Just watching her parental guidance on E4 I think it is, is anybody else watching it, can't beleive how much this lad is kicking off about food!! We would've got a tap on the hand or bum and sent to bed if we ever played up with food...

Is he refusing to eat or being picky?

how could they have allowed him to eat nothing but bread and butter for years???

My cousins 4yr old son is a strange one for eating.

Every Sunday for the last 3 years at my aunts family dinner he has ate potato waffles & then petis filous . It a joke, Caitlin & his 19mth old sister manage to eat a sunday roast and he cant. At home I think he also eats dry cheerio's, cheese, chocolate buttons & tortilla wraps.

His mum says he does eat normal meals but im yet to see it! When he was toddler he used to eat loads of annabel karmel recipes & then one day stopped- i think his parents have let him fall into this habit eg desperate to get him to eat something so just gave in.

My cousins little boy is 5 now and she was adamant that he was to eat a good yet varied diet, but it seems to have gone out the window as all he eats is crap. We were at a wedding in May, he sat there with a plate of HARIBO instead of the meal for crying out louds. Then yesterday at my nephews christening hes sat there with a plate of skips, and refuses to eat a sandwich or anything, so his mum gives up and gives him chocolate buttons and a gingerbread man!! It makes me so annoyed that they do it for a quiet life yet its just making life harder for them when they do actualy try and make them eat better meals

This is precisely why when I comes to weaning my little one I will be making sure I try her on as many different foods as possible. I get emails from Annabel Karmel now as I joined one of the baby clubs and after having a look yesterday I was astounded at the variety of meals you can cook which have hardly any ingredients and cost very little to make a weeks worth.

I dont like fish, but I would like to think that my LO will as I think the reason I dont like it is because I wasn't fed it as a child. I was brought up on Burgers, Chips and Beans type dinners xx

I was as well Siobhan the chip pan was always on ! I'm quite lucky as ava doesn't seem picky at all she eats anything. My brother's little boy was a nightmare when he was a toddler though, he refused to eat anything apart from sausages, white bread and ice lollys .

Harry eats anything lol like his mum xx

I dont think I appreciated good food until I moved into my own house either. I used to go to OH's mums when we were younger, we have been together since I was 14 and used to thing OMG that meal looks posh, now ive realised it was actually a Chicken Kiev with Mixed Salad lmao!! xx

C ate anything and everything til about 3 months ago and now is fussy as hell. Im just persisting and trying lots of different presentation. Managed to get bulgar wheat and spinach pilaf in her tonight woo woo. I think its persistence tbh but just to warn you ladies who have wonderful eaters now dont be surprised if they get picky shortly. Im just hoping c enters out other side of it and goes back to being the adventurous eater she was

I do have to say, as a mother of a fussy toddler, it is sometimes VERY hard to get a decent meal down them. Libby is so tiny and if she doesn't eat even for a day you can physically see she's lost weight and TBH I would try ANYTHING to tempt her to eat, it's not for an easy life or because I can't be bothered it's because I worry about her.

You just have to read some of the posts in the 'Toddler Talk' section to see there are many ladies on here also struggling.

xx

yep i'm expecting it when she's a bit older, I'm just trying to give her as many flavours as possible now when she's not refusing. I can understand why you relent and let them eat anything just so they don't go hungry

Susan,Libby+1 wrote:

I do have to say, as a mother of a fussy toddler, it is sometimes VERY hard to get a decent meal down them. Libby is so tiny and if she doesn't eat even for a day you can physically see she's lost weight and TBH I would try ANYTHING to tempt her to eat, it's not for an easy life or because I can't be bothered it's because I worry about her.

You just have to read some of the posts in the 'Toddler Talk' section to see there are many ladies on here also struggling.

xx

This is clearer than what i was trying to say. The tv examples are extremebut i can sympathise wth the principle after days where i make C a cheese toastie for dinner just so i can sneak mushrooms into it or give her a packet of raisins because its 4pm and all ive managed to get into her all day is cheeriosand bread and ive had lovingly cooked meals flung at me. Im not a lazy mum and i try constantly but at this age all she can control is what she eats so she acts out and like libby is totally capable of looking like a beafran within a week

^^^^^
here here ladies, my daughter used to eat anything except bread now she rarely eats anything but pasta and while i dont keep offering different meals til she eats something (cant afford that) i will leave cereal, snacks and fruit around for her to graze on through the day because i worry!

I understand what you guys mean too - tonight for example Caitlins dinner was just thrown on floor & in the end I gave her a yougurt for an easy life and to fill her tummy.

I think the problem is when the child is 4+ and you have given up trying to get them to take new foods. All children do it but I think you need to persevere and keep trying new things every few weeks or months by encouraging them.

i think if you'd seen the programme it was a different scenario, I didn't catch the age of the boy but he was at least 6, it was more of a behavioural issue than being a picky eater.

pinkyd wrote:

i think if you'd seen the programme it was a different scenario, I didn't catch the age of the boy but he was at least 6, it was more of a behavioural issue than being a picky eater.

True but i think thats almost harder. If i knew i was still going to be battling with c in 5 years time i think id be reaching for the valium now, Im just hoping with perseverance she will grow out of i

You say that Pinky but Libby has started NOW to have tantrums at dinner time, demanding certain things (tonight it was 'sauce', mayonaise, with her tuna pasta bake ) what do I do? Do I give in and let her have it so she will eat or do I not let her have it and risk her going yet another night with not eating?

Libby used to be such a good eater until she was 12 months and it was like a switch - there was no reason for it. And for a few weeks up until this weekend she had been absolutely great - eating anything we put in front of her - and again the switch and she's a nightmare

xx

Sorry bit off track, but what is it about sauce?

I give Caitlin some to dip her chippys in if we out somewhere and now if we at home she wants some on her tray... but then all she does is try and pick it up with her fingers and then suck it off! Rarely dips her food in it, just sucks it up! Need to hide the sauce bottle I think!

Let her have the sauce suse. Mayo on tuna wont kill her. I try alsorts lol, tried persuading her tonight her caramelised onion was a 'fruit string', carrot batons are 'orange chips'...have to say shes too smart to fall for it

What do you guys think about the fact that many professionals would say that a toddler wont let themselves starve to death? They will eat eventually whats offered?

*** running away to hide . Im not saying I believe this im just repeating what iv heard jo frost etc say ****

it is a hard one, he had been like it for years but I suppose most of food issues are behavioural, on the programme they refused to give him an alternative but i don't think I could do that, hopefully I'll have a while yet before I have to come across it.

All I can say is take a look at my post in Toddler talk. I weaned Thomas on all sorts of everything and he was a fabulous eater. Then it stopped! It's very easy to judge people when you're not in their shoes )I was probably guilty myself once) but when your baby refuses to eat ANYTHING you put in front of them and it's been 3 days since they ate anything other than toast you will do anything to try to get something inside them. As far as eating in public (i.e. weddings/christenings etc) is concerned then I would probably just give a bag of skips/buttons (if he would eat them) as well. There is nothing worse than the embarrasment of a tantrumming toddler disturbing someones get together and annoying everybody else for the sake of one meal. One bag of buttons does not a fussy child make.

My cousins 6 year old eats very little other than crusty bread and butter - she has 3 boys and he is the middle one. She has done nothing different with him yet his brothers will eat anything and everything. We went out for Christmas dinner 2 years ago and he ate bread and butter - better that than paying for a full meal to be wasted and having him throw a fit in a packed dining room on christmas day She despairs of him but has tried everything.

I really wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy coz I have done nothing but worry for over a year now and it's not getting much better. I have tried everything friends, HVs, Doctor, complete strangers have suggested and I am just now coming to the conclusion I have a fussy son - end of! I will continue to offer him new foods but short of force feeding him what exactly am I supposed to do?

xx

Oh I don't know Snoopy!!! Libby had a thing for tomato sauce but has now switched to mayo I usually only let her have it once a week (we'll have a crappy dinner night once a week) but she has now decided she wants it more

Mario, yeah I did let her have a bit over her pasta bake in the end. Haha bless clever C, you can't fool that one xx

snoopy21 wrote:

What do you guys think about the fact that many professionals would say that a toddler wont let themselves starve to death? They will eat eventually whats offered?

*** running away to hide . Im not saying I believe this im just repeating what iv heard jo frost etc say ****

Lol Snoops. Jo f-ing asseptible frost has probably not ever found herslef nearly in tears trying to get her toddler to eat just one mouthful of the meal she spent an hour making then been up innight with aforementioned and now hungry toddler. Ive now gotten to point with c where she is allowed yoghurt or raisins if she dont eat but nothing else. Id say fruit only but SHE WONT F*CKING EAT IT!!!