Mindee is 4 and I'm having huge issues withh food, particularly tea times. At lunch time she is fine.
I've looked after her since she was 20 months with a year break whilst mum was on maternity leave. The first time around she would have tea at my house 2 nights a week and whilst not the best eater in the world she could be quite fussy and sometimes mealtimes would become an issue.
When she started back she started having tea at my house 4 nights a week. I had hoped that she would have grown out of the fussiness at mealtimes but no. Anyway I sent a list of all the meals I serve home and asked mum and dad to sit down and discuss with her what she would and wouldn't eat. They ticked this for me and explained to her that if she said she liked it then she would be expected to eat it.
Anyway things ticked along nicely for a while but then just before Xmas she started becoming really awkward and refusing to eat even the tiniest of mouthfuls.
I discussed this with mum and dad and they sat down with her and explained that she needed to eat a well-balanced diet to grow up healthily and that she just couldn't eat pasta all the time. They told me that i was to give her her food and if she was to eat it then all well and good. If not then I was to remind her abouther targets and that if she ate her tea (or most of it, it didn't have to be all) then she would get a treat when she got home.
Once again this worked well for a while and she then slipped back into not eating hardly anything. I then got her involved on a Friday afternoon in plannnning the next week's meals and writing my shopping list - sometimes we'd go to the supermarket and she'd help me do the weekly shop. During the week I'd get her involved in helping to prepare the meal for thats day's tea.
A few weeks ago she started asking at lunchtime what was for tea... I would tell her and it was if by teatime she had decided that she wasn't going to eat it (unless it was pasta or chips) and would flatly refuse. I then started telling her when she asked that I hadn't decided or that it was a surprise but she would then keep asking all afternoon.
Now 2 nights this week she has sat at the table and eaten nothing when she has been given food she likes and has eaten before in the past. Mum and dad are now getting fed up of her not eating (she's also like this at home so its not just here).
I'm not sure what to do next or what advice to give her mum and dad as they are also at a loss. She is just so inconsistent in what she will eat. I don't know what to do as I've never had any food issues with my own children or any of the other children I have looked after.
All advice on how to deal with this and get my little mindee eating again would be gratefully appreciated.
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