One thing I’ve swiftly learned since having kids is that they are incredibly fickle – especially when it comes to food.
One day they’ll be up for trying something and I’ll think to myself, ‘gosh, my kids are actually pretty good at eating’ and then the next week they’ll refuse to eat the exact same dish leaving me to eat my smug words.
It can be hard to know what to do when your child decides they don’t want to eat what you’ve put in front of them.
Do you offer something else? Hold your ground? Bribe them with the offer of ice cream afterwards? (Hey, no judgment here, these things are sent to try us.)
Registered nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed recently took to Instagram to share what she does with her kids when they refuse to eat – and parents were extremely grateful for the advice.
What to do if your child won’t eat dinner
The expert and author of multiple weaning books shared that her daughter had become upset at dinnertime and didn’t want her food because she wanted crackers instead. (Sounds very familiar.)
The nutritionist said it was “the end of a long day at school” and she knew her daughter had eaten breakfast, lunch and a post-school snack.
So, she calmly explained to her child: “This is what we’re having for dinner, crackers aren’t on the menu for today.” She did however suggest they could have crackers with dinner another day.
Her daughter was upset and didn’t want to eat her dinner at first. “She cried and stomped her feet at the table,” said the nutritionist, who carried on eating and chatting with her son and tried not to draw attention to her youngest.
While all this was going on, she said her daughter ended up eating a little bit of dinner – one of the sides.
“This is ok. She’d eaten in the day, had a little from the sides and wasn’t in the mood for her dinner,” said Stirling-Reed.
The next day, the nutritionist gave her kids two dinner options and asked her daughter if she wanted crackers with her meal.
She said doing this helped her daughter feel “heard” and added that she wanted to share her personal story because “knowing how to react and being really consistent in how you respond to your child at mealtimes helps them understand what to expect”.
Parents and experts were quick to commend the advice. “Love love love this,” said paediatric dietitian Ailsa McHardy, who added she’d take the same approach with her little ones.
“It can be really tricky to keep a calm head and not get wound up in the moment but does totally pay off hey?! I think some parents really struggle with the idea that their LO [little one] hasn’t really eaten any dinner. Kids are tough,” she said.
Child development expert Laura Amies added: “I love this approach and handle meal refusals in the same way, I think knowledge and predictability are so important but having spoke[n] to so many parents on this topic, there’s also an element of bravery required isn’t there?
“Especially with the last meal of the day because of A) the emotions involved with thinking a child may go to bed hungry and B) the fear of them waking in the night due to hunger!”
She continued: “The more we approach refusals this way, in my experience, the less they happen. Whereas if replacements are offered regularly, the refusals can happen more and more too. Such a tricky path to tread!”
Noted.