One time on Usenet, "-SD-" > said:
> denise~* wrote:

> > > Pardon my grumpy mood, but it's just one of those days. The kid is 4
> > > years old. Tell him that this is breakfast and he can eat it, or not.
> > > If he doesn't, lunch is at noon. If he's hungry, he'll eat it.
> >
> > Ohh, you must have a 4 year old! :-) or just remember what it's
> > like...
> >
> > Yes, this is a daily exercize, but I thought I'd make the futile
> > attempt at getting him to eat his breakfast. :-/
>
> I used to put the food down. In 20 minutes or so if it was eaten, it
> was taken away.

Sorry, I'm not getting this sentence. Why take it away if they're
eating it? Or did you mean that if, after 20 minutes, the food was
NOT getting eaten, you'd put it away? I can agree with that kind of
thinking.

> Lunch and supper/dinner were put down with the same
> policy. A kid won't starve himself....he'll eat when it finally dawns
> on him that he won't get his way.

Yup.

> Our other policy - everything has to
> be tried before being rejected - 1 tablespoonful. If the child likes
> it, he gets more. If he doesn't like it after eating the tablespoonful,
> he doesn't have to eat it.

Total agreement, although one thing we do is reintroduce unpopular
foods once in a while. Buddy hated sweet & sour chicken wings (a
family favorite), and I do mean *hated* them. But we'd tell him to
take a "no thank you bite" anyway, and recently he's found them to
be tasty enough to eat 4 of them. As was discussed last week, we
all know how tastes change as we age...


--
"Little Malice" is Jani in WA
~ mom, Trollop, novice cook ~