[Guest_CaptainOblivious_*]

DD2 is 2.5 and is quite small for her age. I've finally worked out that she pretty much eats her entire day's food in the space up to about 11.30am.

This morning for breakfast, she's had 2 pieces of toast, 1 small tub of yogurt, 1 big mushroom, 2 corn thins, some of DP's cereal and has sat down with a big bowl of grapes.

Last night for dinner she had a small piece of capsicum (approx 1cmx1cm). The night before she had 2 pieces of carrot.

Normally for lunch she has 2 honey sandwiches without crusts. We've tried giving her other options but she insists on the honey sandwiches.

If you had one of these kids, what did you do to get them a bit more 'normal' with eating. I'm more concerned that when she goes to preschool she's not going to have the time to eat all of the food in time and will be starving all day. She's also been waking up incredibly early because she's hungry and it's killing me

[idle]

Have you tried offering the honey sandwiches at dinner? Surely she would be hungry by dinner time? Maybe you could try some muffins with hidden veg with a sweet icing to start or her favourite foods just to get her into the habit of eating in the evening. My DD is also 2.5 and eats mostly in the morning but also late afternoon. I find she is happy to graze on random celery, cucumber, fruit, carrot sticks etc through the day though.

[LambChop]

My daughter was like this, I swapped protein in to breakfast (ham, sausages, bacon etc), often had a big cooked lunch, then had 'breakfast' for dinner (yoghurt, fruit etc).

She's still a bit like it, small breakfast, grazes all morning, big lunch, grazes till about 4, then mouse sized dinner. My son is quite different, he does massive breakfast, small lunch, a little grazing then a big cooked dinner.

[Dinosaurus]

Yes, I think it's reasonably normal (in my limited experience with kids!) mine eats less as the day .goes on, same with my nephews. He eats at dinner but it might be half a bowl of pasta or just the mashed potato instead of e whole meal.

I give him protein at lunch, I'm not swapping my meals around - I do enough cooking for four people with two kids at different stages already, no way am I adding to it!

[FlutterbyBlue]

Are those pieces of toast and the sandwich full slices of bread (e.g. 2 slices of bread for breakfast and 4 slices of bread for lunch)? If so WOW - I couldn't get through that amount of bread in one day.

It sounds like you have trained her to eat according to the 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day, followed by lunch' premise. I think, if it really bothers you, you are going to have to retrain her, slowly, to eat her food over a longer period of time. By that I mean, withhold some of the food she is eating until a little later in the day. She sounds like a grazer, so just make her wait an extra 5 or 10 minutes before she moves onto the next thing to eat. Gradually increase the time until she is having breakfast, lunch and dinner with maybe a snack mid morning and mid afternoon (the yoghurt and corn thins would be perfect for these snacks). Alternatively, you could switch things around and give her her dinner for breakfast and her breakfast for dinner. That way you know she is getting the right amount of vegetables etc. but she still has the option to eat the other stuff before she goes to bed.

Good luck.

[IVL]

DD5 just started school this year and is finally eating better and appears to be growing! We are very excited about this. Poor little thing unfortunately has several severe food allergies and last year had her very large tonsils removed. I am sure both of these things contributed to her very fussy eating habits. Truly DD was terrible with food, she would go for days exisitng on little more than grapes, 1/2 a dry weetbix and water.

We were under the care of a dietician due to her food allergies and the best advice I was offered was that it was my job as a mum to offer her a variety of good food, but I couldn't force her to eat it. We of course did everything to encourage her, but in our experience forcing it made it worse.

If you are really worried try and get in contact with a specialists children's dietician - your GP should be able to assist you finding one.

I do think that they all out grow this phase at some point, and provided she is still eating she will be ok. Try and start getting her involved in the food prep so she can feel in control and gain some interest in food which will hopefully get her excited about food and eating. I found that this worked well with our DD, things like pizza making were popular in our house and we still do this once a week. Prepare fresh veg and lean meats to go on top and let her go to town. She will probably end up eating more of the raw ingredients than the coooked pizza but that is the best way to maximise the nutirents.

[brindle]

Yes. My (just turned) 3 year old had cereal for breakfast the other day. He then had a banana, a tub of yoghurt, an apple, 2 anzac biscuits, 2 vita weats with vegemite and half a sandwich - before 9.30am.

He would eat more for dinner than your DD - but it is always the smallest meal of the day.

My advice is to keep the morning food varied and get her nutrients in then (sounds like you do already).

We also found that introducing "supper" helped get extra food in - and kept him in bed longer. i.e. a piece of toast and a glass of milk around 7pm (bed at 7.30pm).

I do think some of it is natural tendency to eating earlier in the day - but also tiredness at the end of the day doesn't help. My DS is getting better as he gets older.

[EBeditor]

Sounds like DD - she had 3 bowls of cereal this morning but only age a few peices of baby corn last night (and some fruit and custard for dessert).

Will she eat some protein in the morning like eggs etc, or have some ham/chicken/cheese etc on the side of her sandwich at lunch?

[tick]

My DD is 2.5 also and the total opposite. She hardly eats a thing until about 3pm and then eats continually until bath/bed time.

I figure she's just eating when she's hungry. I've tried offering dinner foods at breakfast etc but it doesn't make any difference whatsoever!

[Shoop]

I've just been to see my MHN this morning and she said that is a completely normal way for kids to eat and advised me not to try and change the way my child eats. I was surprised but relieved to know it's normal.