Fussy eating - please reassure me I am dealing with this right?? He won't starve himself to death, will he..?

[BotBotticelli]

Ds1 is 22mo. He has always had a big appetite and loved his food since weaning.

Now he has gone really fussy and at some meals hardly eats anything. For lunch just now I offered him 3 small triangle sandwiches (2 egg one chicken), some cucumber batons, cherry toms and 2 cocktail sausages. He ate the sausages, 2 cucumber batons then pushed it away saying finished now get down and play.

So I just said ok, but if you get down lunch is finished and there's no more food. He said ok and got down. Now playing happily.

He had a bowl of shreddies for breakfast at 7am, a banana at 9.30am and a mouthful of chocolate brownie at 10am which they were giving away on the counter in Costa. So not like he had been snacking all morning.

So should I just be ignoring this behaviour?? It's becoming more frequent. Some days he hardly eats anything at all.

I am torn - I don't want to get into the endless cycle of cajoling and bribing to eat which my sil has done with her girls. And I do hope believe that eventually when he is hungry he will eat. But it goes against my every instinct which is to try and feed him up!!

Would love to hear from some mums who have been through this, used the ignore ignore ignore method and come out the other side?? Did it work? Did your cd start eating more again of their own accord? I am just scared he is going to get ill from eating so little :-(

Ileana I doubt she'll have time to eat all that at school lunch tbh, maybe they get longer to eat where you are but my DC struggle to eat 3 lunch items and have a drink! And oats for dinner does found somewhat strange, she's not a horse

Think tiffin box =small container of snacks

My DD is doing the same kind of thing at the moment. I do ask her if she wants to try the offending food though, usually because if I take the plate away saying 'you're finished?' she complains whereas if I ask first she doesn't! I figure she's not growing as much at the moment so I'm not so worried that she's eating less.

Ileana7 she will have lost lose all ability to self regulate her intake which is where so many problems arise in teenagers and adults.

Goldmantra as always, speaks so much sense.

Ds1 and ds2 both have sn's and I definitely made too much fuss at mealtimes which has spoilt their self regulating mechanism. With ds3 I provided a healthy diet and allowed him to choose what he ate. Sometimes he ate it all sometimes none. He is now 8 and is a great eater, eats most things and stops when he is full. Strangely he didn't starve.

DT2 became a fuss pot overnight. DH worried himself sick as DT1 was the perfect eater and he would compare.
I found out that DT2 would eat cheesy pasta with peas/broccoli in so he had that most days for lunch. I would serve him the family dinner and he would pick the bits he liked.
I went for quality over quantity. If he had had naff all for most of the day he would have a mug of milk at bed time. Over a whole week his diet was fine. If you broke it down to days it was rubbish. But then this comes form the woman who survived on cheese, shredded wheat and roast dinner for years!