Feeding Children Regularly

[Kamaikia]

Recently while spending the day with a friend who also has an 18 month old I noticed she didn't feed her child much. Long story short we got talking and she tells me she doesn't feed her breakfast lunch and dinner every day. She says she forgets, couldn't be bothered etc. If the child is hungry and she is busy she might give her a bisquit and then thats it. Some days she feeds her all day but others nothing. She gives her up to 8 bottles of milk a day (5 minutes peace per bottle I'm told). How do I make her aware that this isn't healthy. He daughter is still waking through the night and quite grizzly. When she is fed its not the same as the family meal. Mum is so paranoid she will choke and die that her food is quite soft. Advice would be great.

[cwsmum]

:eek: Some people.

I had a friend who was/still is a bit like this...didn't feed her bub anything other than commercial baby food coz she didn't know how to cook it, when she finally did start cooking she would give him chicken nuggets & chips or fish fingers & chips, no veges, 3 or 4 nights a week. Even now, her son is 3yo, she will go out for the day and not even take a drink for him. She recently came to visit and arrived at my house at 12:30, just when I was giving DS his lunch, I asked if her boy had eaten and she said she was just going to get him a happy meal on the way home:eek: after our boys had played for a few hours.

I know your friend is a bit different to what mine was/is like, but I think just seeing how other people did things helped my friend. For example, she called on morning ad asked if I wanted to go shopping, I told her I had too much stuff to do at home, that part was true, and invited her over for the day. She arrived in time for morning tea and stayed til after dinner...I fed her bub exactly the same as I fed mine, they are the same age. She called me the next day and said her bub had the best nights sleep in ages.
Maybe just setting a good example for her of what is healthy, even if you have to create situations where you can do this, might help her.

[CJJHRA]

Thats so sad, dont know what to say to that one. My kids eat 4-5 times a day, and still are asking for more. And yeah, I have found if they dont eat enough, they dont sleep to well at night either.

Perhaps you could invite them over for dinner once a week, and feed her normal food.

The best part of my day is having toast and a drink with my little girl after we drop the boys to school.

I must say though, sometimes on the weekends I forget to give my kids lunch, just I dont get as hungry, and I forget about it until they come complain they are starving, and I feel terrible. If I am not hungry or thirsty, unless the kids ask, I dont think sometimes. :o