dd almost never eats dinner

[rhetorician]

dd1 is almost 3, she is small (in height) for her age, but a normal weight. She isn't a big eater and isn't very interested in food (unless it's cake, or chocolate); she reliably eats porridge for breakfast and has snacks (usually fruit or bread with hummus or peanut butter, or a cheese and biscuit) mid morning and mid afternoon. But often she eats very little of any actual meal put in front of her - not that she never eats them, just not very often. She drinks about 300ml of milk (which I think is probably part of the problem). I'm not really complaining about her because she will eat most things - likes beans, lentils, chickpeas, fish of all kinds, chicken, some veg (although I would like her to eat more veg of course), just a bit fed up of cooking dinners that she doesn't eat!

I don't make a fuss, just ask her if she is finished and take it away - she usually has a small snack before bed (some grapes, or a biscuit). How can I get her to eat more dinner?

my dd is nearly 3, had slipped to 2nd centile. HV advised me to increase her fat intake to increase her weight.i have also recently started to feed her again,here comes the helicopter type of thing again. it has made a huge difference, she wont eat breakfast but will now eat linch and dinner.over the 3 weeks i have been doing this ive had to move the adjusters on her trousers and she does feel heavier.

Oh, I had years of that with some of preschool DC. Can't even remember which ones. They were alright in the end, all eating fine at the moment.

If she is normal weight and is healthy then I wouldn't worry. DS1 had little appetite until about 3.5 then all of a sudden it increased. If you're fed up of throwing food away then just put less on her plate and give her easy food or what you're already cooking for yourself so it doesn't feel like wasted effort :)

I'm not worried about her in terms of weight, just fed up - but we have another dd now, and I am certainly not planning on doing anything other than one meal for the whole family. Generally I give her what we have - if she eats well sometimes she gets a treat (ice cream/sorbet, or some jelly), but she knows perfectly well that she doesn't get pud if she doesn't eat a good bit of her dinner (I didn't want to insist on a clean plate as I'd rather she regulated her own appetite and I remember the torture of being made to eat everything on my plate as a child)

she does go through phases of eating better...

Other then perhaps stopping/cutting down snacks so she is more hungry at meal times. I found that when I did this dd1 (ate enough to keep a fussy knat alive) eat slightly more at meal times.

Now at nearly 8 I can't feed her enough.

yes, I probably should, but she struggles to get from say 8 to 12.30 without anything to eat (major tantrum trigger)

Hi! I have a four year old who weighs the same as my 18 month old. She is on the 0.4th centile fo height and the 2nd for weight. She rarely eats a hot meal and appears to live off of fruit. I have tried not letting her snack but it really makes no difference. I don't let her fill up on biscuits or cake (she is not that keen really) but I pretty much let her have fruit whenever she wants it. I have tried giving her what she asks for for dinner but even then she won't eat it. I have given up. We see a paediatrician but even he is at a loss with the growth of her! Children are a mystery!