3 year old ds will not eat!

[divdavs]

We are at the end of our tether with ds who is just 3 and will not eat! He has a good appetite but he does not like anything and his fussiness is getting worse and worse. It is usually food that he will not even taste because he says he doesn't like it. We do not make really complex food but do include a good range of meat, fruit and veg. We don't want to have to make him other food from us and 5 year old ds does not seem to have a problem at all. Advice please?!

What does he like?

I wouldn't go down the route of making different food either, although if you are worried about nutritional intake you could also hide veggies in things like in sauces and meatloaves etc. DD2 is a bit fussy, we put the food on the plate and let her get on with it, praising her if she eats well, ignoring it if she doesn't. If she doesn't eat she gets nothing until the next meal.

well admittedly we do sort of freak slightly if he doesnt eat, maybe we should just leave him to get on with it. He likes apples, bananas, cherry tomatoes, raisins, and scotch eggs! Not much else though oh and brocolli!

Sorry, not been able to come back to your thread until now. Actually his diet doesn't sound too bad, protein and fruit! I was imagining all he'd eat is wotsits and was slowly turning orange!

Just wondering does he go to nursery and eat any differently there?

But think you are on to something about the not making a bit deal about it.

DD tonight sat at the table but didn't eat dinner with the rest of us and got no reaction. It's quite sociable and she doesn't like to miss out but if she wants to get down as long as she asks and waits for permission she can. Later on she wanted pudding & she was told in an unemotional way that it was fish first then pudding, so she did eat it.

I know there are children with food phobias but maybe it would be worth trying the non-reaction approach for a week as 3yr olds can be surprisingly stubborn - as my dd proves