Toddler won’t eat without TV! Feeling defeated!

[SassyPants87]

We got into a really bad habit of letting toddler watch tv when she was going through a fussy eating stage. Now she refuses to eat anything if the TV isn’t on!!

has anyone got experience of how they overcame this with toddlers? I’ve tried to go cold turkey with it but she will scream the house down and refuse her food, try and Chuck it on the floor!

she does actually eat fine when we are out in restaurants, and at nursery she eats all her food fine too so I don’t know if she’s just trying to play up with us at home

Remove the TV and tell her it's broken.

I agree move the TV. She will refuse to eat for a while and then start eating again.

I think you need to cope with the fallout and ride through it, of course there will be tantrums, but you really need to hold firm. She’a a toddler, you make the rules.

Just stick with 'no', if she 'won't eat' , get her down & send her off to play NO battles of wills!!!

she won't starve herself.

do not relent, not even once, because you're setting you and her up for more battles.

she will eat when she's hungry!!

I agree with the above, tell her it’s not working. If she has a tantrum keep your face neutral and agree with her, see won’t have had a reaction. In the past she knows she will get her way if she screams.

Agree with the others - just stay firm and don't react or get upset or try to force the issue. Eventually she will eat.

Tell her, 'Yes that's what you used to do. That;s what little babies do but you;re a big girl now so eat at table with me, like a big girl and as soon as you;ve finished, you can watch TV.'

Wean her off it by offering TV afterwards.

Slightly different perspective. By the end of the day a toddler who's been active and busy and in a childcare setting is well frankly knackered.
If 20 mins of Sarah and Duck gets a decent meal into her and she sleeps well as a result, I'd say pick your battles. She eats fine elsewhere and out and about where there are other distractions, it sounds like a comfort activity to me that she will grow out of.

You don't say if you are eating at the same time? If you're sitting down as a family then the tv is broken. CBeebies has gone to bed.

If you do decide to remove it, you could try breaking the habit by "finding" the TV broken and make a pantomime of trying to fix it and be really disappointed that it's broken.

If you're in a power struggle, the only way out is with humour and empathy in my experience. Try to make her laugh as much as possible.

Then you could replace the TV with books for a while.

Books whilst eating is sometimes what we resort to.

…does it really matter?

I learned on here to talk about what they'd like to do, without doing it.

'Oh yes you used to love having the telly on when you ate didn't you! You'd love to do that again. We're going to talk now because it's important to spend time together.' And ride out the tantrums. They'll stop eventually.

Or if it isn't that important to you, just have the telly on. I wouldn't choose that route at this age but it's an option.

I have a toddler and a teen and completely agree with Dreams. It feels like an awful failure for some reason (why?!) but it's really not that big of a deal. I worried and worried and worried about it with DS1 and nothing bad has happened. He still eats. He knows how to have a conversation. I have no idea what terrible thing I thought would happen.

Also agree with the distinction if you're eating together as a family no TV, if she's eating on her own let her have the TV on. If you're going to cut the TV out but don't want to eat at the same time, you'll have to sit with her and have a cup of tea or something, it's not fair to expect her to sit all by herself eating with no TV or company.

This is my perspective too. Particularly at the end of a long and busy day, I don't see it as a big deal. DS generally watches TV when he's eating (unless we're all eating together). We also watch TV when we eat our dinner when he's gone to bed so I can't get worked up about it.

We took the batteries out of the remote control for a month and made a big show of how the tv was "broken" when we had a similar issue.

She knows you will eventually give in so she tantrums, refuses to eat etc because it works.