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Hi Forum Friends,
Please, some advice. I have a 2 yr old. He doesn't want to eat lunch at all lately. He is more than happy to eat all snacks of course, but won't have anything to do with lunch. I've tried a few different methods to get him to eat, but he can be soooo stubborn. Today he ended up going for nap without lunch. I refuse to make different things for every child because they don't like what we're having today. Any tips or tricks to get him to eat?? :blink:
Thanks!
Stop trying :-) sometimes the picky kids get caught up in watching you stress and try to get them to eat. If you just put the food in front of them and clear it later without any stress, without comment they eventually come around. If the child is eating at snacks then they are CHOOSING not to eat at lunch and they are allowed to chose not to eat. They will wake up hungry and eventually decide to eat. if the child ate nothing at all (even snacks) then I would suggest looking at reasons but it does sound like the child is being picky and holding out for snacks (which is not that uncommon).
I always save what they don't eat and feed it again at next meal.
I agree with Lee-Bee. I would do the same thing. And they wouldn't get any extra at snack time. They'd get the same amount as the other kids.
Agree. I never stress about it. A child will NEVER starve themselves. They will eventually eat weather it be at home for dinner or breakfast or the snacks. Just serve it then clear it. Make sure to praise the ones that do clean their plate :)
I have an incredibly picky eater right now too. She's 2 now and has been with me for just about a year. She will rarely eat lunch and sometimes won't eat snack either. She eats yogurt, cheese, bread products, rice and most fruit. I try to have at least one thing that I know she'll eat at each sitting. She eats a lot of fruit though and at least 2-3x a month gets a diaper rash due to this. She is the tiniest little thing and just so stubborn! Lol. Getting her to try food is a nightmare!
I know it's easy to say "don't stress about it", we are in this business because we love kids after all and want to see them happy! However, I can honestly say that since I've started to not worry about it so much, it's gotten better! Mealtimes used to be chaotic because she'd cry when I asked her to try the food. Now, I give her a plate, she eats what she wants (if any!!) and when it's over, it's over. The food gets garbage and we move on to snack with a clean plate. Like someone previously said on here, it makes no difference if the food is in her tummy or in the garbage, so I keep that in mind now :)
Stop serving snack and only serve a drink - 4 oz of milk. Then it encourages the child to satisfy their real hunger with real food at lunch. For sure a child can survive just fine on eating mid morning and afternoon snacks and doesn't need lunch. Bet if you served veggies instead of crackers you would very quickly see how much child was not really hungry at snacktime. They do however need a drink of something mid morning. Also serve milk at morning snack and water with lunch so child doesn't have anything to fill up on besides the food. Then if they continue to not eat or only eat the starch portion of the meal so what not your problem. They will come around in time. This is a very common trait for this age group because they can control how much they eat and learn very quickly that it gets them attention from adults.
So true...all of this!Quote:
Originally Posted by playfelt
I aim to only do snack between meals if there is more than 3hrs between the big meals. And when there is then snack is 1hr after the previous meal and 2hrs before the next meal. I try to never give snack less than 1.5hrs-2hrs before a meal or they are too full to care to try and eat. I rarely-never give crackers for snacks. Snack is just a small bit of food to hold them over for the real meals yogurt (check your yogurt ingredients most are scary), veggies and hummus, a bit of fruit etc. It really does improve eating habits. If they know they can hold out for endless crackers they will. If you look at the food guide (though debatable whether this is the best meal plan for kids) preschoolers are only supposed to have 3 servings of starches a DAY. ONE slice of bread is 2 servings. Most children get wayyyyy to many servings of starches because they like them and they are easy to serve. Look at the salt content in crackers. It is ridiculous...no wonder kids prefer them!
Anyways...the quick fix to OP's original question is to not worry about the child skipping lunch. If you want to really see improvement then tweak how you serve snacks and meals and what you serve.