meal times gone awry....

[hermykne]

dd 4 and ds 2 are two monkeys at the mo, neither will eat their dinner, they havent eaten since lunch time round 1.30 and had a small snack at 2.45 - corn things which they didnt finish
this has been going on for a few days now and driving me nuts
after getting ready for bed they are then hungry

should i just hand them their dinner
or
is there a level of discipline i oculd try

If my children don't eat their dinner then they go without. It's their decision after all. I don't know if you eat with them but i do find that they eat much better if i sit & eat my dinner with.

pollyesther we dod all sit together. ds is in a jumping up and down phase.
if they hasske u for food an hour later what do u do

Hi, my DS is just 2 as well. First I demand that he asks to get down from the table (Down Please) if he hasn't eaten much I say No. If he still asks, I let him then take the meal away. No coming back for it -- you just have to wait until next mealtime. My DD is 5, and I tell her if she isn't hungry, fine, but there is nothing until dinner. Then I insist she sit there while we finish our dinner. Usually, she will start eating it after about 5 min. Otherwise she gets nothing. Only took DS a couple missed meals before he stopped jumping up and down .

If they were really hungry they would eat. Is my motto.

It does drive me up the wall when they do it though. Hang tough, practice your stern mummy face.

that should read "nothing until breakfast "

dd did come round this evening after 20mins or so
ds didnt and got nothing, then at bed he went nuts for a piece of apple so i gave him that.

so your right usamum a couple of missed meals will get the message thru
but god my patience is very thin at that time of day. i need to step back a bit

yes take a big breath before serving dinner -- and I have to admit to having a glass of wine with dinner at that point just to give me something to do other than break down of course