Um… why do toddlers hate food? I know from conversations with other moms that I am not alone in the nightly battle over eating dinner (and sometimes breakfast and lunch)… but I am at a complete loss as to how to deal with it.
Since day one, my daughter has been a fantastic eater. She used to eat avocados, tofu, plain yogurt… the girl was a beast with foods I found to be gross. I remember my girlfriends talking about how their toddlers wouldn’t eat and how frustrating it was, and I thought, “thank God I don’t have that problem! Mia eats everything!”
But then one day it happened. She suddenly hated everything but corn dogs, hot dogs, mac n’ cheese and peanut butter & jelly.
I refuse to feed her only those foods. I am very big on “you eat this or you eat nothing” – simply for the fact that I don’t have the time, energy, or resources to make dinner for 4 separate people each night. So I make one meal and everyone eats it. But lately, every time my 3 year old asks what’s for dinner and I tell her, she responds with “waaaaaaaa! I hate that!” followed by tears and the occasional fit.
What in the world has possessed my champion eater?
Why does she profess to “hate” everything before she’s even tasted it?
How do you handle such fits? I try and tell myself to let her go to bed hungry if she refuses to eat, but then the psycho nutritionist in me screams “no! she needs sustenance!” So we yell and argue for an hour just so I can get her to take 3 bites of her now cold meal.
My husband and I did recently come up with a new rule: She gets one warning if she isn’t eating her dinner. After her warning, she has to leave the table and wait until we are all finished eating until she can return (otherwise she just plays with her food, which usually results in spilled milk and utensils flying across the table or landing on the floor). When we are finished, she can sit back down and finish her meal. If she still refuses to eat, she gets nothing else for the night. If she complains about being hungry, she is offered the rest of her dinner. Sticking to this rule is easier said than done, however.
Mind you, I am not feeding my child some ridiculous meal like oysters that she is sure to hate. I am feeding her things like spaghetti and pork chops and foods she has eaten a hundred times and liked. But she is suddenly picky and stubborn. And I am growing weary.
So please, please tell me how you get your child to eat? Because I am slowly losing my hair over our nightly battle. Or do I really just need to relax and let her not eat?
P.S. I should mention that we also occasionally fight with her at breakfast and lunch, but I usually feed her foods I know she likes at these meals just so that I can have a break until the dinnertime brawl that is sure to take all my patience and energy.