Stubborn almost 3yr old wont eat (this again!)

dmsr

Hi,
Please help advise me. My third child is almost 3. He has always been unreal stubborn. My 2nd child was v stubborn but he takes the biscuit. He will go to time out on his own and stay there (up to an hour) and still not agree to what ever. I understand his behaviour is typical, he is angry and then stays longer because he doesn't know how to change from being angry etc. So I understand where hes at. However my main problem is meal time. He had reflux from 6months old until over 2 years old. He only has reflux now if the tries to get sick on purpose (honestly). I have it too so understand why he stays away from acidy food like fruit. But it looks like he getting worse in the sense that he is very limited in what he will eat. He blankly refuses to even try anything. For the past month I have stopped asking or threatning him to eat. I have tried bribery, time out etc. Now I simply give him a choice of what he likes and if he doesn't want it I just say ok. But I don't think this method is working either. Now all he wants to do is drink, preferably milk. I avoid giving him liquids until hes had something to eat first. This is done in a way so that there isn't an issue. I find this v difficult as its like walking on egg shells and I'm trying hard for him not to sense this.

For breakfast he has started drinking the milk from his cereal. Sometimes (once a week) he'll eat a tiny bowl of cereal. Most mornings its just the milk or two spoons of cereal. For play school its 4 cream crackers with a little butter or 2 slices of bread and butter. When he comes home its the same again. He used to eat raisins until recently. He gets tired of them every now and again. For dinner all he'll eat is plain rice. Some times (every 4th day or so) he'll have a fruit yougart. In the evening he'll have a biscuit and milk. Also recently he is refusing to drink from anything but a mineral bottle usually with ribena. I refuse alot of his requests otherwise he would be drinking all day!

What do you think?

Hannibal Smith

How about going the other way.....instead of punishing when he doesn't eat, reward when he does? You're gonna kill me for saying this, but make meal times a positive experience! Lol. That's easy for me to say if I was you making it a positive experience would be the last straw for my patience lol

dmsr

Hi Hannibal,
Thanks for reading my post and replying. Have tried that too! Was even at stage were I gave him a sweet for every bite he took. He barely took one bite and I gave him one sweet. I felt it caused more of an issue. He played on that because he knew he had us under his thumb even more. I have tried making meal time fun it just doesnt work with him. I can't help feeling I haven't hit the nail on the head. With him its about power and getting a reaction. For the past month I've tried taking "the reaction" out of the equation and things are abit stable but he is eating less of a selection because he's getting fed up of the little selection.
Funny I tried letting him get his own breakfast this morning and praising him that's he's a big boy. He ate half a weetabix! I'm wondering because he's the third child that he's feeling more independent that the other two were at his age. Also the chores and the novelty will distract him from his habits and focus on saying no.
Does this ring a bell with anyone, especially those of you on your third child?