Almost 3 Year Old and Eating

Serve healthy veg. first. If he doesn't eat it, just remove it. No cajoling, arguing, pleading - it then becomes a power struggle, not eating. He will eat when he is hungry.

I would just cook like you did before you had your son (assuming you had a healthy life style). He will eat it or not and will not starve. We have never made DS separate meals - it takes the focus off food - it is simply this is what we are having for dinner. DS would also have days when he barely ate anything and days when he ate like a 300 lb football player.

How much milk/juice is he drinking? My daughter was always a good eater and simply ate whatever I cooked for all of us. There were times when she wouldn't eat part of the meal, but she always ate most of it in smaller portions. I never gave her large amounts of milk or juice (she's actually never loved milk and we're all lactose intollerant anyway). I found from friend's experiences that their children would drink a big glass of milk in the morning and then wouldn't be hungry for the rest of the day. When they wouldn't eat, my friend would give them another glass of milk (to get "something" in them). When I suggested that she stop giving her child the milk, the child started eating better. Milk with all the calories and fat can fill a little guy up to the point where he's not hungry and then it becomes a circle.

Another suggestion - take your child to the grocery store & let him pick out some fruits & veggies. Have him help bag the groceries, unpack them when you get home and help to "cook" them if necessary (or at least let him help in some way). Kids will usually eat what they've picked out and helped to prepare. Good luck & let us know if any of our suggestions work. This is a pretty popular question.

He's apparently not starving or he would eat, yuck or not. If he's even rejecting his favorites, then don't bother to make them. Serve what's for dinner and he eats it or not. I also suggest putting out a variety of foods at dinner time and let him choose what he wants - don't suggest he try something or beg him to take a bite, let him take his own food. You can put out pasta, a sauce for it, bread and butter, cheese cubes, melon, a cooked and a raw veggie and let him experiment as he likes. I'd also curtail the milk or juice in the afternoon if he's having more than just a little, it may be filling him up.
Does he eat a good breakfast and lunch? My younger kid, when he was that age, was not a big eater at dinner, but he was not picky, he ate well during the day and he did "snack" a lot in the afternoon, but on things like yogurt, cheese slices (real cheese not processed American), fruit and raw veggies so I didn't really care so much if he didn't eat dinner, he ate another meal's worth of "snacks"

I wanted to ask the same question, but thankfully you beat me to it. Last week my daughter wouldn't eat a thing. She practically lived on milk. It was driving me nuts. I have read in past blogs and other internet advices, "that I should just leave them alone." Well I did, I didn't make an issue out of it. I secretly cried day-by-day or cursed myself out in the bathroom, because again I felt I failed with my daughter and her not eating. Then, suddenly yesterday she finally said, mommy I'm hungry. I want noodle soup. Hey, whatever, noodle soup it was. It was something. It was plain and simple. Today, I made shish-ke-bobs with the yogurt sauce and pita bread. She ate like a horse. It all depends on the day I guess. I'd put pretzels and cheese within easy reach and some other light snacks.

What does his ped. say? Is he a healty weight and height? If so, you might consider backing off. It sounds like he is enjoying his power over his own body and you by refusing to eat. I wonder if you shrugged it off if he would change his tune. Leave cut fruit on the table as a "cruise by" snack and try to just let it go. If nothing changes after a few days, revisit the issue with your doctor.

J.,

He's 3. he's growing. He's changing. His tastes will change. His sleep habits will change.

I recommend Scott Noelle - google him - he has free e-letters with thoughts on his different way of looking at things and working around 'problems'. You can get his book or sign up for his parenting pathway too, but they are for-cost. I have found the freebies rather freeing in the way of thinking about what my son is doing to our family - enriching it.

Your son is almost done teething (I think he gets molars, I still have to research this!!) and for now, he's just working on 'shooting up' taller.

sleep changes and food changes signal growth spurts. My son forgets certain things, like acquaintance names, and that he likes chili (hot!) and now decides it too hot. : ( His coordination goes on the blink.

I prepare his food with leftovers in mind. It isn't often, but he'll fall asleep at 4, and wake at 6:30 - or 9:30 - and sometimes he'll wake at 2300 or 0200, and want FOOD, MAMA! So I have it with him, a little bite for me, in the nightlighted kitchen, so we don't wake Dada and little brother, and then he goes back to sleep. Only once did he wake at 4 AM, and because Dada didn't follow my directions, he was awake until 0600 (when he (Dada) had to be up) and then slept again until 1000!

You can only make a child do so many things. Fooling around with Mother Nature and SLEEP is a bad thing. Food is another bad thing to fool around with. You can't force feed and you can't withhold. Or rather, you can, but your child will pay the consequences. Not you.

He's three. A separate meal is not going to set the tone for the rest of your lives together. Dr. Sears recommends a grazing tray. Healthy snacks. I haven't gotten there, because my boy is eating healthy already, and because he generally will ignore food that is out altogether unless he is hungry. So he doesn't fit the total picture that Sears is looking at.

My boy is next to the 0% on the picture. Breastfed baby he was! So he fits on the breastfed chart but the ped didn't bother with those. They didn't 'count'. So when she started talking invasive procedures on my happy little clam of a boy, I found another pediatrician.

Sometimes they eat, sometimes they don't. They won't starve themselves deliberately and even if they only have a teaspoon of food a day (and my son's teacher had a child in her classroom once upon a year who DID JUST THIS AND TURNED OUT FINE!) they will survive. Just because they don't fit a textbook survive definition - or the pediatrician's assumptions of possible malnutrition on your part - doesn't mean they are not healthy or happy.

ahh veggies, the power of choice. my son has a choice - he can have some veggies (and he does like them, but has discovered someone will GIVE IN and give him what he wants if he cries enough) before he has his noodles. he has one bite then he gets his noodles. Inevitably, he cleans his veggies out, becuase he gets what he wants - just not the exact order.

***Find a veggie he likes and serve it every other day.

When my son gets things HIS way, he finds himself hungry and he can't TELL me that - he just is and behaves accordingly: he gets into what everyone else calls TROUBLE. I give him a hug, and ask him if he's hungry. He says, "I don't know", or even "no". I offer him something to eat and he'll snap up the idea and the food and not look back at what was interesting before, be it writing on the table (because someone left a pen in his reach!) or chasing the dog, or what have you.

I have to say also, I also limit to what some people call an extreme any pastas or breads. They may be once or twice every 2 weeks or so. he has veggies and meat and fruit. All pastas and breads are fortified - but with incomplete vitamins that don't help anyone, least of all kids. So I don't feel bad about not giving them.

Happy to answer questions if you have any, but good luck!
M.

So typical, so frustrating. Kids go thru phases, and we get all agitated trying to keep up. Some kids have texture issues, so his "favorite" meal either gets old or it starts to annoy him texturally. Kids' taste buds are very different in the early years so they are more sensitive. I can help you with a liquid supplement that is a complete food - nourishes kids all over the world but it's made here in US. Happy to give you more info so you can evaluate it. Let me know.

My dd is almost 3-end of March. She also goes through this. She might eat a great breakfast or lunch with dad but won't eat dinner and then wants a snack. I leave the food on her plate on the table and if she wants somehting, then it is there for her. She will sometimes pick at it. Sometimes she doesn't touch it. When the kids go through their growth spurts, we wonder where do they put the food. But when they are not growing as much, it seems they never eat. Unless he seems like he has no energy or lethargic, I wouldn't worry too much but stick to your guns about the snacking bit.

It's a phase they go through at this age. Expect him to only eat 1 out of every 4 meals.

My daughter has also been refusing her favorite food. It's funny. I just ignore her, and if she decides to skip a meal, oh well.

They eat when they are hungry enough.