would I be a REALLY terrible mum if........

[HRHQoQ]

I didn't give DS2 (23 months) lunch?? Atm no matter what we give him he just plays with it and throws it around, we've tried not giving any snacks between breakfast (at 8.30) and lunch - which is usually at 12, but we've also tried making it later so he can be hungry, and he STILL won't eat it.

It's not that he doesn't like the food - at any other time of day (breakfast and dinner for example LOL) he's eat them quite happily. But I'm frankly getting fed up of throwing cheese, bread, cucumber and ham etc etc in the bin EVERY day.

Dinner time and breakfast time he'll sit and eat - even if I've shut him up with snacks 1/2hr before.....but lunch is driving me insane.

I'd probably still give him something like banana (which he had today just before his nap) but he just doesn't seem interested.

Well???? Would I??

I know someone who's child never eats lunch - -she's given up trying to get him to eat then.

I think I'd keep giving him something to keep the habit there but not bother with a full sit-down sandwiches type event. Maybe make the banana the "lunch".

jess doesnt eat lunch... she has cereal at 7.30-8am andthen toast and fruit at about 10.30am and then yoghurt/fruit/crisps at 3pm and then dinner at 5pm

ds has always liked a sncky kind of lunch. So I give him a light lunch (like crackers, fruit) A bit like giving him a snack at lunch time. I dont think that it harms them at all. They soon let you know when they are hungry. so no - I dont think that you would be a bad mum!

Personally I'd still offer. Not sure why, I just would. Is it always a sarnie you offer or do you do picky things, like bits of cheese and cucumber and water biscuits, or do you do chicken nuggets and smiley faces etc ever?

No I offer different things, bread (doesn't eat sandwiches no matter what time of day), cheese, ham, cucumber, apple, whatever we've got in basically.

Thing is usually I'd say "what the heck" but quite frankly it feels like I'm throwing money in the bin - which is something we can't afford. If he's not going to eat it - why bother offering it to him????

He eats breakfast without any bother, and he eats his dinner (everything from spanish omellete, to broccoli soup, to roast chicken - and lots inbetween) without any fuss - but lunch you'd think we were trying to poison him!

Offer him stuff and eat a bit yourself but not too much and then, if he doesn't eat it, you can eat his food. That is what I do so that food doesn't get thrown away.

lol Lonely - we've tried that - if you pick something of his up to eat......he then picks some more up and shoves it in your mouth - trying to redirect it gently to his mouth produces louds "NO"'s

And TBH - I'm not sure I really fancy a little block of cheese, slice of cucumber and bread and butter for my lunch.........especially not after he's worn the cucumber as a ring, scraped the butter (well flora) off the bread with his finger, and squashed the cheese in his hands so it's all soft and yucky

pmsl @ cucumber rings.

I'd leave it and offer a small snack later on.

Is he thirsty?
Does he drink at this time?
Give him a nutricious smoothie?

That's another question... why won't my DD drink smoothies??? Even tried chuckin it in a bottle, but "NO!"

I wouldnt bother... but then maybe im a bad mum

have you tried having lunch yourself? generally DS is only too happy to steal the food from my plate/mouth while rejecting the exact same thing on his own so I do a plate for mummy and one for him.... he's got past it now unless of course I'm eating something he particularly likes in which case its his.

you've tried and it doesn't work so no I don't think you'd be a bad mum at all, it sounds like he eats loads of good stuff anyway

I would always offer lunch and eat with him personally.

DD always has lunch but it depends on her mood whether she eats it or not, if she has had a big breakfast she will just play with it and other times she will eat it all. I make her something with me at about 1pm but she's a picker and wants to eat it herself so if it's sandwiches etc I just leave them on the little table and she helps herself. Sometimes I have seen her only having a banana though.

I would still offer a bit of lunch if it were me too.

I would always sit him down and offer him something - but probably just something very small if he isn't going to want it.

My boys have always eaten huge breakfast, big lunch ... then anything in the afternoon/evening is just a bonus. Sometimes they are quite hungry at teatime, othertimes they don't want much at all. It's just the way their body works, I guess. They're 6 and 8 now, but have been like this since they were toddlers.

If we have a light lunch for some reason, they still won't eat a big/cooked meal in the evening.

I would still offer him lunch just to get him into the routine of 3 square meals a day. Is it because he's tired? When does he have a nap? Could you bring lunch a bit earlier if he wants to nap earlier?

ahhhh - I could scream - DS2 was snacking on bread and raw onion (don't ask - he's got this "thing" for raw onion ATM ) 15 minutes before dinner time. But has just cleaned his entire plate.

We (DH and I) both sit down and eat our lunch at the same time as him, at the table, just like we do at the weekend when DS1 is there. Yet he still won't eat it. Doesn't want any of ours (unless it's breakfast or dinner time - then we can't eat in peace LOL).

He has a nap between 1-3 - well on most days, some days he doesn't have one at all, or gets a quick 30 minutes on the sofa in the late afternoon if I've taken him out.

Infact TBH the only reason I still put him down for his nap if for my "me" time - I'm sure he'd cope very well without it.

If I didn't eat lunch I could understand it, but DH and I both eat lunch everyday in front of him - it's breakfast I don't eat - yet he'll eat that (on his own if he's up after we've packed DS1 off to school) without so much of a whisper....

ahhhh

what about having the breakfast a little earlier - say 8am ? My Dd is 29 mths & has always eaten about 7:45 (cereal & juice - no milk) then she has lunch at 12. No snacks, just water available all the time.

She'll eat half a sandwich usually & I'll eat the leftovers as I don't like waste either. I make her cheese (or soft cheese/tuna & mayo/hummous) sandwiches with cherry toms & cucumber slices. She might have a piece of fruit with it.

Perhaps you could try something different ?Sometimes we have soup & she likes to dip her bread into it. Other times will be quiche or pizza or (homemade) macaroni cheese, so she doesn't get bored or always expect sandwiches (like my friends little girl).

LOL mojo - do you want to come and drag my lazybones out of bed - he eats breakfast as soon as he wakes up - 8am is extremely rare to say the very least.

I'm sorry - but there's no way I'm cooking at lunchtime too - we've NEVER had cooked food at lunchtime, and it's not something I'm about to start now. Added to the fact I can't afford to be cooking two hot meals a day atm.

I'll send my DH over, he's the one that gets up

Ok, no good with the cooked stuff. If my DD has a cooked lunch, she has sandwiches for tea.

I work part-time though, so make a batch, freeze in little pots & then defrost the night before. having said that, she had fish pie & tuna pasta today - obviously not thinking straight!

Does your DS have milk with breakfast and what else does he eat ?

lol - even my DH isn't up then - whichever one of us is giving the boys breakfast and dropping DS1 at school gets up at 8am. Usually DS1 is downstairs and dressed. They both have 2 wheat biscuits for breakfast, no milk. The only bottle of milk he has now is just before he goes to bed - so in about 15 minutes time.

LOL at the fish pie and tuna pasta

"if" we let him snack between breakfast and lunch it's usually a (very) small piece of (homemade ) bread or a banana. In the afternoon - well the snacks are whatever we've got in - today was smarties, onions, bread, and apple (not all together I hasten to add LOL).