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Original poster

RIGHT! I AM GIVING UP!!!! No more decent food going in the bin, no siree. RANT!!

62 replies

oliveoil · 23/05/2006 09:59

Fed up to the back teeth of it.

I am tried and tried and tried to get them to eat properly and am going to give up.

I am consistant and give them a variety, take the plate away without commment (usually!), no alternatives, only fruit blah blah bastard blah.

And I am sick of it.

They don't get crap but the only thing dd1 will eat without whining is cheese sandwiches.

And I am sick of throwing veggies away all the time.

"oooh but it takes up to 20 times for a child to try a food?" Oh does it Annabel? YEAH RIGHT! I have been trying b@st@rd broccoli for a year.

Nuggets and chips here I come.

PAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OP posts:

Original poster

oliveoil · 23/05/2006 10:40

piece!!!

lol

OP posts:

compo · 23/05/2006 10:41

I thought toddlers were meant to eat on average one meal every 48 hours - so Bozza your dd had quite alot really

compo · 23/05/2006 10:41

don't mean meant to, but that's what they do iyswim

CountessDracula · 23/05/2006 10:42

do you have a dog?

tracyk · 23/05/2006 10:44

ds does this too Bozza - some days all he has is milk and fruit/carrot/broccoli and others he eats like there is no tomoro.
My friend told me recently that toddlers etc don't really eat for pleasure - only out of necessity/hunger. So I am not wasting my time to try new home cooked recipes. I stick to what he likes and he gets the same meal over and over.
Rizzazza mediterranean tomato rice with teeny bits of salmon/chicken hidden. And broccoli and kidney beans and black pudding and party pizzas from tescos and bread and butter. Not all at once of course!

Bozza · 23/05/2006 10:44

Hmm I suppose compo. Maybe comparing her to DS who is 5 is a bad idea. She also had a decent sized bowl of ready brek for breakfast and some yog raisins mid morning.

Original poster

oliveoil · 23/05/2006 10:44

no dog (thankfully)

why?

OP posts:

Earlybird · 23/05/2006 10:44

OO - great sympathy from here too. I've pretty much given up as it became so stressful/wasteful, and now give dd what she'll eat supplemented by lots of fruit, and a daily multivitamin.

DD will eat lunch at school from next year, so no more boring lunches packed by me. I have visions of her coming home ravenous everyday because the school food won't be exactly as she likes it. I'm hoping hunger and peer pressure might press her into widening her eating repertoire!

compo · 23/05/2006 10:45

dog could eat food so not wasted!!

CountessDracula · 23/05/2006 10:45

because I feed my dog on veggies and meat or fish

So we have NO waste, despite dd's food foibles

Bozza · 23/05/2006 10:46

I think I will stick as I am as well. Which is cooking decent family meals for all 4 of us, that 3 of us will eat and DD can take or leave. Of course, she is at nursery today so will eat everything offered.

Gingerbear · 23/05/2006 10:46

I know where CD is coming from: dog = useful for leftover food.

Anchovy · 23/05/2006 10:47

I'm lucky that mine are both really good eaters, butI freeze lots of stuff as it is the only way of stopping those murderous feelings of rage when you have spent ages cooking stuff and they then just won't eat it. So I've got lots of portions of home made food in the freezer and I'm fairly insouciant about what they eat as I can't actually remember making it.

The other thing that works well with my 2 is what they call a "picnic", which is just a small amount of a lot of things on a plate. There may be things they don't much fancy but they are in such inoffensivesly small portions that they will usually go with it. Under this regime they could have, say, a couple of squares of a cheese sandwich (which yours would eat), but also some sliced cucumber or carrot, 3 halves of a cherry tomato, a slice of ham cut up and a couple of olives or some nuts (its a great way of clearing the fridge, BTW!). Then we have a bit of bartering about what has to be eaten and what can be "traded".

tracyk · 23/05/2006 10:47

Having another adult at the table helps with my ds - cos I pretend they are going to 'get' his spoonful - sometimes it works and he shouts - 'no mine!!' and eats it. Sometimes he calls our bluff and dh gets extra spoons of dinner. or whatever toy he has with him 'gets' the spoonful.

tracyk · 23/05/2006 10:49

also ds is coming to the age of the 'sticker'. He joined in at a friends house when her 2 were offered a sticker for clearing their plates. ds made a valiant effort too and was rewarded with a star!

TheDullWitch · 23/05/2006 10:51

What about bribery? "No pudding unless you eat your veg" etc. That's what I use with tricky ds2.

jimmy2 · 23/05/2006 11:05

Sorry to say it, but Oliveoil you really did made me laugh, I like your sense of humour! I am lucky that my ds (2 1/2) has always had a really good appitite (now you hate me), but a lot of my friends have the same problems as you. I have stuck to a strick time for his lunch & tea (when ever possible) & no snacks. I too cook & freeze as there is no "real" food out there for children aged one plus! My ds adores curry, may be worth trying something completly different..maybe you have done that already. It sounds as though you are doing everything right, The only thing I would say is cut out snacks completely, if he is hungry he will eat. Good Luck :)

Original poster

oliveoil · 23/05/2006 13:30

ok, so I won't go as far as McDee's for every meal, but should I just keep rotating the stuff I know she will eat and sod anything new? How will I know when this annoying phase is over otherwise?

she used to eat sardine out of a tin ffs, grrrr

OP posts:

littlerach · 23/05/2006 13:44

Yes, just keep rotating, unless you know tht they'v eaten soething new somewhere elae.

Do sympathise, as DD1 only tried pasta last year, aged 4. Prior to this she was a PITA for trying anything. Drives me insane. She is much better now though.

DD2 will eat anything and everything. She has been known to take scraps out of th e bin before.

I now refuse to cook more than on meal, they eat what we are having or they go without. They will not starve. But one could go crazy in the process, I feel.

littlerach · 23/05/2006 13:45

Do they eat at your mums/MIL's/whoever looks after them?

bootsmonkey · 23/05/2006 13:54

Oh OO, I can so relate to this. Up until about 12months ago it was saus broc & (heinz) beans EVERY day. But as it was a good balanced meal that is what she got. EVERY day. It meant cooking seperately for her and we often never ate together. Now, she is much better (just turned 4) and will eat spaghetti (but not shapes, a minor breakthrough) but will still not touch rice or potatoes. Not very keen on chips either. What really helped was going round to friends for tea where there would be anything from 4-10 of them sat down together. She is the youngest and just got on with it. Now she will only eat e.g. lasagne if I claim x's mother cooked it and brought it around!! Very galling, but it gets it down her. We have even been able to sit and eat the same meal a couple of times - roasts with lots of veg. (Veg has never been a problem.) She too used to eat peppered mackarel from the tin when young. Not a chance now! I reckon she tries one new thing a week and will often be non committal about it, but gets lots of praise for trying. Good luck - it does get better. I had to stop myself from worrying about the amount she was eating as she obv wasn't wasting away. She was getting what she needed from somewhere.

Original poster

oliveoil · 23/05/2006 13:57

at mil I think she gives her The Cheese Sandwiches most days, I send dd2 a little pot of bolognese

or they have pizza, beans etc

spoilt rotten no doubt with ice cream in the afternoon, but when at grandma's house........

I think I will try the sticker route

I used to bribe with marshmallows but that only worked for a bit (and then she wanted more than 1 etc).

OP posts:

MamaMaiasaura · 23/05/2006 13:58

oliveoil - keep going. They will eat when hungry and what they are offered. little bite sized worked for my ds. Cherry tomatoes, little carrots, cucmuber crowns. Just things he could pick up and eat. Also really small portions on plate as always can add more if they want more.

It can be really irritating when they whine/pull faces etc, my friends have struggled with theirs.. i think i am a lucky minority where my son is a locust.. loves anything green/veg/fruit but ultimately prefers meat (stating loudly - I am a CARNIVORE).. bless. Calvin and Hobbes here we come!

florenceuk · 24/05/2006 11:32

Lots of sympathy here - DS is and was quite fussy and when we went home to NZ to visit my parents stopped eating altogether - extremely stressful as his cousins are very good eaters and comparisons unavoidable.

Anyway, this is what I do - make one meal a day a non-contentious one - lunch say, we always have some variation on cheese and ham sandwiches - and then save up more adventurous stuff for the other - then you know they have eaten well at least once a day. And maybe have fish fingers/nuggets and chips once a week, and have meals together on the weekend so you don't care if they eat or not because at least you and your DP are eating it. I try to do "joint" meals on the weekend and they get dessert with us regardless of how well they have eaten. This means there is only now 4 opportunities for them to drive you mad.

Also do they eat much with other cildren when you are not around? My DS improved loads when he went to the childminder. He is still very slow at times but will eat e.g jacket potatoes, salmon, chicken casserole which is much better than before. He is very much a protein and carbs boy though. I don't think I would have got these meals down him because he just wouldn't try them for me. Still drives me mad esp if it is something he has had loads and eaten like bolognaise sauce, but still whinges because it has scraps of tomato in it.

And I've been serving and throwing away broccoli for, ooh, 3 yrs now! Experimentation may help - sugar snap peas went down surprisingly well. And yesterday DS asked for a bagel for lunch and broccoli and carrot! didn't eat it, but never mind...

AnnieSG · 24/05/2006 11:38

Oliveoil, haven't had a chance to read all these posts, but a few months ago I posted something desperate here about how I couldn't handle the endless food battles any more. I was absolutely at the end of my tether with all the attempts to make my two eat veg etc. All the soothing words on here really helped and somehow I managed to battle on with it.
My littlest has staggered me in recent times by picking up the broccoli (previously rejected at least 500 times) and stuffing it in his mouth with no complaints. Ditto mushrooms, which were considered the work of the devil previously. That advice about perseverence drove me nuts too, but incredibly, it does seem to work. Nothing can make it happen faster, but it really does work! I would NEVER have believed this a while back. Just thought I'd tell you that.

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