Refusing food

[sassy71]

Please someone tell me that my 2 year old ds is normal! He has always been faddy when it comes to eating but mostly when he is teething or ill. He is neither ill or teething at the moment but has started refusing to eat lunch and sometimes breakfast and dinner. When I tell him lunch is ready he says "no lunch" and then looks at the food with disgust when it's placed in front of him! I've tried all sorts of food but it doesn't seem to matter what he is given. Should I stop offering him food and see if he comes and asks for it or should I just keep putting food down and then throwing it away when he doesn't eat! Please help as I'm going mad worrying about him!

Give him the meal. Give him 10 minutes with the meal. If he isn't eating after 10 minutes, then take the meal away.

Do not offer any alternatives, or sweet drinks, or puddings, or (IMO) even fruit, until the next meal.

Then repeat the process.

Don't tell him off for not eating, or cajole him to eat, but do praise a little when he does eat. When you take away his meals, do it wordlessly.

It's only one meal he is refusing, it really doesn't matter.

Hope this helps.

Hi

I totally agree with colditz. I've just gone through this with my dd (2.5 yrs). I treat her in this manner and after a few days it sunk in. She's now back to eating sensibly. I did give her a pudding treat for the first few times when she ate all her meal to encourage her to want to eat her food next time. She still gets an occassional treat but she's been weaned off regular ones.

will this work for a 17 month old? she just looks at it and pushes it away saying 'no'. or refuses to sit in her highchair in the first place. she hasnt always been like this, only since she's found she can refuse things! it's not every meal, but is beginning to be more often. she will eat scrambled eggs ALL the time though. how much is is not good?!?! thanks

yep egypt.. will work for your dd too!

I can't see why it wouldn't work. All my DD wanted to eat was weetabix. For the first couple of days I made her all her favourites to no avail and so I gave her weetabix, however I then realised I was playing into her hands. I was being controlled by a 2 yr old and I decided that enough is enough. On a couple of days she only ate perhaps a little breakfast and 1/4 of a sandwich, which did worry me but then she got the message. I also found that sometimes the more I persisted, the more she wouldn't sit at the table and therefore I stopped persisting and stopped getting upset in front of her and she started to 'perform'.

normal normal normal
great advice from colditz, that's pretty much what I do too. except I am not quite so bothered about sticking to mealtimes. if it is a case of snackingthrough the day then if this doesn't bother you, so be it. you can work on "mealtimes" at a later stage, when this one has passed.
if he tends to eat more at breakfast say, then try and make that count - give him protein if you can you can
try and make food time a bit more varied and interesting - picnics on the carpet, eating with him, sharing a plate, eating out, having a friend for lunch or tea, getting him to help prepare the food.
but the single most important thing is to not make a big deal of it. this might test your acting skills to the limits btw...

I've just been going through this one with 21 month dd. I took the advice given on mn and offered the meal then took it away when not touched and so on. We had several days when she ate nothing and it's very hard but I won in the end!! I also tried another bit of advice which was to sit teddy/dolly on table with their own dish of food and this seemed to be our turning point last and I haven't bothered with dolly the last couple of days.