4yo refusing supper and then saying he's hungry at bedtime. WWYD?

[PrettyCandles]

It's a regular occurrence: he refuses to eat at mealtime, or gets down in the middle, and is then hungry between meals. Or returns in time for pudding!

No idea. I bet Supernanny would say say tough and put to bed hungry a few nights in a row. Could I do it? Doubt it. Maybe, Depends how annoyed I was. Do I have a one-year-old who is refusing meals but eating snacks well? Yes.... she is teething. I am making excuses for myself. And am going to watch the responses on here... I bet it's don't offer anything else though. I thought that as I gave in and offered yoghurt tonight....

Let him snack in between meals. Fruit, yoghurts etc are all great. It will level out-probably when he starts school.

I am afraid I would put them to bed hungry. I don't offer pudding unless a good amount of first course has been eaten. It works for us.

Mine eat a small snack midmorning and mid afternoon and this is a fixed amount, so they can't fill up on snacks instead of meals.

I put to bed hungry. DD has not starved to death yet.

I don't yet have a 4 year old so feel free to totally disregard what I'm saying! But with my nearly-3 year old, what I am leaning towards when she does this is 1. no pudding unless a reasonable amount of main eaten. 2. Meal will magically reappear at snacktime if she really didn't eat any/very very little - not as a punishment, just as a matter of course " you didn't eat your lunch so you must be hungry now, here's some lunch". I don't do this if it's something that will congeal and look manky though. 3. If she doesn't eat dinner i will give her one last opportunity before we start bedtime routine (as there's normally at least 30 mins between end of dinner and the start of bedtime stories). She can have some dinner then. If she still doesn't want it then I take it that she's not actually hungry. I might offer plain bread and butter as an alternative at that point as well.

However I only do this knowing that she does actually like the meal, or some parts of it - I wouldn't do this as a way of forcing her to eat things she's not keen on.

He is genuinely hungry tonight. Was very difficult to settle, and has been whimpering in his sleep every hour or so. I know he's a bit of a grazer, and generally does better on 5 small meals rather than 3 big meals + 2 snacks, but he's taking it too far. This little monkey regularly pushes the boundaries.

He could even be teething! He's had his hands in his mouth for most of the summer, he is sloppier than usual (nice damp kisses) and still has the last 4 back teeth to come. But I'd expect him to tell me if he had discomfort in his mouth.

No, I think he's pushing boundaries.

Oh my 5 yo is exactly the same. I insist she sits at the table until everyone else has finished and then give her fruit on demand ( bananas in bed are de rigour). Good luck

I have this with my 4 yr old. He is quite slight for his age, but really full of energy! I can't decide if he is playing up or just needs to graze as he feels full quickly. Therefore, I try to get my ds to eat as much at the table (annoyingly saying things like just 3 more mouthfuls etc!), and then I do a proper snack before bed (normally a sandwich). It's a pain, but like your ds he would not settle, and also wake at 6 am demanding food.

Also no pudding if you get down/ don't finish. No snacks afterwards either, but I do sometimes offer warm milk at bedtime if no dinner as been eaten simply to avoid my being woken up too early!