not be hungry and this is much more fun. When my 3 went thought this phase I gave them sandwhiches a lot
dd now 4 does it a bit. She'll let you fill her mouth and then raspberry the whole lot out.

[belle74]

From what you have described, I personally would not worry too much about this.

I am not an expert but from what I understand, children especially little ones have a much more 'natural' outlook on food and eating, ie if they are hungry then generally they will eat, if not then probably won't sort of thing. My Ds is generally a 'good eater' but somemealtimes he doesnt seem to particularly fancy what I give him and just eats a bit then starts playing with it, at other times he tucks in.I often find he will eat really well at one or two meals in the day but isnt that hungry for the other meal IYKWIM.

Maybe your little one isn't growing much at the mo, or is busy 'thinking/developing' about other things, and food is taking a back seat.

I think that making a big deal about this type of thing can possibly store up problems later on though and a laid back approach is probably best, as Littlemy has descibed.