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Behaviour/development

raises the white flag.

3 replies

knackereddad · 28/04/2008 11:54

Am I in the wrong section? Should this be in behaviour or food? The food threads seem to be about the correct way to store frozen artichokes or when is an egg scrambled? So many questions; my problem however seems to cross the boundary of both food and behaviour and concerns my son's attitude towards food.
In particular anything that is none of the following a carbohydrate, fruit, vegetable or tomato sauce.

He is eighteen months old happy, confident and curious. He attends nursery three days a week and according to the birth to three matters strategy is meeting government expectations.

Whilst at nursery he eats everything, regularly requesting ?more? he has yet to meet a food he does not like, this appetite for food is replicated when he spends time with his grand parents; he spends two days per week with them [at our house]

Yet with his mother and I, at meal time are greeted with tantrums if we deviate from pasta, fruit and vegetables or bread. The meltdown is huge, distressing and ultimately divisive, [we disagree on how to deal with this, though pull together eventually) we have tried every recipe in the Annabel Karmel book
Other Things we have tried.

  1. Not providing an alternative, to his main meal.
  2. Having time outs at the dinner table between mouthfuls
  3. Removing him from the dinner table
  4. Bribery-Toys-dessert-garden-kisses-etc
  5. New chair-relented and bought a Tripp Trapp
  6. sticking rigidly to the nursery routine at weekends


This weekend I snapped and left for an hour, the only thing he had eaten in two days were a bowl of porridge, various fruit and vegetables and milk.

He is winning the battle of the dinner table; I fear I am on the slippery slope that leads to feeding him wotsits, fruit shoots and cheese strings until he is eighteen and ending up badly titled documentary on BBC3
OP posts:
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Scootergrrrl · 28/04/2008 11:59

If he's eating things like porridge, fruit and veg and drinking milk, I really wouldn't worry. Young children are a) naturally cautious when it comes to food and b) likely to go on food jags where they have a limited diet.
It sounds like he's getting plenty of good stuff - why not try giving him the food he likes but with a tiny bit of something else on the side.
He WILL grow out of it before you're a BBC3 car-crash documentary, I guarantee it.

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mishymoo · 28/04/2008 12:03

He is playing up to you as he knows he gets your attention.

We used to have this problem with DS and after a few weeks of battling, I stopped offering alternatives. If he didn't eat what was in front of him (with me knowing he usually eats it), I gave him 3 chances and then I took it away. No pudding either. It is really hard but you have got to stick to your guns.

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oops · 28/04/2008 12:08

Message withdrawn

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