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is feeding kids that important?

I mean, when they're babies, obviously it is... but I'm at that age where all of my friends have toddlers (3-5) and they all seem to go through hysterics trying to get them to eat.

I'm not going to criticize their parenting because wtf do I know (I can't even take care of a plant), but it seems weird to me... won't the kid just eat when s/he is hungry? what's the point of getting into a fight at the dinner table every night because they say they're not hungry?
 
My kids eat pretty good, my son's favorite food is broccoli lol. If they don't want to eat I don't push it. Maybe if it was constant not eating I would worry more.
 
People are really struggling to come up with new thread ideas lately. I'm actually starting to miss the beer and chili threads.
 
They will eat when they are hungry. My 2 year old eats tons one day a near none other days. Why force him to eat when he is not hungry? The eating patterns tend to be cyclical. He will be super hungry for awhile he gets a bit chubby(storing energy), then go on a growth spurt and shoot up a few inches while having no appetite.

Your friends sound like they are ignoring their kids natural instincts. The dont need a set amount of calories daily.
 
When I was a baby, I refused to eat the point of it becoming a health risk. My parents basically had to force feed me.
 
I want them to eat when everyone else is eating. None of this "mommy daddy I'm hungry" BS at 9PM because they wouldn't eat when dinner was served.
 
It is important to ensure they have high quality micro and macronutriets, and high quality fats for neuron development. What you seem to be asking is the constancy and regularity of food. This is not as important. Kids will self-regulate. In the past, kids have been overfed, and not with good quality food.

Another important thing is the nutritional quality. Very important to feed high quality food when young.
 
Mine can eat whenever they are hungry. We don't force them to eat. If they get hungry at an irregular time they get a snack or a sandwich.
 
I want them to eat when everyone else is eating. None of this "mommy daddy I'm hungry" BS at 9PM because they wouldn't eat when dinner was served.

My Irish cousin Ann was like this, which caused great consternation in the entire O'Rexic clan, from County Calorie. They would all exclaim with alarm, "What are we do with ye, wee Ann O'Rexic!"
 
My Irish cousin Ann was like this, which caused great consternation in the entire O'Rexic clan, from County Calorie. They would all exclaim with alarm, "What are we do with ye, wee Ann O'Rexic!"
I steal one cookie from your pile for this.
 
My Irish cousin Ann was like this, which caused great consternation in the entire O'Rexic clan, from County Calorie. They would all exclaim with alarm, "What are we do with ye, wee Ann O'Rexic!"

lol, are you actually trying to say that not feeding your kid a midnight snack after they refused dinner is forcing anorexia on them?

mod troll? really?
 
it's annoying breeder habit of making the world revolve around their brat


straight people CANNOT play up enough the fact they have a babby


insert babby into every conversation



Did you hear Osama bin laden is dead?
"my babby poops weird"


Wanna go have some drinks after work?
"my babby has an event to attend"



*edit this post makes no sense
but god damn i hate babies

and i hate how even if a baby is a good, not attention whore baby, their parents will make it one



as is the case with force feeding their perfectly fine child
 
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I grew up with my brother and two sisters. We always were hungry and if you didn't want to eat, one of my siblings would take care of the problem. If there was something new on the table we hadn't seen before (happened quite a lot) we tried it anyway because if we didn't there wouldn't be any left.

I always thought kids would eat if they got hungry. Then, my youngest had a baby. My grandson was diagnosed with "failure to thrive" which is doctorese for "we have no idea." He wouldn't eat. He was never hungry. He was tube fed and seems to have gotten a little better but, remains a picky eater.

What the hell is the difference in our environment between now and when I grew up? It seems like every other kid today has some kind of allergy or food intolerance today. Lactose intolerance is very common. When I was little, there was exactly one kid in the entire school who was lactose intolerant. I always tried to sit next to him to get an extra milk.
 
thankfully, we don't have to worry about the OP ever having kids

eh?

I'm just trying to understand the rationale behind forcing a kid to eat at dinner time regardless of whether or not the kid says they're hungry.

I was at a friend's house around dinner time the other week and he was yelling at his son because he only ate a bite of his dinner and then said he was done.

I know enough not to criticize anyone else's parenting techniques (as long as we're not talking about child abuse, it's their kid to screw up however they see fit), but in my head, I was thinking "why not let the kid just go and play if he says he's not hungry? throw his plate in the fridge and when his stomach is rumbling, he can finish eating it."
 
I grew up with my brother and two sisters. We always were hungry and if you didn't want to eat, one of my siblings would take care of the problem. If there was something new on the table we hadn't seen before (happened quite a lot) we tried it anyway because if we didn't there wouldn't be any left.

I always thought kids would eat if they got hungry. Then, my youngest had a baby. My grandson was diagnosed with "failure to thrive" which is doctorese for "we have no idea." He wouldn't eat. He was never hungry. He was tube fed and seems to have gotten a little better but, remains a picky eater.

What the hell is the difference in our environment between now and when I grew up? It seems like every other kid today has some kind of allergy or food intolerance today. Lactose intolerance is very common. When I was little, there was exactly one kid in the entire school who was lactose intolerant. I always tried to sit next to him to get an extra milk.

The difference is pussy doctors and pussy parents
 
I grew up with my brother and two sisters. We always were hungry and if you didn't want to eat, one of my siblings would take care of the problem. If there was something new on the table we hadn't seen before (happened quite a lot) we tried it anyway because if we didn't there wouldn't be any left.

I always thought kids would eat if they got hungry. Then, my youngest had a baby. My grandson was diagnosed with "failure to thrive" which is doctorese for "we have no idea." He wouldn't eat. He was never hungry. He was tube fed and seems to have gotten a little better but, remains a picky eater.

What the hell is the difference in our environment between now and when I grew up? It seems like every other kid today has some kind of allergy or food intolerance today. Lactose intolerance is very common. When I was little, there was exactly one kid in the entire school who was lactose intolerant. I always tried to sit next to him to get an extra milk.

Interesting story.

Failure to thrive, LOL. Gee, you don't think there could be environmental factors contributing to whacky conditions like this?

I agree though, in another few hundred years we're going to be a sick, obese, pill popping society if this keeps up. We're taking the wrong approach with our technology. The answers are in our heritage. Trying to fix everything with a pill isn't going to work.

It reminds me a lot of commercial agriculture, actually. Why try and fight millions of years of evolution? It works so much better when you use those millions of years of evolution to your advantage, see: permaculture, food forests, etc.
 
unless its a situation like magnusthebrewer mentioned. most will be fine. they may not eat one day then pig out the next.
 
I grew up with my brother and two sisters. We always were hungry and if you didn't want to eat, one of my siblings would take care of the problem. If there was something new on the table we hadn't seen before (happened quite a lot) we tried it anyway because if we didn't there wouldn't be any left.

I always thought kids would eat if they got hungry. Then, my youngest had a baby. My grandson was diagnosed with "failure to thrive" which is doctorese for "we have no idea." He wouldn't eat. He was never hungry. He was tube fed and seems to have gotten a little better but, remains a picky eater.

What the hell is the difference in our environment between now and when I grew up? It seems like every other kid today has some kind of allergy or food intolerance today. Lactose intolerance is very common. When I was little, there was exactly one kid in the entire school who was lactose intolerant. I always tried to sit next to him to get an extra milk.

increased awareness and knowledge?

I was never diagnosed with lactose intolerance as a kid, but I knew that drinking milk gave me an upset stomach and I just avoided it.

I didn't connect the dots until I was older and realized "oh, I'm probably a little lactose intolerant"
 
They will eat when they are hungry. My 2 year old eats tons one day a near none other days. Why force him to eat when he is not hungry? The eating patterns tend to be cyclical. He will be super hungry for awhile he gets a bit chubby(storing energy), then go on a growth spurt and shoot up a few inches while having no appetite.

Your friends sound like they are ignoring their kids natural instincts. The dont need a set amount of calories daily.


^^ I agree .
This is common in my experience. The kids went in spurts of eating alot, not eating much & then have growth spurt. Obviously it will be different with each kid. But, overall with my kids this was the common cycle.
 
the pediatricians will always say let them eat on their own when their hungry. bullshit. kids will never eat if that was the case. or they'd eat unhealthy crap. feeding a toddler is one of the hardest, most annoying things of parenthood.
 
^^ I agree .
This is common in my experience. The kids went in spurts of eating alot, not eating much & then have growth spurt. Obviously it will be different with each kid. But, overall with my kids this was the common cycle.

exactly. i know when my kids are getting ready or in a growth spurt. the amount of food they eat doubles to triples.
 
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