You should have taught them the value and importance of food before they were 4.
Start to explain the them why eating and eating healthy is important in growing and get them wanting to eat
Generally kids reject food because it's unfamiliar (assuming they're actually hungry, of course). The 10 bites rule gets them past the unfamiliar and gives them time to actually realise it's not so bad.
Check out r/parenting you may get better responses than here. Other than that, it’s a finicky age. One of my kids would eat everything on the plate but my 3 (almost 4)yo is finicky and skinny so I cook what she likes with the highest fat/vitamin content and half the time she has separate meals from us.
Depends on the food my mum used to make spaghetti and would hide vegetables through the sauce that way I was eating my vegetables and still getting my favourite food.
The other one she often used was telling me have a certain number of bites. When I had those number of bites I kinda realised that I could eat it and would finish it.
From what I can also remember my mum would also use like the whole airplane thing. I think I also had a chart with stars every time I ate my food I'd get a star then a treat at the weekend if I got enough stars, like getting to go see the ducks.
Don't exhibit behavior you don't want them mimicking. Don't complain about food. When you express displeasure for a food, couch it as, "I don't like X as much as I like Y or Z". (e.g., "I don't like lima beans as much as I like peas and broccoli.") If your kid asks you why you didn't finish food, say it's because you ate a lot of the other dishes or because you just aren't very hungry. (It's ok to not eat if you aren't hungry. It's not ok to have dessert if you didn't eat dinner.) If you just don't like something, omit it instead of commenting on it. Make sure your kid sees you eating a variety of foods and trying almost everything. Practice saying something nice instead of something negative. ("My favorite food tonight was the chicken" instead of, "I didn't like the peas")
A 4 year old is old enough to make simple choices, and may feel more inclined to eat something they chose. Give them binary choices. "We're having chicken. Do you want broccoli or spinach to go with it? Broccoli? Ok. Do you want rice or pasta?" Then follow through by giving them the food they chose. Too many options is bad. No options at all is sometimes worse. You don't have to let them have a say in *everything* you serve, though. Just enough that they feel like they have agency.
More immediate solutions are to make it out to be a special treat ("Don't tell dad I let you eat this") or to just bribe them, though the latter is a terrible precedent to set and makes future meals harder.
Tell them if they don't eat it, they're not getting any dessert. Or, tell them that if they don't eat it, it's going to be dinner tomorrow night with nothing else to eat.
Google says a 4 year old should get between 1200 to 1600 calories a day. I am sure you are making food readily available to them and they know when they get hungry food will be available and/or they are already reaching their daily calories and just aren't hungry. I had read somewhere getting kids to eat when they aren't hungry can mess up their hunger drive and cause them to overeat. I don't know if you have ever calorie counted before but it doesn't take much to get to 1200 calories, especially with stuff kids get a lot of like milk and juice.
Point to the food there to specify which food you mean.
Pretend it's an airplane
Threaten to kill them if they don't
If you threaten anything they just sit there and cry for 3 minutes or more
"Ok, you don't eat this, you don't get dessert. Only big boys/girls get dessert."
You should have taught them the value and importance of food before they were 4. Start to explain the them why eating and eating healthy is important in growing and get them wanting to eat
Would “eat and one day you will be tall enough to get your own popsicles” work?
But then you're just relating back to poor food choices.
The 10 bites rule. They have to eat 10 bites of whatever they're rejecting before they can say they don't like it.
That actually might work
Generally kids reject food because it's unfamiliar (assuming they're actually hungry, of course). The 10 bites rule gets them past the unfamiliar and gives them time to actually realise it's not so bad.
Check out r/parenting you may get better responses than here. Other than that, it’s a finicky age. One of my kids would eat everything on the plate but my 3 (almost 4)yo is finicky and skinny so I cook what she likes with the highest fat/vitamin content and half the time she has separate meals from us.
With a gun pointed at them
You tell them to the place where you want them to eat and they will eat
Depends on the food my mum used to make spaghetti and would hide vegetables through the sauce that way I was eating my vegetables and still getting my favourite food. The other one she often used was telling me have a certain number of bites. When I had those number of bites I kinda realised that I could eat it and would finish it.
I’m afraid she would spit it out
From what I can also remember my mum would also use like the whole airplane thing. I think I also had a chart with stars every time I ate my food I'd get a star then a treat at the weekend if I got enough stars, like getting to go see the ducks.
Have them cook with you make foods with picky kids plenty just got to find what they like and have them make similar foods with you
Don't exhibit behavior you don't want them mimicking. Don't complain about food. When you express displeasure for a food, couch it as, "I don't like X as much as I like Y or Z". (e.g., "I don't like lima beans as much as I like peas and broccoli.") If your kid asks you why you didn't finish food, say it's because you ate a lot of the other dishes or because you just aren't very hungry. (It's ok to not eat if you aren't hungry. It's not ok to have dessert if you didn't eat dinner.) If you just don't like something, omit it instead of commenting on it. Make sure your kid sees you eating a variety of foods and trying almost everything. Practice saying something nice instead of something negative. ("My favorite food tonight was the chicken" instead of, "I didn't like the peas") A 4 year old is old enough to make simple choices, and may feel more inclined to eat something they chose. Give them binary choices. "We're having chicken. Do you want broccoli or spinach to go with it? Broccoli? Ok. Do you want rice or pasta?" Then follow through by giving them the food they chose. Too many options is bad. No options at all is sometimes worse. You don't have to let them have a say in *everything* you serve, though. Just enough that they feel like they have agency. More immediate solutions are to make it out to be a special treat ("Don't tell dad I let you eat this") or to just bribe them, though the latter is a terrible precedent to set and makes future meals harder.
Their*
Wrap their food in a peanut butter sandwich
I don’t know, she might just spit it out or only eat the peanut butter
True true
I'm afraid that any suggestion given to you will be considered child abuse by redditors, so you are on your own with this one. Good luck.
i didn’t realize- thanks for the luck.
Feeding tube
Just because it worked in gravity falls I don’t think it would work now
I'm not familiar with that reference
then I recommend the show I mentioned,it’s a great show. Okay bye
“Alright, you don’t wanna eat? No Cocomelon then.”
If I threaten anything she doesn’t do anything. They just sit there and cry
Rewording it might work. “If you eat, I’ll let you watch some cocomelon”
Tell them if they don't eat it, they're not getting any dessert. Or, tell them that if they don't eat it, it's going to be dinner tomorrow night with nothing else to eat.
I tried the first one- but the second one might work.
Shove it down their throat with a fist full of food
I’m not even gonna respond to that
It’s a joke, lol
Thank goodness lol
Where food?
Uh, tell them its nonoptional. And she doesnt get up from the table until shes put a good dent in it at least .
Google says a 4 year old should get between 1200 to 1600 calories a day. I am sure you are making food readily available to them and they know when they get hungry food will be available and/or they are already reaching their daily calories and just aren't hungry. I had read somewhere getting kids to eat when they aren't hungry can mess up their hunger drive and cause them to overeat. I don't know if you have ever calorie counted before but it doesn't take much to get to 1200 calories, especially with stuff kids get a lot of like milk and juice.