My picky stubborn headstrong child

Yes this would be Trevor.  I'm sure I have blogged about his strange eating habits before.  He has got to be one of the pickiest, stubborn children I know.  I know people say yeah their child doesn't eat very well.  Let me just say Trevor is AWFUL!!!  The main problem with his eating habits is that he won't try ANYTHING!!  We discussed this with Dr. Hardman back in August and she said the same thing most people say - "he will eat when he gets hungry".  So we went with that.

Our rule is breakfast stays on the table until it is eaten.  He really doesn't like to stay seated, but he will come back to the kitchen within 15 minutes of getting up from the table and will say he is hungry, so we point him back to the table to finish breakfast.  No snacks in between unless the meal prior was eaten.  Breakfast and lunch are very similar.  He will usually eat both of those meals over time.

Dinner is where we struggle.  We would love to have a family meal, but how in the world can that happen when there is a child who doesn't want to eat, doesn't want to even try the food and then ends up playing and distracting Brody.  Trevor sometimes ends up in his room during dinner so we can have a peaceful meal.  He normally gets milk with Carnation Instant breakfast "In It" mixed in before bedtime just so he wouldn't get up in the middle of the night starving.  This had to change or he would never eat dinner.

A couple of months ago, I was beginning to get so frustrated at dinner because he just would not eat - he would not even take a bite of anything and I refused to make him something different.  Bring in my creative husband.  He came up with this great idea.  Each week Trevor is supposed to take a bite of the meal (and the number of bites increases each week).  If he doesn't take a bite then he gets nothing else to eat that night and no milk.

We are up to 7 bites at each meal.  There have been A LOT of nights that he goes to bed with NOTHING to eat.  Take for example 2 nights ago we had baked enchiladas with black beans, chicken and corn.  He has eaten corn and black beans before but he would not take a bite.  He said he will just go to bed and wake up in the morning and eat a pop tart.  What??  So stubborn

However, last night we had Beef Stroganoff so I fixed him a bowl of noodles with the sauce (no meat) and just knew he would eat it.  He sat at the table not happy at all and not eating, so I said ok let's go get a bath and go to bed - it was 6:30.  He wasn't happy about that but not enough to eat so he got a bath.   I gave him another chance to eat before putting him in bed AND he actually ate the entire bowl of noodles about 15 bites.  I wish I had a picture of his face trying to eat the first couple of bites - you would have thought I was feeding him brussel sprouts.

We rejoice in the small steps and I am so very thankful for Jason's idea because at least Trevor knows the rules and will hopefully over time eat dinner with us!!  Thank goodness he is healthy and look at this cute little guy.