To not give him pudding?

[Magneto]

Ds will not eat his tea every single bloody night. He eats breakfast, he eats lunch (generally sandwiches/scrambled egg/pasta) but will absolutely not eat his tea. I have even offered weetabix but he won't have that either. He's 15 months and used to be a great eater.

I will not offer alternatives - I know he would eat a pudding (any pudding!) but you don't get pudding without eating tea in this house, which is why I offered weetabix.

The problem is he is waking up earlier each day! I have to get up at 5am for work anyway but for the last 3 days he's woken at 3-30 to 4am because he is hungry. He doesn't need a bottle at night so I am loathe to reintroduce one which means I have to treat it as morning and get up so he can have his morning bottle.

What am I doing wrong? I'm really at the end of my tether now.

That sounds pretty good, OP. Hope for more of the same tomorrow!

Sweet food is not poisonous nor even unhealthy if it's fruit and/or yoghurt. At this age, feed him whatever he'll eat and don't stress too much.

My DD wasn't having a full tea at 15 months. Maybe he's just not hungry? I don't think there's anything wrong if your child doesn't eat when not hungry. Don't force, or get worried - they still have small tummies at that age.

Think you're being pretty strict, he's only 15 months and still learning about what he does and doesn't like, if he's waking up in the morning because you're not feeding him enough you should give him fruit or something he'll eat - it's wrong to send a child that age to bed hungry.

At that age I used to give DS1 a snack plate with 4 or 5 different things on it, that way everything comes together and once his appetite was stimulated he usually ate most of it. Eg, cereal hoops, fresh fruit, raisins, cubes of cheese, mini-toasts or crackers

Wow, try to stress less! As long as it's nutritious, does it matter too much whether it's sweet or not (as long as they won't only eat sweet things)?

I remember my pfb at the same age - when my dad was babysitting, I'd ask what she'd had when I came back from work and typically it would be something like '2 cups of milk and 16 cherry tomatoes' or something equally random, un-meal-like, but basically quite healthy. As long it's not a pack of cheese and onion crisps, or equivalent, your pfb will be fine. :)

She eats huuge dinners now, by the way!

Your dc will get the hang of full meals too in due course.

I agree with frutilla on the snack plate thing - a little plate with lots of colourful choices goes down a treat. Then they can pick and choose what to have and often eat it all. Do try the idea of making a smiley face out of fun things (can't remember if I suggested this before?) Like half a cherry tomato for a nose, some raisin eyebrows and cereal hoop eyes. Try to make it fun and keep the (healthy, 5-a-day, etc) bit hidden for now. I'm lucky, my son will eat everything and one of his first foods was a curry with garlic and peppers. (However, I love garlic and he probably recognised the flavour from his breastmilk). I did work as a part-time nanny for triplets, so I do feel your pain about sleep and eating routines. My son was a horrible sleeper with silent reflux and we were clueless parents, so that is why I heart the HSHHC book.

Have you tried food with fruit glaze? Chicken/pork with mango chutney or apricot glaze, or pineapple type of thing? Maple glazed salmon?

Too tired to think of other sweet foods, or, one more...sweet and sour meatballs!

My 14month old can be really fussy at her evening meal as well, its just not her favourite time to eat.
Yesterday her food was: breakfast, toast with butter and banana, she ate all the toast but only half the banana she was pretty full. Snack was milk and some raisins she loves that. Lunch she had a massive cheese sandwich and some tomato soup to dip it in :)then a digestive biscuit. Only milk in the afternoon then for her evening meal she was offereed pasta salad with tuna sweetcorn and tomatoes but she picked out the tomatoes to eat and ate a few bits of pasta but just wasnt interested in anymore. I gave her her pudding which was rice pudding and pears.

I have three older children and this is pretty much hiw i have treated them as well i hve a meal plus a pudding, they eat what they want from it no fuss if they leave it but from quite an early age i wont sit a coax them to eat nor will i be making endless snacks if they refuse meals.

I agree that it will be better to let him eat earlier rather than making him wait to eat with you. At 15m this is fine!