Entirely weird food behaviour in a 4-year-old

[NotQuiteCockney]

Normally, DS1 is enthusiastic about familiar loved dishes, and whingy about other food.

All of a sudden, this week, he's eating really well! He ate loads of salad on Monday night, and last night, he went mad for brown rice with a chickpea/spring green/aubergine/tomato thing on it. No whinging, no moaning. He ate a reasonable amount, no problem!

His diet is otherwise unchanged. We did put our foot down about mealtime whinging a few months back, but there's been no recent change in policy.

Why has this happened? How do I cope when he goes back to being a hassle at meal time? (We are praising him for eating well, obviously.)

I'm not sure what the problem is - it's great if he's trying new stuff. Isn't that what we all want our kids to do?

I'm not sure what the problem is - it's great if he's trying new stuff. Isn't that what we all want our kids to do?

It's absolutely not a problem! I'm just startled (and pleased).

I'd like to work out why he's suddenly changed his food habits - so I can keep them this way.

Aha, now I see. I suppose just carry on giving him greater variety and emphasise how fun it is to try to new foods. Also, don't say anything if he doesn't want to eat. It's lovely though to think that they can suddenly become more adventurous.

DS suddenly did this, too.

It happened in a flurry alongside a sudden feeling that he has grown up a lot. Suddenly I feel he is old enough for school. He is more 'boy' less pre-school child. He had a hulking-put, shouty silly phase, but also started eating everything and anything, whereas before he had shown v little interest in food - it was an irritating interruption to his day.

I thik it coincides with growth and testosterone spurts they have at this age.

Also - has he been exposed to other children eating these things? Peer pressure suddenly becomes the big influence!

Hope it lasts!

He's trying to impress Santa

Blu answers pretty much how things have been with DS. I think though you have to be resigned to setbacks along the way.

NQC - seen this a bit with ds1 too - he's started eating spag bol which he never did before and it's not just the variety that's changed, it's the volume he eats! It's coincided with starting school! He still has moments of fussiness and I just let it go and try not to make a fuss - just so long as he knows if he doesnt' eat his meal he gets nothing else!

!

He's been at school for ages. He's not been exposed to other kids eating interesting stuff, I don't think.

He may have noticed my (somewhat) pointed remarks lately, about preferring having friends of his over who ate well.

A few weeks back, we changed policy, so that we wouldn't fuss over him not eating, but he wasn't allowed to fuss either. Eat, don't eat, whatever, but no fussing, from anyone. This made meal times a bit more pleasant, right away, but surely it couldn't have made a difference now?

Oh, and he's always been ok about food.

Sounds like your policy has worked, NCQ. maybe he has taken his own time to drop his 'batle' mentality.

Well done.

I must say, though there have been huge improvements, DS is nowhere near eating salad !

grumpyfrumpy, I don't think it's due to any healthy eating stuff at school. Who knows, though. He's been a bit concerned about being fat (he's not fat! not even close!), but I think that's classmates being cheeky, not anything from school.

DS1 has generally been ok-ish about salad. Well, he'd eat the pancetta from the dressing, and any homemade croutons (mmmm, fried bread!). And red pepper. But this time, he ate cherry tomatoes, bean sprouts (ok, he always loves those), and lettuce. And then asked for more! And I gave him some leftover lentilly stuff from the night before, and he wolfed that down, too.

DD always goes through a really good eating phase just before coming down with a cold. Instead of eating slowly and whingeing she just wolfs it down -its just happened again recently and sure enough this morning shes full of cold