To just stop offering DD breakfast and lunch?

[turkishdeelitee]

Because she literally never eats breakfast, just point blank refuses. Also refuses lunch for five out of seven days a week. She does eat an OK dinner if it’s something she likes. I’m fed up and worried. She’s nearly 3.

Hrft, sorry no time, I also have a DS3.7y who is picky.
If he has milk first thing he dirsnt eat breakfast but will have mid morning fruit at nursery or home.

He often doesnt eat lunch at home, but devours it at nursery. After nursery he has a snack plate, fruit and salad with babybel cheese or rarely ham or sausage. The he generally eats with us around 7.30 often only a spoon of rice and chicken abd Brocoli or peas.

He is not Arfid, obvs but if he doesn't get the food he likes he doesnt eat. So its lots of strawberries, watermelon, blueberries and raspberries, broccoli, peas, carrots, sweetcorn. Few bits of meat and pasta..

He does also get some non healthy snacks, a few crisps, or a piece of milk cake, but he's such a slim kid, I'd rather he ate something.
And he regulates himself, Easter he got hold of a whole large choc egg but ate a tiny bit then gave me the rest to save for later.

He's had a few illnesses and this diminishes his appetite alot, those times I make sure we have extra fruit bc its what he likes most.
I'd rather he had more protein, but he hates yogurt unless its really well hidden in food.

I woukd keep offering food, but small amounts. Likely she'll pick up a bit.

Sounds like your approach is too soft. Tell her she has to have one mouthful of each item on her plate. Make sure you eat with her.

Maybe she’s gone off eggs?

I've always been like this, I never eat before evening and so is one of my children. As long as she's not underweight be has plenty of energy I wouldn't worry.

Are you Mother Earth?

😂

Sorry you're feeling like this OP. Appreciate you may have other stuff going on as well but I do get how worrying it is when you have a child who seems to survive on fresh air. Dd was tiny and we worried that she had no "reserve. The advice we got was absolutely not to make meal times a battle and to focus on increasing calories where we could - e.g full fat Greek yogurt.
Please be assured it does get better - when dd now sends us photos of her latest fine dining experience it makes me smile as I remember my tears over her eating nothing but a couple of grapes in a day. BTW she is now very athletic and perfectly proportioned.

Have you been to the doctor? It could be allergies suppressing her appetite.

I’m sorry that you are so stressed OP . I’m old now but I remember when my DCs were young and fussy eaters and I gave them what they would eat even if it wasn’t the healthiest. A saying these days around breast feeding refusal is ‘fed is best’ and I think the same thing applies to a three year old . Before you know it she will be 18 and healthy .
my grandson only ate about 5 or 6 foods when he was growing up and now he is 19 and 6 foot tall . He lived on mainly pizzas and hotdogs and survived . Last Christmas he actually ate a roast dinner for the first time .
try not to worry too much , as this too will pass .

Ooh stress op, new mum here so not a lot of experience. Will she tolerate preparing her own food? I have a 16 month old. Pain in the buttocks with food. Like macroni though so it’s cooked 2 times a day here and we never leave home without it! I have one of those learning towers in the kitchen. I leave the red peppers, cooked broccoli/peas etc on the chopping board along with a few bowls and spoons and she eats and moves them from one bowl to the other. (It’s bloody messy) but she will eat fruit (watermelon is the flavour of the month) and if I leave some finely chopped chicken breast amongst the watermelon she eats it! She won’t eat in the highchair. She puts her own butter on toast (the mess and the waste) but I know she is eating so I just suck it up! Very worrying for you

surprising as it is, a child needs age times the size of there fist each day.
my dn was a terrible eater and my sister was advised to stop offering to see if she would ask. After a few days and especially because everyone else was eating she asked for food.
my ds eats less when the weather is hot so pretty much of if last week hardly ate anything but then made up for it today

What?

My daughter's a snacker/grazer, put a plate of food in front of her and she'll refuse it or pick aimlessly but keep up a steady supply of healthy snacks and she's as happy as anything! She's almost 6 and very healthy so no problems with what I'm doing. Regular meals just don't suit everyone -personally I eat when I'm hungry not at regimented times!

Perhaps be careful about feeding her things because you could be hurting her stomach with the spice. Be mindful that perhaps something you are feeding her something the night before that her stomach doesn't tolerate too well and it takes modt of the next day for her stomach to settle and get an appetite - I say this as someone with bowel disease.

I think if you want to 'focus on her health' you should probably bear mind that eating some ham and crisps is better for her health than eating nothing.

Right now, you're suggesting offering a three-year-old nothing to eat all day until dinner. That would be a lot less healthy than refusing to let her eat the one food she apparently does quite like because you are 'worried about the UPF thing'.

My son went through a phase of sausages or nothing when he was about 2. I considered fed was best and thought he would grow out of it. He didn't. So I got a wee stool and took him into the kitchen with me and got him to help make whatever food we were having. Put out the dinner and he refused it until he was reminded that he made dinner for the family and that he just had to taste it as he had made it so well. He is still a really plain eater but will now at least try stuff as the chief taster of the house. Maybe try something like that to expand her out of ham? Good luck