If Your Two-Year-Old Misses a Meal, Do you ...

[NotQuiteCockney]

a) panic, feed them now
b) not care, figure they'll make up for it later

Obviously, I'm talking about them refusing to eat, more than someone just deciding not to feed them.

b

every time

Let them make up for it

although i dont let them make up for it with snacks, they can make up for it at the next mealtime

b) but then I am a terrible mother and on my 3rd child it would prob have been a) with the first one.

Sometimes bung him a banana if its been a while and it might still be a while.

b

He doesn't ever refuse a meal. If he did, I'd assume he'd make it up later.

Ok, I probably overly slanted my question. I do think it's a first child vs later child thing, tbh.

Never mind, MN has reaffirmed that I am normal and other people are wrong. As usual.

I am resolving to try b from now on

ds seems to want to keep b'fast going until 11 a.m

the problem is I usually have "2nd b'fast" when I come home from dropping dd off at school and I am a snacker too.....

same as madmarchhare

NQC, DS1 is my first child

b but then put up with her stalking me round the kitchen whining for a piece of cheese or a breadstick while I cook the next meal.

He used to sleep for yonks in the morning (say from 11.30 till 3pm) then have his "lunch" really late (this was when he was 19mo) - sometimes not finishing it till 5ish (often this was when I was at work, so I'd pick him up and bring him home).

Then he'd run up to the dining table shouting "din-dins!" and I'd give him dinner too an hour or so after he'd finished his "lunch".

Ok, so there are some relaxed first-timers. I was pretty mellow about DS1 missing meals too - even though he was quite skinny as a baby, and is still quite thin now, albeit in a normal running-around-5-year-old sort of way.

Both mine regularly refuse meals. DD is better since starting school though. I don't fuss and just wait until the next meal. We have an open fruit bowl in our house and they may (after asking) help themselves to fruit during the day. That is all there is between meals if a meal hasn't been eaten.

ds is my first and only, although I have seen friends get very stressed about food so do try not to.

b) she generally more than makes up for it during the next meal.

You also need two more possible responses to fit my 2 year old:

c) not notice what or whether in the general family meal mayhem.

d) forget to offer them any lunch or snacks all day and then wonder why dd3 seems a bit whiney 4 hours later. That's DP's response.

i mean what or whether they eat at all. sorry.

NQC, people who are relaxed look uptight compared to me

i just think sometimes we are hungry, sometimes we are not

be it adult or child

c) dd is a grazer... eats lots of healthy snacks but rarely eats more than a bite or 2 of meals.

we tried cutting out all snacks and starving her between meals and she stopped eating completely so had the reinstate snacks before she starved!

b - but then there's always a bowl of fruit around in our house, which ds is allowed to help himself to, so if he's hungry later he's always got the chance to make up for it. Having said that it's very rare for him to ever leave anything.

I'm totally the opposite with ds as regards to food, compared to how my mother was with me. I'd be forced to stay at the table until I ate everything, force fed, or even served the same thing day after day until it was actually mouldy - and there are some things I still can't eat, or even stand the sight or smell of now, as a result.