you can sit a toddler at the table…
but you can’t make them eat.
Our kids used to be great eaters. As a matter of fact, I was very smug about it. The kids started eating solids at around 7 months (I think, I’m not really sure. That first year is hard to recall). Try as I might they did not like baby food. They wanted what we were eating so that is what we did. We’d offer them whatever we were eating, no special meals. Butter chicken to pesto pizza, they ate it.
Until recently that is. In the last two months the kids have become quite picky eaters. Well, my son will say that he doesn’t like it but he will usually at least taste it. My daughter will excitedly climb into her highchair and upon taking a quick look at what has been lovingly prepared for her will announce “I don’t like dat!”
It is maddening! For the last two nights she has turned her nose up at what is being served for dinner. We always have something on the table that she will eat. Tonight is was a biscuit, she mostly just crumbled it. Last night it was tomatoes. We always offer the kids yogurt after supper so I guess she ate that too.
What really bothers me is when she refuses to eat dinner and then as we are clearing the table she will announce that she is hungry! I’m not sure if this is just her way of exerting her own will or if perhaps her growth rate is slowing down? All I know is that it is driving me nuts. I try not to make too big a deal about it because I want to avoid this becoming a power struggle. Feeding and sleeping are two things that I have no control over. I get set the stage and be encouraging but I cannot make them do it.
How do you deal with picky eaters? Leave me a comment or point me to one of your posts where you’ve written about this. I’m going to have to reread “How to get your kid to eat but not too much”.
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