Food Rules and Behaviour

[abmom5]

I've been reading a lot that children often act out when they are hungry.  I know this is true because when the kids are melting down usually a bit of food stops the behavior.  So...it got me thinking about my food rules in my house.  This is what I do:

I serve 3 meals + 2 snacks daily.  I try to do them at certain times every day to make them predictable.  The kids can eat or not eat, the choice is theirs.  I'm not the take-3-more-bites type parent and I don't ask them to sit at the table until they are done and I don't feed them their breakfast for lunch if they don't eat their breakfast.  I realize my kids have things they genuinely don't like and I don't make a big deal out of them eating everything on their plate.  

If they don't eat their meal/snack, I don't let them have anything else to eat/drink (except water) until the next time I serve meal/snack that day.

So today all the kids turned up their nose at lunch (even though it was something they normally like, so I know it wasn't an issue of not liking.  They might not have been in the mood for it though).  Since lunch, the kids, especially DS who is 2 has been complaining and whining about how hungry he is and having melt downs because he wants toast, or a banana.  I feel like I can't give it to him because I just threw away a bowl of pasta that he didn't even touch.

So...how do I merge these.  The kids need food so they aren't hungry all day long, but I don't want them to have free reign of the refridgerator all day long and not have to eat at meal times.

[Thalia the Muse]

Why not save leftovers instead of tossing them? And how about having a couple of easy options on the table (fruit, bread-and-butter) for times when they don't want the main course? Then they can choose what they want.

[abmom5]

I did buy some bowls with lids with the intention of keeping their food for them to eat later if they chose not to eat but it doesn't seem to be happening.  Most of the time they pick at their food enough that it's not worth saving.  The times they don't even touch it, like today, I should have kept it.  I don't like the idea of microwaving though so makes hot left overs kind of hard.  I myself HATE leftovers so this is a tricky one for me.

I generally try and serve more than one thing so they have a choice.  It's really easy to do this at lunch, but I feel like with dinner if we are having a casserole or something that to me seems filling...i dont want to cut up a bunch of fruit because then they DEFINATELY won't eat their dinner, or on the odd chance they do, all the cut up fruit will go to waste (because most fruit {that i can afford} can't be used as leftovers).

I will try to have more of a variety at dinner though and see how that goes.  And maybe try for bigger snacks.  The kids seem to be hungry ALL-THE-TIME!

[Drummer's Wife]

I would have saved the pasta and offered it when he first started whining. If he insisted that a banana was all he really wanted, well, I would have given him a banana. Especially since we are talking about a 2 yr old, who must be hungry since he didn't eat lunch. I would never insist that he wait until the next meal/snack offering, but then I don't make food an issue. I don't make different dishes for each if my four kids, but when any of them want a substitution or something in addition to what we are having, they are welcome to it. I'm not whipping them up some waffles from scratch if we are having chicken for dinner, but if they just want to eat the rice and have an apple and yogurt or a pbj, it's not a big deal.