Fed up of feeding my kids

[IlanaK]

I am feeling really fed up today about food. My youngest just turned one and is a nightmare to feed. I make food for him (meat and veg casserole type things and roughly puree them - he is fine with lumps. He doesn't want to be spoon fed which I know is normal, but he also won't eat any normal finger foods. He spits out bread, pasta, cheese, etc. We recently went away for a week and I had to use jars and that was even worse. He was not impressed. Every meal has him whining through it and me trying to distract him enough to eat. He is very small for his age too.

Ds1 is almost 4 and big for his age. He would happily live on chocolate and ice-cream, but we have had a lot of talks recently on what is healthy and what is not and he does understand. Heis diet is not too bad comparitively speaking. But he is so fussy on some things. He has started going to nursery two mornings a week and has lunch there. It is all homemade healthy food - really good. The problem is that he won't eat it. And it is always for silly reasons. LIke when they had cauliflower cheese. He llikes cauliflower and he likes cheese, but not together in a sauce (sauces are a big no-no to him). Today he promised to eat his lunch there and I had high hopes as it was fishcakes. He will eat fish fingers with ketchup at home, but would not eat the fishcakes at nursery. They of course were nice and homemade and I am guessing htere was no ketchup. HE also would not eact dessert which was yoghurt,. He loves yoghurt, but they mixed fruit in it.

I am at my witts end with both of them! I feel like saying: "there's the kitchen, get to it"!

[Nightynight]

Ilana - can understand why you are at your wits end!
Can only suggest:
feeding them in different situations, eg barbecue in the garden, taking them out for the day, eg to the beach, small picnic in supermarket carpark to try and get them over being picky
putting the food in front of them, with spoon and just leaving them to get on with it for around half an hour
What happens if you put the food out and tell them to help themselves?

My children had to learn early on to be foragers.
They also had to learn a few tough lessons about there not always being ketchup at home!
Still throw loads of food in the bin though! ds2 told me firmly recently to throw my recipe for tomato soup in the rubbish, mummy.

[suzywong]

oh IlanaK I know that feeling very very well
I have similar aged kids and ds2 at that age drove me bonkers. Now at 21 months he will eat a larger repetoire and ... now for the science bit...he will eat if he has a fork to hold and I feed him with a spoon, if the food is at the same table as his brother and (this is a no brainer but it took me weeks to work it out FFS) if I haven't givin him snacks and biscuits just to get something down him a couple of hours previously. It is maddening isn't it when they P((ss us around like this?

Good Ideas from Nighty Night too, but try starving him between meals.

My nearly 4 year old ds1 wouldn't eat anything at nursery too. I stopped bothering with nursery altogether in the end as he was starting kindergarten soon, so sorry can't help you with the big one

[stitch]

try not feeding them. when they are hungry, they will eat whatever you give them.
and dont buy any chocolates, sweets crisps at a ll

[slug]

Try getting them to help in the kitchen. The sluglet was having an 'I'm not hungary' tantrum last night. But, by the time her omelet was cooked she had scoffed 3 sticks of celery, some yellow pepper and two handfuls of grated cheese. Admittedly her father and I had the omelet as a starter, but honour (and tummies) were satisified on both sides.