TV dinners

[tomps]

I'm really not keen on eating in front of the TV, and prefer that we all eat together at the table early with dd (15m) who is not a great eater at all. Twice this week though in exasperation as I was on my own and had had enough of her whining (tired, teething, toddler) I gave up on the highchair and took her to watch tweenies before bedtime, and took the uneaten food with me just in case. Of course she scoffed the lot and fruit too. So now I'm torn between feeding her lots in front of the TV or sticking to my principles and throwing her food away day after day. Hmmm ... any wise advice ?

I wish I did have some wise advice as I'm fed up with throwing DSs tea away. my gut feeling is not to get into the situation where they'll only eat in front of the TV but if you do it occasionally it's fine.

My 2 now sit at a little table in the kitchen and know that the TV will be turned off and they're not allowed back to watch it if they don't make a good attempt at eating their tea. It doesn't always work mind you but then again, neither does eating in front of theTV.

I'd love to have family meal times but DH doean't get back til 30mins before their bedtime at the earliest.

Sorry, no help really but good luck, you're not alone!

tomps - it's difficult isn't it - I hate too the eating in front of the TV scenario & if I were you I would try to be as strict as you can - it will be so much worse if it gets to be a 'routine'. I did give in once, my DS (2) can turn the TV on & put his videos in & did this one morning, refused to come to the breakfast table; I ended up putting his breakfast on the coffee table & having a screaming fit myself, which I am not proud of! One thing I have found is that my DS eats much better in the middle of the day, I don't know if this is feasible for you but maybe they just don't like a 'main' meal later on. Good luck.

How about having some food you can eat in front of the TV (fruit? raw veges? other healthy finger snack food?) and meals in high chair?

I'm glad someone raised this ? it's something I find difficult. Ds (4) is VERY keen on the video, and if I left it up to him, he'd have every meal planted in front of the box, which would mean he'd watch about 3 or 4 hours a day, which I think is too much. When dh is looking after him, he tends to opt for this line of least resistance (for a quiet life and so he can read the paper, I suspect). My instinct is that this is a bad habit to get into ? it's as antisocial as reading at the table ? and eating should be a social, as well as a nutritional activity ? not just a matter of "refuelling". But it does sometimes make life easier, and I know, in today's world, TV dinners are very much more now the 'norm' ? far more than family dinners.
So what I do (for what it's worth) is try and have family breakfast at the table every day during the week, and TV breakfasts at weekends. I try to have lunch with ds when I'm at home (I work part time), and more often than not he has a TV tea at suppertime, unless he's eating with a friend.
As for throwing food away, tomps, my feeling is if they're hungry, they'll eat, if not, there's not much point in pushing it. But I do know what you mean about the whining ? it does get you down.
Not sure that's much help to you

I've found if I leave tea that little bit later he's so hungry he comes running. Its just a matter of timing it right which is the hard bit. He usually has his main meal at nursery Mon-Thurs so he's not always that hungry on a night. We usually end up having tea after 5.30pm but it works as he will sit at the table. I know how frustrating it is, what annoys me the most is that at nursery he'll sit very nicely at the table at lunchtime with the rest of the kids but its always a battle at home. I do get off lightly though as its usually dp he wants to climb all over and dp hates getting food wiped over him.

Thankyou for your thoughts. In fact the night after this, she didn't eat much in front of TV so I'm not even going to try that again. Mostly following her round with a spoonful of food while she potters in the kitchen works at the moment ! Or I could just give in and let her stick to her preferred diet of bananas and cheese !