DD refusing to eat dinner! Help!

MrsDR1015

Of course I will be mentioning this at her appointment tomorrow morning, but I wanted to get thoughts/advice now.

DD eats breakfast and lunch like a champ. Every single night at dinner, though, she refuses to eat. It doesn't matter what we're having. Tonight it was pot roast w/ veggies and she wasn't having it. She ate, maybe, two bites of meat and a couple bites of potato and then completely refused to eat anything else. DH finally had to break down and give her a PB&J sandwich so that she would eat SOMETHING.

Has anyone else experienced this? What can I do to get her to eat? I can't make her something different for dinner every night...what I make is what she gets. I'm just at a loss...

TIA

franciscaz

Your DD is older so I'm sure that affects things BUT Harm is similar.

So what I do is feed him his really healthy stuff for breakfast (veggies and fruits) and lunch (real table foods and more veggies... normally lour leftovers from dinner the night before) and than feed him like cereal or something he prefers for dinner.  He eats very little (he is a string bean extrodanaire) but this schedule is working better!!!  GL!  HTH!

SportsLover

Yup!  We're having the same problems.  Mine will get what we're having for dinner, but because one of mine is extremely picky, we'll end up making him a waffle or cinnamon bread.  I'm not sure what to do.  If he doesn't eat something with substance, he'll be up in the middle of the night crying for milk.  I'd rather feed him something he'll eat than lose sleep.  Apparently, both DH and I were like this.  His twin will eat everything.  I'm frustrated too.

toddandleah

My DD is just the same, but since she is very light, we HAD to get her to eat something!  We fought this for over a month until just last week when I got alot more consistent with offering her a fork (one of those plastic toddler ones) with each meal, though I still ended up feeding her...or trying to, but she often only ate 2-3 bites of anything.  Anyway, now, if I put whatever I want her to eat on her fork and hand it to her...wait for it...it goes in her mouth and doesn't get spit back out!!!  I'm still in disbelief myself.  She used to press her lips closed in refusal, but now is eating the very same foods!!! 

 

This might help, but I'm guessing it's particularly helpful for independent, strong willed kiddos like my DD.   GL!!

Sweet_Lady

We are going through this as well - but DS is teething something fierce and I think it is affecting his appetite. 

Mc_Newlywed

Everything I've read says that dinner is typically the lightest meal of the day. ?And that you should do as Francisca suggested and get in all your nutritious food at breakfast and lunch.

Unless you child is underweight or having issues I would caution against making them something different from what the family is having. ?You could end up being a short order cook as they get older and get pickier. But it sounds like you realize that already. ?

Leyna often "fools around" at dinner and doesn't really eat that much. I don't fight her to eat. ?I offer dinner on a plate. If she's not that interested I put a few bites right on her tray and take the plate away. ?If she's still not interested I give her a fork. ?Sometimes that small change will renew her interest. ?If that doesn't work, then we try to give her a few bites from out plates (everything from mommy's plate always tastes better, right?). And then if she's still not eating we just leave her alone. ?I know she won't starve herself - she'll let me know if she's truly hungry. ?So I give her a bottle before bed and call it a night.?

Good luck... I think food is one of those things that kids will try to control if they can. ?So hopefully you can stick to your guns and not have to make her a separate meal every night. ??

StageDva

I have also read that typically dinner is the lightest meal.  Most children don't eat much.  Maybe she's just not hungry.  Unless she is underweight, don't force it - especially if she is eating well the rest of the day.  She'll eat if she is hungry.

TheMalleys

Maybe she is not hungry. Are you giving her milk or snacks before dinner? I found that DD was filling up too much on the milk and then she wouldn't want to eat dinner. I started giving her milk after dinner and then she started eating more.

lite-bright

Much of the time, I find that DD tends to eat two good meals and one light/not at all. It's frustrating, because she eats so well at those other two meals that I tend to expect her to eat just as well for the third -- but my pedi said it's normal for her age.?

One thing I've done is not feed her yogurt -- which she loves -- at other meals. So if she won't eat anything else off her plate, I give her a container of yogurt at dinner. I haven't had a problem with her waking up hungry at night -- although sometimes she is very hungry the next morning for breakfast!

chibride4

Interesting that dinner tends to be the lightest meal of the day -- I'll take note of that. DS is a very finicky eater and what he likes tends to change weekly. Like, he loved dried fruit bits one week and wanted nothing to do with them the next. Now he can't get enough of the fruit strips... but at only 90 calories, they're not enough for a growing boy. While he isn't necessarily underweight (this is probably due to his overreliance on milk), he seems to be lagging around the other kids in our playgroup. They all eat like champs!