My 3 yr old never wants meals. Any advise?

My 3 yr 9 mths old daughter has always been a really bad eater & is getting steadily worse. She only likes to have her cereal for breakfast & tea time biscuits with tea, but her lunch & dinner are stress filled.

We give her all types of food noodles, rice, meats, fish, prawns, pastas, etc, etc. However every meal takes forever, she refuses to swallow & just whines throughout the meal. We get really frustrated every mealtime with her.

we have tried just not feeding her when she is not interested ( which was every meal) & it just continued on for days. In the end, I got so worried that I have gone back to coaxing. Most meals are done after 5-6 mouthfuls.

At night, she wakes up every couple of hours & comes into our room to get into our bed. I have to drag her back to her bed & stay near till she falls asleep or she just wont sleep.

It is extremely tiring with us working & our life at present revolves around her food, sleep, etc.

Sorry this is so long, but I hope I hear from you all, anything you say will matter.

Overall, my little girl is funloving, energetic & never ceases to calm down. HELP.......

Whenever my daughter is not feeling well, i.e. the cold or flu, she will not eat anything, basically not a thing, and just ask for water and more water. And while she's travelling, she is surviving on milk formula only, as she refuses any proper meals.

Try to check if there is any external source.

Good Luck!

oh god, spare rib hk..... my daughter is EXACTLY like what you described. I thought I was reading about my daughter. She's now 3 years and 4 months. Her sleeping is good though. Just NOT eating... and if I don't force or coax her to eat, she can just basically keep going for days just nibbling 1 or 2 bites on anything I give her.


I asked two pediatricians, they both say, no worries, as long as she's active, and healthy. Don't have to have a child eat a lot... sigh. HELP !!!!! My second one, 1 year old, EATS EVERYTHING that comes his way.... he even wants to eat his older sister's meals.... drools just seeing her food. Why is it like this ?

It's beyond tiring... I have competely given up trying to feed my daughter the three main meals a day. I have tried from coaxing, praising, begging, threatening, yelling, screaming...etc. Nothing changes.

hi spare rib and katetam, i also have the same problem with my 2yrs and 7 months girl. when she born she weighed 3.4kg, but now she is not even 12kg. i am always worrying about her eating habits. yes, i did consults some pediatricians, what they said is she is in her average weight, so no problem as long as she is active. but when i saw other babies, i really feel sad about my baby health. the thought gives me sleepless night. i really dont know wht we can do for this matter. she used to drink lots of milk, but now that too reduced. her appetite is very very low.

HI, I think many many parents will share the same views. i was a stressful mom with my first one who was premature and was just 5 pounds when she was born. never ate a thing and her weight never picked up. she never ate things that kids love like biscuits, chips...nothing, not even chocolates. But when she turned 3, things started changing albeit slowly. she started going to kindergarten and noticing boys munching away biscuits. Now she is 4.5, and over the last 1.5 years, she has grown very tall and has improved a lot in her diet. i would say that its all a phase these kids go through. I am sure in a year's time she will again stop eating and when she is a teenager, then guess what all fights will begin over trying to look like skinny Beckhams...ghosh, i think this time is the best in life. so relax and dont get too stressed. i am sure with time, she will get a lot better...so much that you will have to end up stopping her from eating:-). These lovely moments when they want to come and sleep with parents will just simply fly away when they turn older and want their own rooms, their own life and friends with no parents lecturing them...blah blah.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Gogis & SSN...thanks so much for giving us hope. Katetam & vrindam....I guess all we can do is bear it for now & live in hope that one day they realise food is yummy!!

My Hubby & I too have had so many arguments about this. However, we have finally decided that everymeal..we will now give her just 40 minutes to eat...after that we explain to her that she obviously does not want it so we take it from her as my daughter just keeps her mouth full with food & does not chew or swallow it. I want her to know that her mealtimes are going to be timed. Usually her meals go on for 1 1/2 & that is just 6-8 mouthfuls. Its agonizing for us to sit with her & remind her to chew & its unfair on the DH who has chores & who should not get angry with her for being so time-consuming.

In additon, my girl loves noodles or the frozen parathas from ParkIn shop, so we will just concentrate on what she wants to eat & forget all the other wonderful choices, as whilst the choices seem great for us they obviously are not for her.

I have to say ever since we have implemented this, mealtimes have become a lot easier on our kid & us too.

My lil girl just weighs 14 kgs & has done so for a year now. She is tall & very active. Hr DR's too say she is fine weightwise & its normal. I guess when we dont have a choice, we just have to accept it.

Thanks all once again...keep them coming though pls...

Hi!looks like the story of my child..

But don't worry it could be just a phase ...my child was the same but once she turned 5,she started eating everything again.

It might be a good idea to try to organize to eat with some friend of same age so they can be more stimulate at eating..

Good Luck!

Some good comments here.

My intention is not to take over this thread with advertising, but you might be interested in knowing that I am teaching a course on healthy cooking for toddlers at the YWCA (English members department) in February.

I will discuss tips and tricks for picky eaters and demonstrate some delicious healthy foods from around the world.

Have a look at this website or if you have any questions you can send me a PM.

http://esmd.ywca.org.hk/


Course title: Healthy cooking for toddlers

Course Code: MI002

I have the same problem, and my paed says the same thing. We as parents will never be 100% satisfied, but to relieve myself, so that the eating habits of my daughter does not affect her growth, I have started giving her vitamin supplements.