Dinner Drama

Okay so my 2 year old full on refuses to eat dinner on the regular. Last night it was bakes ziti....who doesn't like that?? Lol.

Anyway I am so sick of the drama at dinner that my new plan is just to tell her "okay, you don't have to eat" instead if fighting with her every night.

Anyone BTDT? Or have another approach to share?
I am so over this!!!

TIA!

Dinner Drama

my 2 yo is giving me a problem too. She takes one or two bites and she's full. I've been making up these silly songs about eating and the food...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When I discuss this with my parents, they will just tell me.don't worry, they will eat when they are hungry and that I was the same way as a kid. It is frustrating though

Re: Dinner Drama

Mine do this too. They will eat if its what they want if not it gets thrown at me or on the floor. I just give chicken tenders and fries every night bc I know they will eat it. Ive given them stuff off my plate for lunch that they LOVED, but refused it on their plate at dinner. They dont eat the same meal as us unless its pasta with meat sauce. If I do try something new and they refuse I just toss bananas and crackers and cheese on their plate so they get something. Id just take away but I need them to eat dinner and not wake up early hungry and also they are underweight and I need to add calories as it is.

Re: Dinner Drama

I have heard as long as they have one full meal a day its good enough but I hear ya on not wanting to let them go without dinner.

DD a little before that age stop eating every thing she used to like and now at 3 only eats like 7 different things. I regret giving into her.

If I was you I would try not to fight it and I would just let he not eat but I would not let her eat any snacks or anything else for the rest of night only what you offered her for dinner.

Dinner Drama

We went thru this at same age. She had 2 choices: eat the dinner I made, or its cereal, yogurt/fruit. Done. There's no other option aside from going to bed hungry. It took a couple mos, but she eventually grew out of it, and ate better. There will never be a night I'm making her multiple dinners until she finds something she likes.

Re: Dinner Drama

We are going through this now and she's only 16 mos old! It feels like everything is a battle.

I do what I can but I literally just sometimes dread meals. My mom also watches her while I work and she's the type to make a million things to get her to eat something (she did this for us growing up too). I just take it day by day and unfortunately do revert to favorites even though I know I shouldn't create that habit.

Dinner Drama

FOr me if my DS eats 2 good meals a day I don't fight for one meal. He's not starving so its not worth the energy.

Re: Dinner Drama

My DD is like this too. She is such a picky eater and rarely eats what DH & I eat. So, if she doesn't like what I make for her, I usually make one more thing (but, an easy thing, like PB&J or something), and if she doesn't eat that than I figure she's just not hungry.

Re: Dinner Drama

Our kids do this every so often...
We feed them 3 meals, no snacks (except in preschool where DS gets grapes & crackers).

With no snacks and alternatives, they either eat or are warned they will go hungry. By 3, they get this warning, but it works very early. We make no attempts to cook them what a kid should like. We order them appetizers when we go out to eat at a restaurant. We do not cook spicy.

We cook one meat & 1-2 sides (vegetables) and the rule is they must try everything to get more of whatever they like most. Often, we are bribing them to try something with spinach or broccoli (which they both love).

Dessert is fresh fruit or cheese & only if they eat satisfactorily.

Don't get me wrong, our kids love cake, pizza & sweets. We see it as our job to allow their palate to develop tastes for other things while they are young so that they can make better choices as adults.

Also need to add both are average height & weight. If we had a malnutrition problem, I may have different theories... But they do not.

Message edited 12/3/2014 9:50:15 AM.

Re: Dinner Drama

my 2 year old is the same way.
last night she had a piece of american cheese and olives for dinner.
most nights she refuses to eat what i make. its a constant battle. i really hope this ends soon

Dinner Drama

I definitely agree that I need to cut out snacks. I am not giving her anything after 2:00. Which sucks because I usually give her a cookie when I get home from work and she really looks forward to it (just a little working Mom guilt there). LOL.

nycgirl- Go you. That is great. I am horrendous compared to your plan. I thought if she wasn't eating pixie sticks and drinking mountain dew that I was Mother of the Year. hahaha.

Dinner Drama

DS is 3 and every meal is a battle. He looks at the food and says "That's disgusting" and walks away.
For me, I do not want to turn food into a battle - Eat what is served or don't eat. My husband will chase DS around the house and offer him every food under the sun to get him to eat.
Finally, I have DH on my side. If DS does not eat the dinner that is made, his only alternative is yogurt. If he doesn't eat that, he doesn't eat.
He is not a snacker. He does not drink excessively. He is just not a big eater. He eats when he wants and when he wants to, boy does he eat.

Re: Dinner Drama

I have the same thing happening at my house. I get 2 bites then no thank you im done. My niece who never eats regularly more like a bird, her pediatrician gave my brother this advice " He never met a 2 yr old that starved themselves, when they are hungry they will eat" I guess thats true but I try to only give her the things that are healthy in those small windows of her eating. So far it works and I withhold the chocolate milk until she eats. I find that shed much rather drink that then eat.

Re: Dinner Drama

I'm the type who says eat or don't but don't ask for more later. No grazing either. That said she doesn't eat what we do. She used to but really we eat stuff she's not into mostly. She does however love veggies and so if she wants she can have 4 chicken nuggets and a large bowl of cauliflower and carrots its fine by me.

At 2yr .. yes I'd let it go until she was hungry. But I'd have something ready and feed her then.

At 6yr .. you eat or you don't. And yes at 10pm (way after bedtime, in bed but restless) she's said "I'm really hungry, I'm starving" and I've said "Too bad" She won't die. Did it bother me she went to bed hungry? Yes but she also is old enough to know better. She has never skipped dinner again. She'll say "I'm not super hungry but I'll try" and notoriously she'll get tied up in a story or tv or something and 'accidently' eat everything on her plate. Since she's at the tell-all stage she will say "If you don't eat dinner, you go to bed starving and mama won't let you eat until morning"

Dinner Drama

DD is the same at 2.5, has been for a while. She gets what I make her and that's it. It may be what DH and I or having or something I made just for her depending on what we're having. For example last night we had something with hot sauce so I made her chicken nuggets and when we had chili the night before I made her fish sticks instead. As long as dinner is something she can eat (no allergy issue or spicy food) then that's what she's served. If she doesn't eat anything then so be it. She does get a cookie after dinner if she eats well so that helps a lot but even then I hate that it's a lot of prodding to get her to eat enough to earn a treat. She knows there are no other options than what is on her plate and that if she doesn't eat then she'll wait until breakfast. Honestly, it doesn't phase her and she doesn't wake up starving if she doesn't eat dinner so I let it go. She also doesn't get any snacks between lunch and dinner so she's not filling up on junk. She's a pretty good veggie eater and the ped was happy about that and said if she's eating green beans and skipping the meat he's thrilled.

Re: Dinner Drama

DS only wants to eat pizza, pasta or mac and cheese, which is pasta. He'll eat yogurt and fruit, too. I just keep trying other foods, and then give him what he wants. I'd rather him eat than not eat.

I know he'll outgrow it and eventually want other foods.

Re: Dinner Drama

Story of my life! My DS is an extremely picky eater. Dinner is usually a struggle. We usually have to distract him in order to eat by playing his favorite youtube childrens songs. Even then its a limited cuisine. I am guilty of making him other things to see if he will eat (for instance if he doesn't eat chicken nuggets I will make him PB&J to see if he eats that). I try to get him to eat because if he doesn't he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Re: Dinner Drama

Here's a REALLY good article from the NYT.

The author grew up like my husband & I... and even though we are not chefs, we try to follow the ideas he came up with...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/magazine/getting-your-kids-to-eat-or-at-least-try-everything.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0

Re: Dinner Drama

Dinner Drama

Maybe I'm mean, but if DD doesn't want to eat what I cook for dinner, I don't give her anything else. I know she eats a ton at daycare and she almost always has yogurt as an afternoon snack, so I know she's not starving. If she sits with us, great, if not, great. We find that if we sit down to eat without her, eventually she will come over to the table and request to eat too. She'll be 2 on Monday.

Re: Dinner Drama

DC has to take at least two bites of dinner. If DC won't eat anymore, they can either be finished but will not get a snack later, or they can have a yogurt.

I don't stress eating. If they are hungry they will eat. There are days where DC will eat everything in sight, and other days where there is almost no eating taking place. It is what it is.

Re: Dinner Drama

Re: Dinner Drama

My son is 3 but what I have been doing is saying "Okay. You can go play (or whatever it is he wants to do) but you have to finish # of bites first". Then I make it into a counting game for him but I am also the one feeding him. It actually works to get him to eat. I would rather he fed himself but since I just limited myself to a number of bites, I do it so that he's not eating 5 french fries or whatever is least healthy. I give him the meat and the veggies and then usually he will have some of the other more "fun" thing to eat on his plate.

Re: Dinner Drama