Roll up, roll up, it's the Throwing Uneaten Food In The Bin Club, all welcome!

[oliveoil]

Grrrrrrr.

Day 1:
Breakfast: Weetabix, toast, glass of milk
Dinner: Homemade bolog, banana, apple
Tea: Homemade chick nuggets and chips, orange, raisons

Day 2:
Breakfast: NOTHING! DON'T WANT NOTHING ARRRGHGGHH
Dinner: Banana DON'T WANT ANYTHING NOT NEVER (plate thrown on floor)
Tea: Picks cheese off sandwich and glares ominiously.

Is there anything more frustrating than feeding your child?

Yesterday I threw homemade tuna ball things and pasta in the bin, yet last week they were proclaimed "delicious" .

Now I just hand the plate over and run away.

Anyone else silently screaming at kitchen walls?

Make me feel better please, or she will be on Birds Eye and McDonalds soon, feel like I am wasting my f'ing time.

olive,if my dd wanders,I announce that it's going in the bin. She has as long as she wants to sit and finish,whether it's 3 minutes or 30 ,but I cannot tolerate drifting and tv is out of the question.

DD2 has found out how to climb up and raid the tin her adoring father filled with biscuits, too. I've now moved it but tbh that just means she'll get more ingeniously gymnastic.

I know, moondog. I've got to have a talk with him. Ds is wayyy behind on eating and this is a big reason for it. I think a lot of dh's attitude stems from me having terrible PND until ds was about 14 months old and had trouble coping, making decisions, etc. But, now I feel fine and I'm having trouble asserting my role.

Sorry for the highjack, oliveoil!

Mine do eat at their little table in front of the telly sometimes, OO. Less with me than with their dad [grrrrr emoticon] but this morning I will admit they both went into the living room carrying their breakfast and finished there. Well, they did finish. And it was pitta and hummus. And we all got out in time.

don't know how old your dd1 is, but we have also got to the stage where ds1 reflexly says 'I don't like that' to anything new. He will also sometimes reject things I KNOW he has liked previously.
We try to do the following: cut down his portion sizes drastically (after months of throwing away most of his food, it suddenly dawned on me that he clearly didn't NEED that much - duh!). He can always ask for more. We also insist that a small amount of everything is tasted. He generally manages this really well and will admit that the rejected item is in fact 'fine' once tasted! I try to limit snacks to make sure they are properly hungry for their meal - I don't always manage this very well, partly because if ds2 has a snack I have to give ds1 something too, and sometimes I just mistime it (ds1 tends to go into meltdown if too hungry so its a bit of a balancing act!)
We've also started eating together as a rule rather than an exception - I think that helps too. You also notice less what they are eating if you are busy eating!

Does anyone know of any books that might help? Children's books I mean, not parenting. I have tried reading Green Eggs and Ham to make a point, but I don't think it made any difference.

It's just after 4:00 am here, so am going to try to get some sleep (horrible insomniac) but will check this thread again later.

'night everyone

Do i sound like a smug cow MI?

I think my tv stance is more to do with my own personal loathing of 'kiddie' tv and vids. Having read your article recently,I'm with you on the 'silence is golden' theory.

jabberwocky,b*cks to the books,manuals,coaxing and wat have you! You've cooked,they'll eat-that's it. Haven't you got better things to do with your time than descend into Annabel Karmel purgatory girl!!?

oo, we do set a time limit when bathtime is approaching...ds1 can procrastinate amazinlyg but I suspect at these times he's just not that hungry. So we give a 5 minute warning and then finish. he won't have had less than half an hour for the meal by that stage anyway.

I agree with everyone - jabberwocky - you and your DH need to be on the same page.

The thing is, after one or so, kids lose their appetites. They don't need to eat so much, they aren't growing as fast. And they often eat a lot one day, and not so much the rest.

I wouldn't bother making special foods, just offer family food. If she doesn't eat, she doesn't eat. We always eat at the table, too, but then I hate telly.

I wouldn't have a time limit. If she wants to come back and eat a bit a while later, as long as the food isn't off, why not?

My DS1 has been horrid about food from time to time, but these days, he eats pretty well. He won't always try everything, but he does eat a good range of food.

moondog! I have to admit I did what I formerly thought would be unthinkable and did a search on toddler foods. When Annabel Karmel popped up I thought to myself "This is what you've sunk to, old gal!"

Whenever I hear of non-eating toddlers I think of a sight I witnessed many years ago: little 2 year-olds hoovering up platefuls of cabbage, spinach, pumpkin, potato. Not lightly steamed in smiley face shapes a la Annabel either- just plain old boiled stuff.

And what, you may ask, was the secret to these wonderful eating toddlers? Well, they were in hospital in Africa and they were starving. Not starving as in "really hungry", starving as in starving. They craved veggies, somehow knowing that they needed vitamins. When they stopped nicking food off their neighbours' plates and started getting picky, you knew they were getting better.

So when dd glances at her food and decides she'd rather play with her spoon, I heave a sigh of relief because I take it to mean she's ok and I'm doing a good job keeping her well nourished, cos if she needed it, she'd be eating it.

(Then I eat the food.... because I need it... )

Can I use the bin. Have a load of spag bol in freezer, enought to feed 18, bloody lovely but blue parrot is soooo much nicer apparently. And ten ton of mousakka, am I having a laugh with this - I mean how dare I offer her mousakka! It's fine just spent an entire day in the kitchen. Oh and any room in the bin for the banana loaf that went mouldy in the end?

Well last night she hooovered up cheese sandwiches on brown bread, plate of peppers and carrots and some strawberries and mango for pudding . But you can bet your life it will be NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO later.

Grrrrrrrr.

TC - emptied the bin so it is ready for more wasted food! I spend every Sunday afternoon doing a cook up for my little ones and every week wonder why I bloody well bother . Sigh, oh to not be arsed about what they eat.

x

oliveoil, I have to say I'm a newly converted 'eating together' evangelist - after years of being convinced it jsut wasn't possible for our family. Best bit about it is no 'special' cooking for the kids - so no feeling awful when it goes in the bin - plus it rarely gets to the bin, if you are all eating at the same time you (or dh!) just eat up their leftovers for them.
It is a bit difficult sometimes - 3 nights a week I get home at 5.45 and we have to have something on the table by 6 - but I have been amazed that we've managed it and wouldn't go back to separate meals now.
OK I'll shut up now

Yes we are thinking of moving her tea to 6ish so she can eat with us (we eat at 7pm at the mo, in peace, with a glass of wine, sob at giving that up). But we have very spicey food so not sure she would be into it.

In response to original message - no, there is nothing more frustrating than feeding your child! Mine are a nightmare! Well, hit and miss actually but generally I throw a lot away. It drives me mad.

I'm being strict now and if they don't eat what's in front of them, there's nothing else. They are fine on breakfast and lunch (sandwiches, fruit, yog etc) but it's proper cooked dinner they struggle with.

Ds2 (2) is not too bad actually, it's ds1 who is now 4 but has been a nightmare since the day he arrived and caused me a month of sheer hell breastfeeding, followed by months of totting up how many 1oz bottles he'd had, followed by umpteen games of try to get the spoon into the moving mouth....HATE IT!!!!

gdg,thought it was the first one that you'd b/fed?

Sorry,not reading properly-distracted by ds crying. How inconsiderate of him!

1st one! He was a nightmare and still is the pickiest eater on the planet! The scary thing is - he's just like me!! Ultra fussy!

oo, remember that once they are in bed you can chill out with your glass of wine on the sofa anyway....
But a downside is that you do have to compromise on the menu. not too much of a problem for me as I quite like fairly child-friendly food anyway, but I'll admit we haven't all shared a curry yet!

Gotta lighten up,lady!
(Says moondog,fussiest and most uptight woman in Wales!)

Mealtimes with kids are chaotic experiences and with multiple amounts of kids it is worse. Generally mine eat but now they have their own tastes and at the moment I struggle to find a meal they all like except spag bol, shepards pie etc I no longer experiment and no wonder my kids eat all their food . I feed them what I know they will eat I have stopped trying loads of new stuff; Forget it. At one point we ate spag bol everyday for two weeks. We love food in our house and the kids all help with the cooking and event though i like to be adventerous I hate throwing stuff away so produce meals I know they will eat. Nothing fany meat two veg type stuff. Less time spent at table and hungry kids eat and no time after spent making stuff to fill them up. Anything for an easier life.

jabberwocky there is quite a fun book "I will never ever eat a tomato" by Lauren Child. she also does "I am not tired and I will not go to sleep" and books about a girl called Clarice Bean - I like them all.

when we eat together we don't always eat all the same food - if the adults have curry the dds (5,3,1) might have rice, veg (non curried), chickpeas (non-curried or lightly spiced) and maybe yoghurt or cottage cheese with it. I would love them to eat the curry but they won't. but at least they get the same raw ingredients and I hope one day they will move on to the curry