Food refusal in 2.8 year old getting worse

[PetitFilou1]

Advice please- ds is 2.8 and progressively eating less and less. He is now at the stage when he barely eats anything except a big breakfast. He is always asking for biscuits and drinking yoghurt (I ration him to a biscuit and one or two little yoghurt drinks a day as he hasn't drunk plain milk since he was 18 months). He asks for lunch/dinner and then gets up and says he doesn't like it and wants something else - or a yoghurt instead (I don't let him have one unless he has eaten at least half his first course and at the moment he isn't doing that). I just tell him to get down as that is all there is. He often comes back and says 'where is my dinner?' and I get it out again but he still doesn't eat any of it. If I gave him fish fingers all the time I know he would eat them but I'm pretty sure that is a bad idea. Any advice?

I have the same problem with ds (3). My hv told me to write down all the food ds eats for a week, it's surprising how you think they are eating nothing but when you see it on paper its more than you realise.

At the end of the day, children won't starve themselves. As long as he has plenty of energy and is generally healthy then I wouldn't worry too much.

The most important thing is not to make it an issue, because it can become a power struggle between you and he'll dig his heels in and refuse even more.

I don't know if this helps but my oldest ds (6) was exactly the same and now I can't fill him up so it doesn't last forever!

Good luck!

My dd (3) went through same thing where she would only want potato waffles and fish fingers for what seemed like months -after MANY tears and tantrums (just from me )we finally got her interested in food by letting her help prepare/choose dinner - she still doesnt eat cheese or chicken but she does try most of what we prepare for her. there was a thread last week something similar -i'll try and attach the link here this - but to echo ditzymum they wont starve themselves and i totally agree to try not and make an issue of it although that is easier said than done!!!

oops link did work - i think this should work -

this

The thing is he loves cooking and helping prepare but if it is something he doesn't like the look of he will say 'this is mummy and daddy's dinner, dd and ds don't like it'. Seems to have no effect whatsover him cooking as he still won't eat it......

ummm tricky....

i also found that making game of dinner ie making faces out of food - i must confess that i find a lot of receipes on the big cook little cook (from cbeebies website) maybe letting him choose what he wants to make for HIS dinner - another suggestion i found helpful was creating a dinner around what she liked and joining a tip i picked up from mumsnet was a pirate themed dinner which is looking for treasure in the sand (cous cous) with different veggies/meat for the treasure and if they find (+eat!!) all the treasure = favourtie pud (yoghurt, custard etc). I also picked up a lot of tips from this website this

it wasn't an overnight process and it is hard especially if you have spent ages preparing dinner for them but i do think it is a stage that they all go through at this age trying to be independent!

What worked for us was a mixture of pretending not to be bothered "you didn't eat/don't want your dinner okay fine...." and introducing fun foods, letting her help. I found one of the hardest things was when she didn't eat dinner and 1/2hr later the chant of "i'm hungry" was soooooo difficult not to give her toast/biccie!

It is hard but you will get through it ...... eventually

Whenever mine have gone through this stage I found a temporary solution was to have carpet picnics - small pieces of cooked meats, cheese, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, grapes etc in little bowls with both of us sitting on the floor. I appreciate you might not want to do this every meal time, but you could try it for lunch and then perhaps set a place for him at dinner with rest of the family. Have you tried putting all the food in serving bowls in the middle of the dinner table and just leaving him to help himself? Just chat about general stuff and don't even mention the food.

my dd is getting worse and worse too. i try not to make an issue of it because i just cant be bothered to wind myself up. she probably only eats one or two good meals a week. the rest of the time she may have one or two mouthfuls or not touch it at all. i can't even say she will eat one meal a day to see her through. she just never seems hungry. my saving grace is that she loves her milk. although i am thinking that she is having too much of that and its stopping her eating! today she woke at 7, had a cup of milk, half a cracker , wouldnt eat any toast, refused fruit and biscuit at preschool, sip of water, had half a crumpet for lunch, licked a bit of cheese and ONE mouthful of scrambled egg. i can guarantee she wont eat her tea either and she wont have a snack this afternoon. just a drink.

sorry, this doesnt help you much but i want you to know we are the same. dd has always been on the 75th percentile for weight since 2 weeks old and is chubby and sturdy. i dont understand it at all.

she's 2.5 btw

spookegypt she sounds just like my dd! she has hardly eaten anything for weeks then all of a sudden the past few days she has eaten again not brilliantly still wont eat a proper breakfast but will have soup and bread at lunchtime with a yoghurt bits of fruit and past 2 nights made a good attempt of sausage casserole and veg she will no doubt go back to not eating in a few days!

and if fish fingers is all she will eat then i do give them every day as at least she is eating something for what seems like months all she ate was fish fingers waffles and vegetable fingers - doesnt seem to have done any harm!