help ! 3.5 year old wont eat

[wifeymerrick]

Hi I'm new ...my three year old is refusing everything I offer him to eat....apart from chocolate if course ! He told me the other day I don't like eating animals !!!! Help !

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Welcome to Mn wife. We had some issues with our DDs eating at that age and while things aren't perfect, they are so, so much better.

Not eating animals is an unusual thing to say at that age, have you asked him what he means?

Can you tell us a bit more about what is going on? Do you eat as a family, does he go to nursery and eat there, what happens when he refuses to ear?

[wifeymerrick]

Thanks so much for replying....I'm a nursery nurse so as far as I know I tick all the boxes :-) we eat together ! He has snack at nursery ( not my work ) he always ate well but has been asking kits if questions about food ie..what is a sausage ? What is fish,why have fish fingers not got eyes ? He is switched on lol....being my only one I'm STRESSED !!!@

[frootshoots]

Could you try giving foods different names so that he doesn't associate with animals until he passes through this phase? I have to call fish fingers 'sea sticks' to dd as she is convinced her goldfish is inside them! Eggs are 'treasure balls' as she has to eat away the white to get to the gold in the middle.

Don't stress, he won't let himself starve. He sounds like a very bright little boy

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Forgot to ask one more question, what milk does he have and how much?

[ppeatfruit]

If you did child development at uni. it must have mentioned that being 'picky' is a totally normal part of growing up; he's showing his personality IMO and E; just go with the flow give him what he wants and don't make ANY fuss either if he eats or if he doesn't.

L.O.s don't invest the same emotions in food as we do. they also don't need to eat anywhere near as much as we think they do. What I did when a C.M. and nanny and with my own 3 was when they were hungry give a lovely plate of carefully and prettily cut up fruit and they can make fruit faces or whatever and then they eat it ! then you know at least they've had some goodness.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Mentioned before that we had problems with dd and she is now much better, here's what we did.

We all eat together
We ignore any I won't eat that type comments
We eat and chat
We refuse to get drawn into conversations about the food or how much they will eat
We stay calm
When we've finished if she's not still eating, we clear away.
We never, ever, ever offer an alternative


We have also stopped giving her anything before bed. Took Dsil to point out that she if she didn't like the look of her tea, she could refuse it and not worry because she always had a snack and milk before bed. There were a few tears when we stopped it but she soon got the message, if you don't eat your tea, you go to bed hungry. Like most things with children it takes about 3 days for the message to get through

[wifeymerrick]

He doesn't really like milk so gets dairy from other sources....I know being picky is a stage but it's different when its ur own ! Thanks for advice and tips...I'll b trying the different name thing !