Oh how I feel for those that are trying to get their kids to eat!!! I have been struggling with this for SO long now, too, and I HATE it!!!!! But, at the World Wide Leadership training, I got some inspiration (for me, and not because they were talking about how to get your kids to eat... Just because I was thinking about it, etc). I was sick of dinner being an unhappy time. All we did was fight (unless we had pizza...). So, I decided to not care so much about the food. I think it was some comment Elder Holland said about dinner time being together as a family. It definitely wasn’t a good time for our family, and all I could think is, “the kids are going to look back and have bad memories of our ‘family dinner time’”. So, dinner time would now become a family time, not a food time. I decided that for dinner, we would
1) Slow down: Although we are hungry, we aren’t starving. We don’t have to rush into dinner, and rush eating it all. So, we sit down, have a nice prayer, and then slowly dish things out, and slowly eat. We are calm and discuss the day, have a nice conversation, etc.
2) I don’t talk to them about eating: Before we started this all, I sat down with them and explained that every dinner, they must eat what we serve them, or they do not get any more food that night (treats or otherwise). We had been doing this for awhile anyway, so they knew. And they know—so why keep hounding them during dinner? “If you don’t eat your beans, no more food!” They know it, so I don’t need to remind them. All it does is stress me out! They really aren’t going to eat if I keep freaking out, and they especially won’t LIKE eating if it is a screamfest. (Although if they are eating, I give HUGE praise for doing a good job of eating, just no negative comments)
3) I don’t serve them big amounts: I serve small portions of each thing. Maybe three bites of the main dish, five peas/ veggie (that is five of them, not five bites), two peaches/etc, and a small glass of juice/milk, etc. That way they are not overwhelmed. If they want more peaches, etc, then they must finish the other food (and they know that… and that goes for the milk, too). If they actually liked the meal (miracle) then they may have more.
4) They can sit at the table until we have finished cleaning up: After that, they no more chance to eat. We just take away the plate. No fighting, no compromising with them, just walking away. If they decide to throw a fit, oh well. We ignore it. This happened a few times at first, but really hasn’t happen much since. We actually do our scripture reading after dinner (so they even can have their plate there during that time, too). This wraps up a nice dinner together.
It really has changed everything! They may not eat still, but at least I am happy and they are happy. It is more important to me that we are happy than they eat. Everybody say, they will eventually eat… Right. That is a really annoying thing to hear, but truly, we aren’t starving them, and as long as during the day, we provide them with healthy snacks, and they aren’t gorging on candy, etc, then they will be okay. And, actually, I think they are eating better. It is hit and miss. And I still try and sneak veggies into things (I made an orange banana frizz drink with chopped carrots—they had no idea), and I try to make things they will like, still healthy, etc. But, it truly has been MUCH better. Good luck to everyone, and may the force be with you!
