16 month old refuses to eat tea?!

[Nagley]

Hello there. I just wonder if anyone could give me some advice.

Over the past week my dd has started to refuse to eat any tea. She has always been a good eater except when teething or poorly. Four days ago we sat down to tea as per the norm and since then she has refused to eat tea. She has a few mouth fulls and then pushes or throws the plate away. I leave her to sit in her booster until her brother has finished eating dinner but do not force her to eat as she really does not want too.

Any words of wisdom from anyone? She eats a good breakfast and lunch, and has a few light snacks (but nothing after 3.30 in the afternoon).

Thank you :-(

This is a really common phase and the key thing is not to get wound up about it.

If you make lunch her main meal of the day, at least you know she's getting a balanced diet.

You don't mention how much milk she's getting but if it's still a fair bit, it might be worth ramping it down. And while I understand the purpose of snacks for toddlers, I would give them with caution just to make sure you're not taking the edge off her appetite.

But the main thing is not to make it into an issue, praise her when she eats well and ignore her pushing or throwing the plate away.

What's her daytime sleep like? Sometimes as they start to reduce their sleep a bit, they can be too tired by teatime to be bothered.

Thanks for your comments. It is nice to know that it is common.

She hardly drinks any milk, she simply does not like it :-(

Mine both did this. Try not to worry about it.

Geeky fact : Historically 3 meals a day is fairly recent, came in with industrial revolution, to do with longer working day.