Cruel and Unusual Punishment??

[misol]

(warning! not for thse with a weak stomach) LOL

i used to make the kids sit there until they ate. one day i fought with a dgb about eating his carrots. when i fianlly got him to eat them, he looked at me with this strange face i've never seen before, and opened his mouth and out it came. ALL. OVER. EVERYTHING. alot more came out then went in. ALOT more.

lets just say, i dont make kids eat it if they dont want to anymore

Before I knew any better I did this same thing - three separate times on three seperate kids. The same thing happend every single time so I don't force it anymore either. It wasn't a lot of puke but it was just enough to make me almost puke myself!

[momma2girls]

OMG!!! I am glad I never forced anyone to eat anything. What a great learning experience!! YUCK!!!!!!

[originalkat]

I dont force the kids to eat. I leave it on the table for the normal serving time and then it goes in the trash. They get milk with their meals and at no other time. They each have a color coded water cup that is out for them to drink as needed. Why get stressed out over what they eat??? They are not our children. We offer healthy meals and snacks and that is the extent of our responsibility IMO.

[misol]

I dont force the kids to eat. I leave it on the table for the normal serving time and then it goes in the trash. They get milk with their meals and at no other time. They each have a color coded water cup that is out for them to drink as needed. Why get stressed out over what they eat??? They are not our children. We offer healthy meals and snacks and that is the extent of our responsibility IMO.

I think that I was stressed out about the eating thing with the one boy because I knew for a fact that all he ate was garbage when he wasn't in my care. His Mom admitted to my face that she takes him to McDonald's every day. I thought she was exaggerating but she was not. He goes to McD's EVERY SINGLE DAY! One time at pickup he asked to go and she said no. I was SHOCKED until he asked why and she said "Because we're going to Burger King today!" UUGGHHH - go figure. After a while I realized it was a losing battle. After about 3 months, he came around and started eating some things here. Now he at least takes a tiny bite of everything on his plate. The experts say that sometimes you have to offer a food up to 15 times before a child will try it. I guess that was the case here. Whenever he tells his mom what he had for lunch she always says WOW, how did you get him to eat that?! I just want to slap her because I know they are going to walk right out the door at stop at McD's on the way home. So frustrating. It's just like unregistered said:

"Parents will hit up Micky D's after they leave your house anyway, officially canceling out anything nutritious you may have managed to squeeze in there anyway. "

[newtoeverything]

Thank you everyone so much! I have learned A LOT! The only problem I have is that the parents won't enforce what I do...so I'm thinking it's going to be a battle day after day. I like the "wrapping it up and pulling it back out"...so I may see if that works. I am NOT going to stress myself and the dck out anymore - it made for a MISERABLE morning! So....I may talk to the parents and see..but according to them, "the doctor said as long as she is drinking as much milk as she does, she is getting all the vitamins she needs without the food"...so I guess that's why they are not worried.

[Daycare Mommy]

Why get stressed out over what they eat??? They are not our children. We offer healthy meals and snacks and that is the extent of our responsibility IMO.

Understandable and I feel somewhat the same way in most cases. But not in a situation like Amadia's. Cookies, Cheetos, and soda for breakfast!?!?! In cases like that I'd make it my #1 priority above all others, for that individual child, to learn to eat healthier in my home. I wouldn't try to force it, but I'd throw away any junk she brings in, do my best to get her to work up a good appetite, only offer healthy foods, and not let her fill up on drinks. I read Amadia's post yesterday and it has bothered me ever since. Just when I think I've heard it all, along comes another story that absolutely floors me!

I'd step in on the original poster's child as well. The filling up on drinks, left unchecked, can effect their growth. One other thing that worked for my son (who filled up on juice) was sitting with him at the table and giving him 1 sip of his drink for every bite of food he ate. It helped him a lot to transition back to eating.

[Crystal]

I agree with alot of the providers here.....choose your battles, and food is not one of them.

That being said, here it is against regulations to make a child eat anything. It is alos against regs to withhold food.

As far as re-serving a meal for snack....that's just gross.

[mrs.meg]

I couldn't afford to provide that much milk. The kids here have to keep their cup on the table, they can come and drink whenever they want. They only get milk or juice at breakfast and lunch and water in between and with snacks. I am a big water drinker and my family drinks lots of water, so I just do with them, what I do at with my own kids. I don't think kids drink enough water, if they are thirsty, that is what they need to drink.

[momma2girls]

I agree with alot of the providers here.....choose your battles, and food is not one of them.

That being said, here it is against regulations to make a child eat anything. It is alos against regs to withhold food.

As far as re-serving a meal for snack....that's just gross.

I personally would never do it- reserving their meal for a snack! Whatever that needs to be done, might work for some and not for others!

[mac60]

While I do agree about the "picking your battles" point, I get so frustrated when I make healthy food and they won't eat it, but want the brownies I made. Today for example, made a very good batch of goulash, so each kid got goulash, a lunchmeat sandwich, and crackers. Guess what, I threw away 5 plates of goulash and the sandwiches, because they would not eat it, after 40 minutes I told them they were done. When the kindergartener came home from school, his went in the trash too, 1/2 a sandwich and all the goulash, after 30 minutes, he got up and went to bed. This is what makes me mad. It cost money to fix that, hamburger, tomatoes, pasta, lunchmeat, bread, and it went into the trash.

IF they get a snack today, it will be a cracker or two and that is it. I personally think they should have to wait to the next meal to get something to eat, after throwing all that food away.........This is exactly why I continue to serve what I do, mac and chees, hot dogs, spaghettios, pancakes, simple kids foods, because whenever I put time and money in anything else, it just gets dumped in the trash.

[newtoeverything]

This is exactly why I continue to serve what I do, mac and chees, hot dogs, spaghettios, pancakes, simple kids foods, because whenever I put time and money in anything else, it just gets dumped in the trash.

I am the same. I SO BADLY want to feed them nutritious food - fruits and veges, but they won't eat it. I do offer it (small portions) along with food that they will eat. Mac n cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, etc. Yeah the "not so good for you" food is served along with f/v...and I feel kinda bad, but they have to eat. I can't just let them starve......

PS - I do not serve junk food all day, if that's the way it sounded....::

[Daycare Mommy]

I don't get why some people think that it's gross to serve their lunch plate again at snack-time. It's been covered, refridgerated, and then reheated, right? Sounds just as good as the original lunch to me, but maybe I've missed something here? :confused:

[Crystal]

food that has been touched by tiny fingers, possibly bitten off of, etc. grows bacteria. That is gross.

[TGT09]

I have a girl in my daycare that wont eat anything but junk food. I have tried everything to get her to eat more healthy foods. I finally just gave up. I serve the healthy food, if she refuses to eat it then fine she doesn't get anything else to eat. I don't fight her on the one bite rule because it just doesn't seem worth it to me. Her parents actually asked if they could bring food for her (their ideas of food were cheetos, fruit snacks, chips, and yes SODA...she's 3!!!) I told them there was no way I could let her eat foods like that in my house because it would upset the other children. So most days she just doesn't eat anything (which sounds horrible) but yesterday I figured out why, her parents are loading her up on junk food before she comes in the morning. It was 8am and she had a bag of chip ahoys, cheetos, and soda.

I don't understand parents. My kids rarely ever get sweets so when they do it's a big deal (a treat)

WOW! That is absolutely ridiculous to me! I can't imagine giving ANY soda to a 3 year old even on rare occasions let alone every day! I barely allow my 9 year old niece drink it when she's with me!

[momma2girls]

While I do agree about the "picking your battles" point, I get so frustrated when I make healthy food and they won't eat it, but want the brownies I made. Today for example, made a very good batch of goulash, so each kid got goulash, a lunchmeat sandwich, and crackers. Guess what, I threw away 5 plates of goulash and the sandwiches, because they would not eat it, after 40 minutes I told them they were done. When the kindergartener came home from school, his went in the trash too, 1/2 a sandwich and all the goulash, after 30 minutes, he got up and went to bed. This is what makes me mad. It cost money to fix that, hamburger, tomatoes, pasta, lunchmeat, bread, and it went into the trash.

IF they get a snack today, it will be a cracker or two and that is it. I personally think they should have to wait to the next meal to get something to eat, after throwing all that food away.........This is exactly why I continue to serve what I do, mac and chees, hot dogs, spaghettios, pancakes, simple kids foods, because whenever I put time and money in anything else, it just gets dumped in the trash.

Yep, this sucks!!