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Is your child a fussy eater?
My son is starting to get a complex about teatimes. He is quite a fussy eater and will (literally) sometimes take hours to finish a meal. By this time everyone else has left the table and he is sitting there on his own which he hates. The portions we give him are just normal size for his age, and just 'ordinary' food.
On a more positive note though, I have found one thing that helped that I'd like to share with you. I made my kids a 'food rating slider'. There was a 'yuck' face at one end, and a slider all the way over to a 'yum' face at the other end. It made trying new foods much more fun, and they could take a bite, then give the food a rating between yuck and yum. I also found that if I got a yuck rating first time round, if I kept trying them with the same food (just a bite) at regular intervals over a couple of months, the rating usually moved further over to 'yum'. This also taught the kids that their tastes can and will change, and just because you don't like something at first, it doesn't mean you won't ever like it.
On a more positive note though, I have found one thing that helped that I'd like to share with you. I made my kids a 'food rating slider'. There was a 'yuck' face at one end, and a slider all the way over to a 'yum' face at the other end. It made trying new foods much more fun, and they could take a bite, then give the food a rating between yuck and yum. I also found that if I got a yuck rating first time round, if I kept trying them with the same food (just a bite) at regular intervals over a couple of months, the rating usually moved further over to 'yum'. This also taught the kids that their tastes can and will change, and just because you don't like something at first, it doesn't mean you won't ever like it.
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I have always been of the opinion that making mealtimes into an issue will give children a complex about food and make them less likely to try different foods.My son is always presented with food and told to try it,if he doesn't like it I will prepare him something else.If he can't eat the whole meal I will never make him sit until it is finished,I just let him leave it and give him a healthy snack a bit later on to fill the gap until the next mealtime.
i think that leaving him sitting at the table for so long can't be doing him any good. I would set a time limit for the meal and then take it away when the time is up whether it has been eaten or not. Don't make a big fuss about it but encourage him to eat when you are all at the table. If he is hungry later, he can have a healthy snack, but no treats. Sometimes they just like something served a different way, my older son doesn't really like his food touching each other but will happily eat his veg if it is a seperate bowl, my younger son says he doesn't like peas, but if I put a spoon of gravy on them, he will eat the lot in a flash.
I have found that my older son who was a really fussy baby and toddler has expanded his taste as he has gotten older (now 8) whereas my younger son (7) used to eat anything as a baby and is getting fussier as he gets older. He seems to have sensitive taste buds and can tell the difference between brands and can even tell when something has changed the recipe. No wonder he is not great with home cooked food as it tastes different every time!
I have found that my older son who was a really fussy baby and toddler has expanded his taste as he has gotten older (now 8) whereas my younger son (7) used to eat anything as a baby and is getting fussier as he gets older. He seems to have sensitive taste buds and can tell the difference between brands and can even tell when something has changed the recipe. No wonder he is not great with home cooked food as it tastes different every time!
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