Toddler eats at daycare, not at home

RibbitGrl930

So DS has always been a good eater. I could make him a meal with protein, veggie, fruit, and dairy, and he'd eat it all. Also, no concerns with how he eats at daycare. Recently, however, there are only a handful of foods he'll eat at home, and some he refuses outright despite having eaten them at daycare. For example, daycare said last week that he ate green beans at lunch, but he refuses to eat them at home. Same with spaghetti or orange slices. Either they are saying he's eating these things when he's not, or they're doing something drastically different in feeding him than what we are doing.

At home, DH doesn't think we should switch to a "go-to" food that we know he'll eat (like grilled cheese) because he's afraid it will make him a picky eater, which he kind of is now already. Conversely, i don't believe in forcing him to eat something (to the extent of holding his head in place and spooning something into his mouth while he thrashes).

Like. I said, this is a fairly recent thing (within the past couple of weeks or so). Has anybody else gone through this? Any tips? I was hoping to see if it would pass, but it it doesn't within the next week or so, i was going to call his doctor to see if there is anything else I need to be doing.

RibbitGrl930

Interesting. I'm just so afraid that he'll wake up in the middle of the night with an empty tummy, and then he'll be miserable which, in turn, would make us miserable. You have a point, too, about ignoring him. DH said he picked up Jake from daycare toward the end of lunch one time, and he noticed that the kids were largely eating on their own; it looked like the teachers just gave them their plates and left them to their own devices. They just stayed nearby for general supervision and neither teacher was actively feeding any one child specifically. We often make it a point to feed Jake first and will often sit there and watch him to make sure he eats. Maybe this freaks him out because, at DC, he's so used to being left alone. I guess, too, it's weird for me to think not to sit there and focus on him because it's how we've always fed him. I guess we can give it a shot. I just hipe he doesn't end up throwing his food overboard to the dogs. LOL.

ashiscute

We all eat dinner together.  DH and I eat regardless of whether the kids are eating their food or playing with it.  Neither of my kids are very picky but they both go through bouts of this because it's normal.  I serve dinner (the same thing for all of us) and if it's something I know they probably won't eat because they have consistently not liked it in the past I'll make sure to offer something I know they'll eat as well (applesauce, banana, etc).  

I am a picky eater and I think part of it is that my mom let me only eat what I wanted and my dad made a big deal about it and made me feel bad.  I think it's better to put less pressure on them and let them figure it out themselves.  Yes, there are tons of meals where my kids only eat 2 bites, don't eat any veggies, or whatever but as long as I'm making a well balanced meal for them than I'm doing my job.  

mamag2013

This is really good to hear. I kept going to the go to easy hot dog because i know he will eat it. Why is it that the same food is infront of my on but he wants what is on my plare

RibbitGrl930

mamag2013 said:

This is really good to hear. I kept going to the go to easy hot dog because i know he will eat it. Why is it that the same food is infront of my on but he wants what is on my plare

LOL, this happens to us sometimes too. There was a good two-week phase where he would refuse a plate of food, but if I took him out of his high chair and then took the plate to my couch to eat it, he'd crawl right over to me and fuss at me to give him some!