If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

What do you do when your child refuses to eat? James (17 months) refused EVERYTHING I put in front of him this evening, even his most favorite thing ever - blueberries. Everything was greeted with a NO! and tossed overboard.

So, when your toddler doesn't eat dinner, WDYD? He had a yogurt and like 3 blueberries for dinner. Milk and bed as usual, or give a snack? I'm leaning towards just milk and bed.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

D does this sometimes too. If he is anti-dinner I usually give him a yogurt and maybe fruit if he'll eat it otherwise just give him a bottle and bed.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

Nothing. My ped told me a kid can go a good week with no real food and be fine ( i wish ). Ds is the a PITA with food. I dont fight him. He will eat when he is hungry. When he had the stomach bug, i swear he ate like 2 pieces of toast and some cheerios for days.

Dont stress it. He will eat tomorrow.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

Is he still sick? If he is, I'd try snacks, but if not, I'd just give him his before bed milk. If he's hungry, he'd eat! Now I made Will homemade chicken nuggets and fries, and he wanted nothing to do with the nuggets (even though he LOVES McD's nuggets!).

ETA: Do as I say, and not as I do, because I usually wind up giving him ice cream so he doesn't go to bed hungry.

Message edited 2/10/2011 6:23:41 PM.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

When my kids refuse to eat, I let it go. Like tonight DD ate a banana and called it a day. She didn't want anything else!

Message edited 2/10/2011 7:11:24 PM.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

We are pretty lenient with food and if they don't eat, we find something they like.


It worked for one child who eats anything and everything now, but not for the other who is pretty picky.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

This may sound mean but there are NO choices in my house. Since the kids have been eating table food, there are no seperate meals. You eat what is in front of you or you don't eat, period.
Tonight I make beef teryaki stir fry for the 1st time, I put it out and they did not balk. They ate green, red and yellow peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, steak and rice.
If you start early, I believe that you can swing it in your favor. I do realize that I am lucky too, my kids eat ANYTHING.
Good LUck

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

I'm done with fighting over dinner. If she doesn't eat then fine but then there is no cookie with her milk before bed.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

milk & bed. My Mom always says, they'll never go to bed starving.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

If DS doesn't eat his dinner (rarely happens) he goes to bed with nothing.

I know it sounds mean, but kitchen closes at 6:30 in this house. I am a mom, not a short order cook

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

milk and bed here too! DD ate about 5 tortellinis and a piece of cheese for dinner.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

Thanks everyone!

I just gave him his milk as normal - he only took like half of what he normally does - and put him to bed.

I'm not going to sweat the not-eating thing. There are bigger fish to fry, right? I'm trying to be as laid back as possible. I refuse to be a diner cook.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

I do the milk and bed thing also...no choices, if he doesn't eat what he's given, he doesn't eat.
As Jenn said, he won't starve himself to death...C generally pigs out the next morning on whatever he is given for breakfast.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

As long as she had a decent breakfast and lunch, I let dinner go if she doesn't want it

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

This just happened to us tonight, and has happened a few times in the past.

When DD (20 months) doesn't eat dinner, that's it. She gets her milk before bed. No snack.

Tonight she had a few bites of an apple. She didn't eat any of her chicken.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

This is a weekly occurance in our house. The other night JJ refused everything & ended up eating ketchup & juice but that is what made him happy.

I never force anything onto him. If he refuses dinner but asks for something later on (bagel, crackers, granola bar) I will give it to him. If he doesn't want anything, he gets his milk & goes to bed. Tomorrow's another day!

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

Milk and bed. I brought this up to the ped today because DD has started doing this and she said the best thing you can do is make sure they have their milk, they get alot of nutrients and calories from the milk, DD once again ate 5 bites and refused the rest of dinner, she had 2 sippy cups of milk though and she is now sleeping.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

We always just did milk and then bed. I even do it now, at 4. If she doesn't want what I make, oh well.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

Ill offer her some cereal or a peice of fruit as a snack before bed. Im a sucker.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

can you make him a smoothie and put some stuff in it for him

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

I don't push it. If she won't eat because she's not hungry that's okay. Who am I to tell her she's hungry when she's not, there's no way for me to tell what her stomach is telling her.

If she doesn't like/want what I made, I'll usually offer either cereal or PB&J. My thinking is that once she gets older, she can make these herself. I cook according to what me and DH are in the mood for. Doesn't mean that she has to be in the mood for the same thing. But, I am not going to make a seperate meal for her.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

If my DD's don't eat their dinner then they can have snack but snack is fruit---not a sweet treat (cookie, graham cracker, brownie bite, etc.)

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

Posted by JennZ

Nothing. My ped told me a kid can go a good week with no real food and be fine ( i wish ). Ds is the a PITA with food. I dont fight him. He will eat when he is hungry. When he had the stomach bug, i swear he ate like 2 pieces of toast and some cheerios for days.

Dont stress it. He will eat tomorrow.

Re: If your child refuses to eat their dinner....

milk and bed.