His trousers keep coming down!

[rzl]

Our three-year-old hardly eats and it is getting to be a worry. He usually has a reasonable breakfast but will hardly touch his lunch or dinner no matter what we give him. He seems healthy enough but so slim that his trousers won?t stay up!

What can we do?

Buy a belt.

It's a stage they go through. So long as he's getting a good breakfast don't worry.

Try to lay off such emphasis on set meals like dinner and tea. Make him healthy snacks during the day. We can cope with 3 good meals in one day, but tots prefer to snack, not quite being able to cope with going a couple of hours without and then being expected to eat a plateful.

He'll eat as much as he needs to. Perhaps he's just not growing right now, but he'll start again.

And braces are great!

My ds is 6, and he is built like a whippet. He is so lean that this summer he was still wearing shorts that were age 2-3 .

He has never had a massive appetite and we gave up trying to stick to a three-squares a day routine fairly early on. We just made sure there was plenty of healthy stuff for him to graze on whenever he felt like it.

Since going to school though the grazing has calmed down a bit. He is in the routine of having a hot school lunch which he seems to fill up on and then a light supper at home.

Play it by ear and be prepared to be flexible over meal times. If he won't eat his meal at the table, let it go and offer him a snack whenever and wherever he is hungry. Sometimes we would end up giving DS sandwiches in the bath!

If you are really worried and he isn't eating anything then obviously go see your GP.

DS is like this, he's tall but so skinny.

Next do jeans and trousers with button on braces which seem to be the only thing that works. We tried clip on braces but they kept coming off, and belts seem to loosen (never found a buckle belt for a preschooler, has anyone else?)