Toddler doesnt eaT

[smerchant]

I have a 2.5 yrs old ds who is very difficult at meal times. He will not sit on the table at all. We eat togther at all meal times so its not like he is eating alone.
If i make him sit by force then he will cry and scream and will not eat anything.I dont know what to do.
Currently i try to make him eat with us but since its not workign so then i have to take food and go after him. He will take few bites when i distract him with toys or tv if you know what i mean. He will have some bites and when he realise he is eating, he will stop and start having tantrums again.

I have spoken to HV and she says i should put food in front of him and encourage him to eat. If he doesnt eat then i should leave it. I have tried that and he went on without food for a week!!! I gave up after that and went back to my way of distractign him and then putting food in his mouth.

He goes to nursery and does the same thing. He does 8-1 session and he refuses breakfast, has his snack and lunch is a hit or a miss. sometimes he will eat it and sometimes he will refuse.

Can someone please advise me what i am doing wrong?

I have tried timeout, taking away his toys and ignoring him but none of these work.

I really dont know what else to do.

First of all children won't let themselves starve, so if he is hungry he will eat. By running after him away from the table and giving him food while playing or watching TV you're giving into him and giving him attention for behaviour you don't want to encourage. Does he do this with all food or is there something he will eat happily? If so then start with that and then introduce variations etc to widen his diet. I would put the food in front of him then try to ignore him. If he plays up then say "If you are finished you can leave the table". Take the food away and carry on eating yourself (trying to ignore the ensuing tantrum!). Eventually if he is hungry he'll sit and eat something. To encourage good habits I'd make him have puds and snacks at the table too to start with to enforce that the table is the place to eat. I wouldn't take away toys etc for not eating as that is making food a battle and you don't want to go down that road ...... My DD has always been a good eater but her little brother is starting to go down not being so good and I'll be taking my own advice soon I think!

i agree with birdy, put his food on the table if he doesn't want it he doesn't have to eat it, and there shouldn't be an alternative. when you say he went without food for a week, do you mean no food? or little food? some children don't need to eat very much so try not to worry.

don't try and force him to eat or punish him for not eating as this can lead to eating problems when he is older. plus you wouldn't want to be forced to eat if you don't want to...

if you don't make it into an issue and are consistent in what you do then i'm sure it will pass in a week or so.