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Original poster

Is it ok fo 22mth old son to go 3 nights without tea?

18 replies

michelle2706 · 19/09/2007 08:47

My 22mth old boy won't eat any homecooked meals and by homecooked i mean, casseroles, all pasta with a homemade sauce, stews, mince, rice.

He'll happily eat rice pudding from 15mth+ jar, but not savoury rice (he's not a big sweet eater!!) he'll eat pasta from a jar.

It's driving me mad, last night he went to bed with no tea as i made chicken in a creamy tomato sauce with over cooked pasta, took one look and said 'don't like it' he hadn't even tried it.

We're cutting down snacks today, is it ok to try him with a similar meal tonight????

thanks in advance
Miche

OP posts:

LilRedWG · 19/09/2007 08:51

I would. DD is 16 months, so not at the age where she can say, "Don't like that", but she still makes her feelings known. She gets given her meals and if she doesn't eat it, she doesn't eat it. I just give her some fruit for dessert and leave it at that. Some days she eats like a horse and others barely at all.

I really do think that if you give in to his every whim now, you will have a majorly fussy child on your hands.

MamaG · 19/09/2007 08:52

michelle it sounds like you are doign the right thing. I gave in to my DD at that age and she was a PITA for years,m only eating certain foods.

With DS I was complete opposite and he eats anything.

Good luck

ConnorTraceptive · 19/09/2007 08:57

You sound like your doing the right thing to me, well I hope so because we're currently doing the same with ds (2). He goes through phases of being a fussy eater and is in that stage at the moment.

If he push's food away we ignore it and finish our meal and don't offer anything else, he just has his milk at bedtime.

Original poster

michelle2706 · 19/09/2007 09:20

Thanks ladies, we'll just keep doing what we're doing. When he refuses to eat his tea, he gets no pudding, but i do leave his juice cup out.

what i did notice was that i gave him milk at bedtime when he didn't eat his tea 2 wks ago, and he fell very quickly into the trap of wanting cups and cups of milk if he didn't eat his tea...we stopped this soon after and it didn't bother him in the slightest!

i just don't want him to go to bed hungry, can't bear the thought of it, but i'm slowly finding out that a lot of people believe that kids won't starve themselves!

If he doesn't eat home cooked meal tonight and tomorrow, do i give him a break and give him is fave spag bol (heinz tub 12+) and then try the following night?

OP posts:

LilRedWG · 19/09/2007 10:24

Personally I wouldn't with DD. She's a clever little thing and knows that she'll break me eventually if I do something like this.

As the midwife in hospital said to me (when DD was 48 hours old), "Let's starve her into submission.". Not that I particually agreed that young, but am well up for it now.

hecciesmum · 19/09/2007 12:52

ummm, maybe i shouldn't recommend this, but have you tried putting your lovely homecooked food into a washed out jar and then tried to feed it to him?

Mine is going through a right PITA phase and will only eat his yoghurt with fruit if it comes out of the large Danio container. Doesn't matter what you put in it, but unless it comes from THAT container - he won't eat it. I should probably just let him do without or he'll be carying the blasted empty pot round when he's 22!
DS1 always says "I don't like chicken", but then if we tell him it's "special meat that mummy has made for you" he scoffs it all up....

i don' know...kids eh?

Original poster

michelle2706 · 19/09/2007 13:20

hi hecciesmum, would you believe i tried that once and the little rascal still wouldn't eat it.

It was my home made bolognese and it looked very similar to his tub bolognese and he knew it wasn't the same and refused this, i couldn't believe it...he looked at me as if to say, 'i know what you're doing mum!!' lol

Thanks for the tip though!

OP posts:

bubblagirl · 19/09/2007 13:45

hi my friends son went through similar phase and was seen by dietician who said dont look like your bothered wether they eat the food or not as they like the reaction

calmly say if you try some of this you can have something nice for dessert and just encourage to have 1 bite no pressure to do more congratulate for having one bite leave in front and then say try some more if they dont fair enough give small dessert

next night try again with the one bite then try for another really applaud and then say i bet yiou couldnt do that again and make it really fun once again if they refuse to eat say ok small desert well done for trying it

they do eventually realise that by trying it they get a better response if they refuse blank not to even try no dessert say well i did say if youn try it you would get dessert sorry maybe tomorrow

as dietician said they wont starve if eaten all day breakfast lunch and snacks they will not starve missing dinner and if that hungry they will eat GOOD LUCK

bubblagirl · 19/09/2007 13:47

oh also she was told to make to menu's of simple food and made her little boy choose which one he will eat for dinner if he didn't choose then she would choose he used to pick one and eat it as he had chose it i think she had to draw it on 2 paper plates and he had to pick one

Scootergrrrl · 19/09/2007 13:55

How is he with finger food?

Original poster

michelle2706 · 19/09/2007 15:06

he likes to use his fingers, spoon or fork, more often than not he's started to ask for a fork at tea-time instead of a spoon.

his perseverance to pick up mashed tatties or spaghetti shapes with his fork is incredible, sometimes he'll give in and pick it up with his fingers other times he'll chase his food round his plate till he gets it...

Fingers crossed for tonight's tea, sausages, mashed tatties, veg and yorkshire pudding... let's see what happens

Thanks for all your tips, have been searching for help for ages now. Saw Mums the Word on TV last night, and it was great!! So decided to log on here...absolutely fantastic site!

OP posts:

Nemo2007 · 19/09/2007 15:09

hi michelle
welcome to MN...my 21mth old dd goes a few nights on the run without eating tea. It is a stage..I remember ds doing the same and being mortified that he was being starved etc..he is most definetly not starved and is 4 next month and now eats most meals without a problem and even asks to try new things. So I decided not to worry about dd1 [or dd2 who will be doing the same next month]

Scootergrrrl · 19/09/2007 15:33

If he's really into using a fork, what about things like bigger pasta shapes with a little pot of sauce on the side so he can dip? Or diced chicken breast that he can stab himself?
Anything which lets him practise his new skills might go down well. My DS (17 motnsh) also loves still-forzen peas... weirdo
Good luck for tonight!

nappyaddict · 19/09/2007 16:08

don't give into him. don't offer anything else, not even a yoghurt or fruit else he's going to end up really fussy. no child will starve themself.

NannyL · 19/09/2007 19:07

its fine

at 18 months my charge did 23 hours without eating a single thing

hungry children eat!

as soon as they realise that dinner is dinner and you can eat it or starve they soon learn to just get on with it and eat!

Original poster

michelle2706 · 19/09/2007 20:16

Tea time tonight:

Ross ate almost everything but his vegetables. What gave us a great surprise was, he almost ate a small piece of broccoli :0 i was almost jumping up celebrating as i thought he'd eaten it, but it might have just fallen out of fingers, as he pulled a face similar to that when he drops something, and he pointed down his bib, i pulled his tray out a little and there it was....but the thing was he picked up and maybe thought about trying to eat it, which is a first in a long long time?!!!!

The last time he ate broccoli he was 8mths old!!!

It looks like cutting down on his snacks is a good start, but i must say your support today has been a great help for me, husband was delighted to...thanks Ladies!

OP posts:

Mercy · 19/09/2007 20:28

glad it worked for you michelle, that's gret

But at some of the advice given here

nappyaddict · 20/09/2007 08:39

what we do is give ds his main meal and his fruit or yoghurt altogether so he can pick and choose which he wants. usually gets him to eat a bit of his dinner anyway.

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