Is my Child the ONLY one???

Thanks Gloei! And your LO is a little older than ours, so I'm sure you can relate on all aspects.

I want to go further to say that forcefeeding WILL create bad eating habits for your child and what you may see as a short term solution to your mothering will instill longterm problems for your child.
To forcefully place food in a child's mouth and close their jaw till they swallow is extremely unhealthy and far more dangerous than a child who is not eating, so please please please think extremely carefully before you even get close to going this route.

As for supper times, a lot of ppl feed their kids at 6pm or earlier. But Kaylee has dinner with us at 7pm cos thats when supper is ready, and we all sit down to eat. This way she willingly eats at least a few handful's of food. Before then she will get fruit and bread / provita's / cheese etc so if she doesnt finish her food then so be it.
She wont go without that's for sure.

Please see where I'm coming from here. It's all about instilling good habits from a young age that we dont allow them to face lifelong battles with food.

I agree with what Joybaby is saying. If your child is not on track with growth charts, go see your doctor! But for the rest of us we need to chill out a bit and lay off on the force feeding.

Instilling good eating habits from a young age is important. However I don't think it is a good idea to ever a force a baby or child to eat. What would be better is to teach a child to be in tune with hunger signals and when you have had enough. I think the best thing one can do to instill good eating habits is to eat together as a family as often as possible and set a good example as to how food should be treated.
Eating alone is no fun. Try and sit down with your child and eat together if possible.

To all whose children fight eating, a friend whose children are a bit older than ours (3,5yrs) once told me that her LB eats extremely well at the daycare during the week and the weekends are an endless battle! She had a huge battle with this and nothing they tried worked. This is a problem every mom will face at some point.
But the truth is they are social eaters and will eat better when there is peer pressure and all the other kids are eating too. Same goes for potty training and daytime naps.

As long as your LO's are staying on track on their growth charts then I really wouldn't worry too much about the lack of interest on the weekends.
Feed then what you eat, and have fruit or healthy snacks to resort to after a few attempts, but dont make a big fuss about it as it will build their resistance even more and they will have negative associations with eating at home.

Carmel if you are really worried, especially that she loses weight easily, then you can buy Pediasure (Dischem / Reggies / etc) it is a lactose free milk which includes multivitamins and probiotics. Its R190 for a 900gram tin so its more expensive than normal milk but it includes the added extra's.
If it's really a problem and she goes off her growth curve then take her to see a dietician, there are other calorie rich supplements which they can give.
Remember that as they get more active they do also slow in weight gain.
My girl is 2 in August and only weighs 10kgs, so I hear you.

My LG, two next month, is the same. A real tiger when it comes to eating - I have had to force feed her from the onset of solids. And she also loses weight very easily. I am at my wits end and need to find out if there is an appetite booster /multivitamin that can boost their appetite on the market.

Don't worry, your child is not the only one. My son does the same thing. He eats rice at daycare but when I make it for him he turns his nose up at it. Gives me a complex about my cooking!

Hi girls!!

Thanks so much for your replies!

Yes Vix you are completely right that it cant be a sensory issue if he's eating at creche....what a cheeky bugger.....

Nicolette I laughed so much about the bobotie pancake!!!!!!! and plasters!!! Thanks for the heads up - I will NOT be buying funky plasters for him!!!!!!!

GW - Sadly, my child is the one who will starve himself!! I experimented! I didnt force feed him for 6 weeks and he lost 800g in that time and dropped to the 5th percentile for weight

How can a child be so stubborn??? In fact that's when I turned back to puree because for 6 weeks he ate nothing and then I couldnt manage to force feed anything except puree!!!! All he had in that 6 weeks was water and 400ml milk per day - it was horrific.

Anyway I started with puree...then lumpy puree...Now I've started with pasta and occassionally he'll eat it......Something he has begun to eat is mashed avo, cream cheese and pieces of turkey broken up in that mixture. So now I try make the avo less mashed and more chunky. Sigh....mission!!!!!!!!

Well I guess all I can do is keep offering the foods and hope he just grows out of this phase??

Thanks for listening ladies

Thanks GW. That's hilarious!! 57 Band Aids - that's where my child is at!! I made the FATAL mistake of buying princess plasters. Never again!