I give Francis smaller portions so that he does not feel that there is to much on his plate.. If he wants more i give it.. If I give him to much the rest just goes on the floor...

If he does not eat, I don't force him to.  Not yet..

im a huge sucker at meal times, as chloe is the fussy one in our house...

so what we do for her is give her a small portion and if she is still hungry after this we give her more,/......

so maybe instead of  feeling not good of bribery try what i do for chloe and see how you go, it may be that he has too much food on his plate or his tired,...

Try not giving him a plate of his own.  Start eating yours (making sure his is reserved on the side of your plate) and see what happens.  He might decide that he is hungry after all, especially if you make a fuss of how good the food tastes.

The reality is a kid will never starve themselves (without a serious underlying problem) and if they don't want it they aren't all that hungry to begin with.  Don't panda to his wants or you will find yourself very quickly wrapped tightly around his little finger.

We have 4 kids and all of them are different.  The only 2 things all of them will eat without complaint are pasta shapes and small veggies (peas, carrot corn).

Good luck with it all.

hi, I am not sure how old your son is however,  I think it is great that you want him to learn to be greatful for the food he has but you also need to also be realistic as a 2/3/4 year old is going to have trouble with the concept of being greatful. 

I like the idea that was suggested about putting the food at the table and everyone helps themselves.  Children will eventually eat if they are hugry enough.  This may sound cruel but if they choose not to eat one night don't make dinner time a battle field I am sure the next night or the night after they will eat even if it is something small.  You don't want your child to associate negative experiences with eating otherwise you may just create an ongoing battle between you and your son.  Eating should be fun!

If you child doesn;t like something then that's cool I hate peas and will never eat them, why should I if I don't like the taste?  Also I remeber bad experiences with them at the dinner table where mum and dad used to hide them in my mash potatoes.  Now I am 27 and have never eaten peas. 

I believe that you should keep offering a food but not forcing them to eat it.  If you offer it enough times they might just be curious to find out what it tastes like.  Also lead by example, eat what you expect your child to eat.  I don't believe in making a seperate meal for your child.  There are also creative ways to make dishes more healthy such as in mince sauce add carrot or another vegetable and kids don't even know what they are eating. 

In my opinion I don't agree with offering bribes as a method of getting a child to eat as I believe this is not teaching them very good eating habits and could lead to them always wanting to be bribed.  For example, he could one day be out at a friends house and expects the parents to offer a bribe because that is what is done at home.  Also could lead to child obesity if you are always offering sweets as a reward. 

Another thing you could do is during the day have a table set up at his height (presuming it is a todder) and have a variety of healthy snacks ie celery, cucumber, carrot sticks with a healthy dip, cut up pieces of fruit and this way he can eat when he is actually hungry and not have someone pressuring him to eat.

Good luck!

I was rewarded with dessert as a child and I'm obese. My sister and brother battled with weight issues too, so I'm not keen on that approach at all.

With our own children (now adults) we dealt with this issue early by allowing each child to dish up their own dinner. We placed the saucepans (etc) of food on the table and then each child took what he or she thought she can comfortably eat. I cooked food at each meal that they liked, as well as insisted that they try new foods at least once - "Don't say no, have a go!". If they didn't like it they didn't have to eat it. Every six months or so I would ask them to try again because our likes and dislikes change over time.

We began this with our daughter before age two because she was a very fussy and eater but with finger food or easily handled food. Children generally like raw vegetables so we included some of these (I simply wouldn't cook all the prepared vegetables).

We stuck with serving food onto our own plates throughout their childhood. During middle childhood and into their teens, one child didn't like mushrooms, olives and capsicum, another wouldn't eat broccoli, and one doesn't like peas. All three will tolerate these foods as adults. And all three will try anything new and rarely leave anything on their plates so there is hardly ever any waste.

cheers
Beverley
http://homeschoolaustralia.com

Breanna is nearly 3,I have found with her it is far easier to get her to eat new foods if we have it on our plates and she has none LOL we make a big deal on how nice the new food is until she winds up asking for a taste.Sometimes she will only have a little and say yuck, more often than not though if we keep having it with our meals 1-2 times a week curiosity gets the better of her and she also builds up an acquired taste for things.If there is a particular item of food she is against I never force her to eat it,I just keep sporadically giving her an opportunity to re-taste it and make up her own mind.Her tastes change like the weather,but she always eats a great variety of fruit and veges it is only if she is over tired or feeling off that she will be picky with her food.She is not able to have many packaged or processed foods either so she has to eat healthily or basically go hungry LOL.Most times at the check-out we have to put the broccoli or baby carrots through first so she can eat them LOL (I carry a wet cloth to wash the produce lol)I find this surprises so many people cause they are used to children wanting candy and chocolate in a hurry PMSL. Good luck with your fussy eater Hugs Crystal xx