"I don't like this. Or this. Or this. Or that."

So, everyone has mentioned how the age of three is way worse than the age of two. A month + in, I have yet to see why, but I can only assume it's coming. What everyone failed to mention, is the PICKY EATING!!!! O.M.G. What gives?!?!?! My kids LOVEEEEEEEEE mashed potatoes!! Now, won't touch them, because, "there's something in them." Oh yeah, that's right, it's either a speck of black pepper, or a lump. Or chicken croquettes because he sees something GREEN in it. Dinner time is becoming a battle. Last night it was chicken croquettes, mashed potatoes, squash, and stuffing. He refused all of it. He had a 30 minute tantrum about it(because he wanted a cookie and we said no). It was awful. DH took his plate away, and Nicholas proceeded to tantrum because 'he wasn't done yet.' But yet-he refused to touch it.

Anyone have pointers? DH and I are ready to kill each other, and chuck Nicholas and his eating habits out the window. Anthony isn't too bad yet. He just says, "My belly full. I eat too much." He says that after about three minutes of staring at the plate... :wacko:

And my rule here is one bite if you haven't had it before, three if you have(of at least the main dish, or three of SOMETHING he will eat).

 

No help here...we are battling with kids who used to love to eat and now after sitting at the table for 2 minutes say, "May I get down please?" :gah:

But, you aren't alone! :hug:

 

Try to incorporate something you know they won't turn down in every meal so at least they eat one thing. Jazz never had this problem but omg jessy was horrid. She is getting better but pretty much refuses anything with breading :umm: I thought kids were supposed to like that. At lunch we had grandys chicken nuggets which she likes. She wouldn't eat them but devoured my moms grilled chicken breast. :crazy:

 

I agree with incorporating one thing they are sure to eat with the rest of dinner. Mine are going through this too, where the stuff they would eat before is now stuff they won't touch with a 10 foot pole. :gah:

 

Hahahha, it just gets worse. My two will eat a meal every three days or so. :headbang:

Honestly, the only thing I can suggest is to ignore the "I don't like" and just offer good choices at every meal. Eventually they will eat more than a banana for a meal. And it's stuff that I know that they love, broccoli and peas and beans and mashed potatoes and hot dogs and mac and cheese, it all depends on what mood they're in. You might also want to look at decreasing snacks and replacing milk and juice with water. Fructose and Lactose are both sugars, they make the blood sugar higher and a higher blood sugar makes you not hungry.

:wub:

 

I'll pay you to come to my house and do this! They refuse water! I have cut back on the milk overall, somehow, thankfully. LOL! Oh yeah, and crust. All of a sudden everything has a crust on it. Grrrr....

 

Water down their milk. Seriously. Either one of two things will happen. Either they will start disliking the milk, or you'll eventually get them weaned off of the milk and onto water straight up! Eh, yeah, A&R refuse to drink milk. So I'm heavy with all of the other dairy products and sometimes a meal for them is just yogurt and cheese.

I miss the days of them eating happily. Now it's "I don't wanna" and "I don't like _________." Even when I ask them what they want for dinner, within 10 minutes of me starting to cook it, they go, "I don't want Macncheesh." With such attitudes!! OMG, the attitudes are driving me up a wall.

 

My boys turn 3 next month and I've been dealing with this for at least 2 months now with one. He will ask for something and then not want it. For Thanksgiving dinner he took a bite out of a roll. He wanted mashed potatoes but did not touch them.

My other son will leave food on his plate and after 20-30 minutes when I attempt to take it away he will pitch a fit.

 

I never push it. I don't even do the 3 bites rule. We don't want battles with food, I think it's the best way of making kids stop eating. We usually give them one thing they like, but if they don't eat, oh well. Yes sometimes they have tantrums if we take the food away but we just ignore it.

 

Maybe it's an age thing? My AWESOME eaters are becoming SOOO picky! And some meals they'll DEVOUR (like more than Daddy!), but others they eat a few bites. We don't snack in our house (maybe a RARE afternoon snack), so they only get snacks on daycare days in the afternoon. Mine only get water during the day (or flavored water, which is what they consider juice), along with milk at meals & when they wake up (which they rarely drink much of in the morning now). So they SHOULD be hungry at meals, right?

I try to offer something each meal that they will eat, but it seems like I can't even do that most days. Remember how much they loved Mac N Cheese? Oh yeah, today they don't. Ugh. So, it's hit or miss. Our rule is 1 bite of everything on their plate (I like your 1 vs 3 bite rule, Meg!). The other day my hubby made egg plant, so the boys HAD to try it. Both literally gagged & threw up on their plate. We had to laugh, but then said we may need to rethink the 1 bite rule .

So, I guess we're all in the same boat. I just stay consistent. You eat 1 bite of everything. You do not disrupt at the table. You do not get seconds of something until you eat your veggies. You do not play with your food & you use your utensils. I am not going to make you something else, you eat what's in front of you or you go hungry. We used to force them to sit at the table while we ate regardless of if they were eating or not, but they got so disruptive that it was horrible. So, now if they get disruptive, they're sent to their room until we're done.

My kids were phenomenal eaters. EVERYONE commented on how great they ate & how good they were at the table. They used to out eat every kid their age that we knew. Last night they ate AWESOME, the night before Conner had a roll & Aiden had half a roll. Ugh.

I used to LOVE meal times, now I *HATE* meal times....

 

Last night they surprised me. They both ate a bowl full of egg noodles with butter and cheese, and 1/2 cup of raisins, and two marshmallows. Then they asked for more noodles. :whoa: