What do you do when your young toddler refuses dinner?

[BumpermightsuetheSindie]

Tonight DD (19mo) didn't eat her dinner. There are other nights too when she barely eats it. I promised myself that I wouldn't let food be a battleground and did BLW with her. DH and I have also agreed that we shouldn't deny 'pudding' (when I say pudding I mean yoghurt/fruit, she doesn't generally have any other kind of pudding) if she doesn't eat her dinner because we don't want her to associate pudding as a reward therefore setting her up for later associations with food as a reward/comfort (something which I do). So even though she didn't eat her yummy lasagne (maybe ate one mouthful) we let her have a yoghurt which she devoured. I just wonder if this is the right approach? Can you see where I'm coming from in the way I am dealing with it? I don't want her to be hungry (mainly because I don't want her waking up in the night!). What do you do?

just give her a yoghurt

some nights she will eat better than others i am sure

look at what she eats over a week, not just on one day and it usually evens out

Ok, thanks. I just wanted to know I was doing the right thing and not 'rewarding' not eating her dinner

bumper my ds is 16m and i do exactly the same too, never refuse pudding if dinner not eaten. some days he eats loads, some days not much at all but he will try anything once. i like to think it's because we've never made an issue of food (hopefully!)

My DS is 2. He didn't eat his dinner today so DH said no pudding

We just ask DD (2 y/o) if she's hungry or not. If she's not, fine by us. I just put her dish out of her reach and tells her she can have her milk (she still gets a small bottle). No fuss. She usually wants her plate back and either finishes it or not. We never made an issue and she is a very good eater.

I let ds have yogurt and fruit even if he doesn't eat much dinner. They are nutritious, so fine by me.

We do the same with DD (21 months). She doesn't seem very hungry for dinner atm but eats a decent amount at breakfast and lunchtimes, so I try not to worry. She will always devour a yoghurt though

hi Bumper. My DS did the same tonight. He threw a massive paddy and didn't eat a mouthful. I left him in his highchair until DD had finished hers and then gave them both a yoghurt and a banana which he ate. I don't think there's any point in turning dinner into a battleground.

she is too young to worry about it at the moment I think. DD is 2.8 and for the last few months she understands she has to at least make a bit of an effort at eating her dinner and if it is something new then she has to at least try it. I really try not to hang pudding over her like a reward but it is hard when that seems to be the perceived wisdowm of everyone I know!

I agree, one thing we try not to do is turn anything to do with food into a battleground.

Have you tried offering her the dinner again after her pudding?

DS (22 months) will quite often happily polish off his dinner after his pud.

Funny little chap.

booboobedoo. my ds is the same, will often have a few mouthfulls of dinner, then his pudding, then a few more mouthfulls of dinner. I tend to leave things like that. If I'm really worried he hasn't eaten much at all, I might give him a piece of fruit just before bed so he doesn't associate it as a reward for not eating dinner, just a little bonus before bed, usually it's a banana with his bedtime milk.

Thanks, that's very reassuring to know that you are all doing similar. Booboobeedo that is an interesting point and I haven't tried that since she was a lot younger. Will try that next time.

Usually I do the same as you did with DD (24m) however today she ate very little at Lunch and breakfast and had been on the go all day. When she refused her cottage pie I remembered I had some chicken casserole left over from our Dinner last night so offered her that instead. She wolfed it down

I really think they have their own tastes very early on, DD has started doing this more and more with beef.

DD was BLW mainly too and does have a thing for refusing "mixed" and particularly soft food now. I think she liked the casserole more as it was in easily identifiable bits!

yes we do the same

Booboo! How lovely to see you

I give mine yoghurt and fruit too but he often will eat his dinner later. Or all at the same time. He has got better as he's got older - he's hungrier I think!

Also I have recently discovered he eats much better at mealtimes if I don't give him snacks between meals. At playgroup they give out toast around 10.30 and if he has some, he won't eat any lunch. I know you're supposed to give them snacks but I'd rather he ate his cottage pie than a slice of toast.

you know DD was BLW too and she doesn't like food that is all mixed up or too squishy either. I wonder if that is something to do with it.

We also do the same; at that age ds would often refuse dinner and just have a yoghurt.

Interestingly in the last few weeks he has actually been eating dinner happily and refusing any sort of pudding (he's 2.7). And no longer eats yoghurts at all when he used to have two or three a day!

With DD, especially at lunch when we give her 'bits and pieces' we seem to have to give her things one at a time to get her to eat them, i.e. not too much different stuff on a plate.

I though BLW was meant to be the easy option and make them less fussy . We were robbed!

lol bumper. And I remember how smug I was when DD was scoffing whole platefuls of roast dinner at 8 months whilst my friends spooning in much.

smug no longer!

Lovely to see you too, spicemonster!

Excatly what I did/ do wth mine. FWIW I would oscillate wildly between agonising desperately over DD1s meagre intake and being genuinely concerned that she had worms she ate so much.