Is ds2 copying ds1 by refusing food?

[Notgrownupinmyhead]

Ds1 survives on nothing more than half a bowl of cereal and half a sandwich a day maybe with the odd piece of fruit chucked in. Hes 4yrs.

Ds2 up until 3 days ago ate everything in site and is now refusing food.

Meal time are a battle with ds1 as it'll take him an hour to eat a bite or 2 of whatever is put infront of him.

Can ds2 be copying his brother?

Ds2 is 10m btw.

Could be, might not be. He's 10mo, so refusing food could be teething, being tired/overtired, feeling under the weather etc. DD2 (13mo) has some days when she eats like a horse, others when only milk will do. It goes up and down.

My DS has food issues and DD1 did start to copy him but not until about 18mo. But it was only half-hearted. She'd refuse stuff off her own plate but eat it off mine. DS (5) still won't eat anything off anyone else's plate. DD1 has got a lot better as she's got older and DS has been away at school more.

I know it is hard, but try not to make mealtimes a battle. You don't want DS2 to think that the only way to get attention at meal times is to stop eating. And I'm also not saying send all the attention DS2's way for being a 'good' eater. Just take all the stress out of eating. They either eat or they don't eat. (I do have to remind myself of that at very regular intervals!) We had a fussy eaters thread over on behaviour for a while. It was very useful for knowing you aren't the only one going through it.

Hi Cam, thanks for your reply. Ds1 starts school in Sept so hopefully things will change and funnily enough after i posted ds2 suddenly got his appetite back!