How to handle a 2.5 year old refusing most evening meals?

[Summersun91]

Need advice on my 2.5 year old’s evening meals. The only thing she will eat is fishfingers, chips and peas, or pizza. I just don’t know how to manage this - do I just let her go to bed without eating anything?(she has milk before bed). Or do I let her have a yoghurt? I’ve never offered her a separate meal (and not prepared to do this).

She eats everything at nursery and also veg pasta with sauce at my parents house (won’t eat the exact same meal at home). She eats breakfast and lunch, and we usually have pizza one evening a week, so with that and nursery we are talking 4 evenings a week when she doesn’t eat anything. I am not concerned about her weight, it’s more I don’t know what is an appropriate approach and whether she’ll be hungry (or if that’s ok at this age)?

Other relevant points:

• afternoon snack (if she asks) is usually an apple around 3.00
• I always try and put something I know she likes in the meal or on the side (eg she likes mushrooms so I put them in a lot of meals, or I put grated cheese on the side) but she refuses to eat anything, even the foods I know she likes
• I’ve tried getting her to help me prep and cook the meal which she likes doing, but still won’t eat it
• Pudding is the choice of fruit or yoghurt
• She has never been a good eater - she ate nothing but yoghurt the first 2 months of weaning, and only really improved when she started nursery at 11 months. But she’s always been very hit and miss with evening meals

interested to hear what approach others would take, thanks

5.00. Lunch is at 12 and bedtime at 7 so that seems reasonable, although as others have mentioned maybe she is just too tired by then to entertain proper cooked food!

Breakfast like a king, lunch like a lord and dinner like a paper. That saying is as old as the hills for a healthy way of eating.
Then your breakfast actually breaks your fast, sort of feeds into the Michael Mosley ideas, your little one seems to be doing it naturally. Impressed by the love of mushrooms!

Pauper not paper 😂

Thanks for sharing, yes this sounds what I am trying to battle with. I am also trying to encourage her to at least try a mouthful of the meal as mostly she refuses to eat without even trying it.

Yes I have heard this, it’s just trying to get vegetables in at breakfast is hard! I don’t really have a problem with the total quantity of food she eats, it’s mainly the veggies (and overall variety) that concern me, and just her being hungry overnight.

I know, don’t get me started on the mushrooms - of all the things she will happily eat (which is a short list), how is one of them mushrooms?! Cooked or raw, happy with either!

Do you take the food away when offering yoghurt/fruit? DD1 is admittedly generally a good eater, but if she’s having an off day then I’ve noticed she’ll often start with her yoghurt and then go to her main meal, or she’ll pick at her main meal, have a yoghurt, and then go back to her main meal. I try and serve everything at the same time so the yoghurt and fruit “pudding” option is part of the meal, rather than a “treat” after.

Mine is the exact same! I just offer what we eat and then he has milk before bed. I don’t want to get in the habit of making something seperate and I don’t want him having fish fingers more than once a week (he usually gets these if we have a takeaway or something spicy)
I have always followed the advice that it’s the parents job to prepare and serve and healthy meal and the child’s job to eat it.

One of mine didn't eat dinner for years.
Serve it, eat together, serve pudding eg greek/plain yoghurt and fruit alongside the main. Don't make any comment on what they do or don't eat.