Ok, so if your child doesn't eat their meal do you...

[elsmommy]

cook them something they will eat or just leave them?

Dd wouldn't eat her cauliflower cheese for lunch so I've made her a sausage sarnie with loads of tomato sauce cos shes hardly eaten today.

lottie adores bread. She eats dry crusty rolls. She nibbles the top and then scoops out the soft inside and hten eats the outside.
On holiday she asked for bread for lunch every day! She wpon't eat potatoes or rice either.

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I leave them, but they are not allowed anything else until the next meal.

I'll offer bread. And maybe fruit. Nothing more.

But then, DS1 is a very good eater. Every so often he goes off his food, and won't eat. So I do his favourite dish. And he won't eat that, either. And then it turns out he's been brewing a tummy bug.

Not eating isn't always some sort of trick.

i alwalys offer fruit after a meal then pudding after that if they ate well for their main. if not then it's just fruit. if they are hugry then they will eat, a child will never starve themselves and will make up for it the next day unless of course they really are ill then its different then.

It's easier said then done though in reality. as ananny i found this rule easy as a parent you worry more so it's not so easy but that is not always a good thing

I never make alternatives, but I do always offer pudding- my eldest will go days without a proper meal and his AS makes him stubborn. So at least they're getting calories. Pud is usually yoghurt.

dd is very fussy, she likes food that is very plain, and there are a number of things she refuses to eat. Sometimes she takes an incredibly long time to finish her meal, so she quite often remains at the table for a good half hour after ds, who is a much better eater, has finished. We quite often do a "if you eat these x mouthfulls you get pudding", but as she quite often has a different meal to everyone else (ie pasta with just cheese and no sauce) or they have a pick and mix meal she's already getting what she wants. Interestingly when they stay with my mother she eats much better (oh, and ds is a complete star eats a ton and always says everything is delicious!) I hope that school is the same, but as she is tall and well built I guess I shouldn't worry!

if they dont eat it tough poo they will be hungry next time

the best bit of advice I was ever given was: "Kids never starve themselves"

DS frequently only has a couple of teaspoons at brekky and lunch and I've never made a fuss (well, not outwardly..). Usually, he'll then pig out at tea time. However, he still gets booby before his am nap.

Nt kids never starve themselves! I have one sn who would HAPPILY starve himself. I never know what to do with the other two: i feel like I shouldn't use different rules for different kids (they are too young to understand properly), but at the same time, they have to learn. AARRGHH! Maybe I should just let thm all get on with it in the kitxhen, and take to the bath with a bottle of wine and a mag (oh if only...)