Help
With Your Rule
Fussy Eaters
Dear Holly,
Help! Family meal time is driving me crazy. I have a 5 year old boy who turns his nose up at just about everything unless he has missed lunch or breakfast. He will throw a fit about eating even the things he helps prepare. His sister who is 3 will either follow his lead or tell me how good it is and about three bites later tell me she if full or ask if she can be done. If she does eat it takes double the time anyone else at the table takes which makes her brother mad that he has to sit at the table while she finishes (we do end of meal prayer). Does anyone have any thoughts to make family meal time more peaceful.
Labels: 4th P Parent
posted by Holly at 2:21 PM
2 Comments:
Hi All
When I was a younger mom, with only 2 or 3 children, one Lent we gave up sweets and treat for Lent. Within three days, my kids were eating really really well at normal meals. By the end of Lent, we went back on cookies etc throughout the day, and within a couple of days, they started to turn their noses up at supper and veggies and meats again, and I thought - Duh! There's no way I am going back to this!
So, I cut out all sweets and candies and sugared drinks except on Sunday, limited cookies and cakes to weekends, served less-sweet muffins added on to meals as a dessert, and if we snacked, did small amounts of crackers and cheese. This all reduced their sweet tooth and made meals much easier. If I noticed they were fussing at a meal, I eliminated snacks for a couple of days and it usually restored appetites.
Also, I usually served the foods the kids disliked first, and started with very small portions. My oldest son hated meat, for example- the texture of it. So, I'd serve one or two bite sized pieces of meal, with the rest of the meal waiting on a different plate, and this helped a great deal too.
And, instead of fighting with children who did not want to eat, I'd permit them to get down from the table and I would wrap up their supper and put it in the fridge. When they got hungry, I served the supper, not a different food. They learned that meals were to be eaten, and that I wasn't going to serve a snack in place of them . To this day, my kids still do this - wrap it up if they aren't hungry and then go warm it later when they are. After that, they can have the dessert.
I, too, found my kids ate better at meal time once I eliminated snack food like cheese flavored crackers and graham crackers and store-bought granola bars and fruit snacks, etc.
I have to tell my kids almost every night, "dinner will end in 10 minutes, eat up." They would rather talk and play! But I admit I bribe them with dessert. If they don't eat their dinner, they don't get cookies or popsicles or whatever.
I also try to make family-approved meals twice a week. If every Thursday is taco night, it saves me time and energy in meal planning, everyone is happy, and the kids can't say, "You never make food we like!"
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