I too have a child who at times refuses to eat, she actually seems a lot like mia only she is 3. No words of advice, just symphathy. Lots and lots of symphathy.

Three cheers for kid-borne personality. I desperately wish that I had taught my niece the following little 'thing' she does, but alas, she picked it up from somewhere else:

Dad: Time for bed!
Niece: [Dramatic pointing of finger at offender] How DARE you!!!!!

Nice.

Chris certainly sounds like a handful, by the way.

I understand why she won't eat, I mean her mom and dad are right there in the kitchen....one nekkid and the other in only chaps....c'mon. I've just lost my own appetite.

tee hee hee.

Age? Time of year? Teeth? Strange alignment of the planets? My son (and a couple of his little buddies from daycare as well) are refusing to eat as well... weird!

Speckle's comment just explained the whole thing ;-) Good luck with that!

Ooh and also? I want Wallies! It may in fact be the perfect solution to the renter's dilemma of no paint! :-D

Fortunately, they do eventually begin to eat again and the whining nearly goes away.

Unfortunately, the whining that remains is also accompanied by 'tween attitude and angst. I'm almost certain that it's better than a two year old. Yeah, yeah...it's better. ;)

Fortunately, they do eventually begin to eat again and the whining nearly goes away.

Unfortunately, the whining that remains is also accompanied by 'tween attitude and angst. I'm almost certain that it's better than a two year old. Yeah, yeah...it's better. ;)

Ally went 37 hours without eating, one weekend. I very nearly stabbed myself in the ears with her fork just to avoid listening to the whining, screaming fits any longer.

I hear you.

I don't think there's a fool-proof way to get ones own kid to eat, let alone getting someone else's to. They way I see it, it gives me an excuse for me to eat what's left on his plate. Hm.... now where, oh were, did this mysterious 40 lbs come from?

Sorry, the urge didn't go away. =P Don't offer her anything, not even snacks. When she indicates she is ready to eat, tell her no... she will beg for it at that point! haha Seriously.. It worked for my oldest. Nothing works for everyone, but its worth a shot. Reverse psychology can work wonders while they are young!

Can you plug your ears with some of your ice cream? That way it's yummy and has a practical benefit.

You know what, and I'm not syaing this to be a contrarian, I actually don't think Mia looks that much like you. I mean there is a resembalance, sure, but I've never thought she looks exactly like you. I think she is a mixture of you and Chris.

Michael, on the other hand, is minnie me to Doug. Seriously, I had nothing to do with this kid.

My kiddos are habitual gaggers. I took Mila to the Dr. when she was younger because I was freaked. Now, with Summer, it's old hat. Folks always have advice for me but, c'mon people, when I see that my child is starving I will seek help. In the meantime, shutthehellup!

At least you know Wally is eating!! One of the two is always there to give you troubles (but also smiles)...isn't it fun being a mommy?! :-)

i have two non-eaters and one eats-everything-in-sight. guess who got their eating habits from their mama?? :)

We love the wallies. We have the small version of these: http://www.wallies.com/item/W12174.htm?search=flowers&page=1

Everyone asks who painted them.

Good luck on the eating thing!

My daughter has fairy Wallies in her room - I love those suckers!! Although I had to give them a lil extra sumpin sumpin to get them to stick to a textured wall.

As for the not eating - eh, she'll eat when she's hungry enough. I'll make sure my SIL (who thinks my 8-year-old is bulimic because she's going through a phase where she has to poop halfway through dinner) stays away from your blog lest she is tempted to share her parenting genius with you too.

OMG! I am laughing at the comment Traci - my 6 year old is going through a "poop during a meal" phase too. My MIL asked if we thought she was throwing up or hiding food to flush away. So I said, "nope, shes a poopin', wanna go check it out?". That shut her up!

Here's hoping she eats today, and frees you from your tantrum-hearing misery. I'll go eat something right now, in an effort to subliminally encourage Mia to do so.

I have no suggestions on the eating thing as K has thrown us for a loop about it all.

Oh, and WALLIES ROCK! We put them in K's room because we rent and can't do much more than that. When they came down, it was super easy! I just picked a corner and started peeling. I'd recommend starting slow at first, but most of them just "fell" off after half the design was pulled up.

I shouldda known it was Wallies. I know someone else who used them and their kids' room looks just as cute as Mia's.

Ugh. Sorry about her not eating. Blame dad.

Like me, my kids are both crazy cranky beasts when they are hungry. Otherwise, they look nothing like me, they act more like dad. What a fun trait to get from me... Blah.

Just yesterday my boss mentioned that his 3 year old sometimes refuses to eat. Weird. Maybe it's a control thing?

I do not have kids (and my nieces & nephews prefer to torture the adults in the family through other means), so I do not have any advice to offer - even if you wanted advice.

Good luck.

We have Ladybug and Dragonfly wallies in Zoe's room. They were so simple... but not as big as Mia's butterflies. I imagine that would be harder than our smallish ladybugs. I'll have to get new ones for her "new room" since the "nursery" will soon need to be readied for a new baby.

Zoe pulls the food refusals too. I don't fight with her about it. I figure when she's REALLY hungry she'll give in and eat something. Some days she eats everything put in front of her... other days she eats a bite here and there. I figure it balances out.

My 3 year old has gone from not pooping to not eating...it seems our girls have a lot in common. Everyone looks at me like I'm a horrible mother because I don't force her to sit at the table and eat. But seriously...after a whole day of crazy tantrums about what tv is or isn't on or that the baby is looking at her, I just don't want to hear her scream about not wanting to eat.

Glad to see I'm not the only one dealing with this stuff...yet again :).

Rito goes on strikes like this too, and the only thing I can do is count down to naptime/bedtime in my head.....

Seriously do you live with my husband? He likes to throw things too.... when we bought our house (right after I had cleaned the kitchen) he had the nerve to throw 7-up on me. Seriously, who throws 7-up?

Better yet the other day he was concentrating on "math" and got pissed about his inability to add or divide or something and tossed a tape-measure trough the office door. It was too funny actually since I have been dying to replace that door with a nice french one anyways.

I hate to say I told you so (no I don't), but I think that you and I BOTH know the solution to this lies with a little five letter word called... candy ;)

She's rebelling against you for not sharing.
Sorry if the truth hurts a bit.

...the hell?
Why did I put the last post up with my name as Beth? My name is Caitlin!
My fault.
All this talk about candy has made me bonkers.

Hell, at least you have less dishes to wash. :)

Really, our kids need to hang out. They'd totally be the Heathers of the mall playground.

ah. the freshair diet days. Still in 'em :(

specifically with son no.2 who is now SEVEN. he has a stubborn streak almost (but not quite) as big as mine, and eating is one of the things he decides he's not going to do from time to time.. He also gagged alot for ages (well up till 4/5)maybe there's a connection? and also, when toilet traing would refuse to poo for DAYS.

oh well. At least I don't have to worry about peer presure with him.

John turns in to the biggest asshole when his blood sugar gets too low. I always try to make him eat something before we leave the house if we're going to be out for a long time, and he always pretends that he won't be a jerk later. Why do men do that?

As for the food thing (and yes I know I'm not a mom, and no, this is not advice, just a question) eventually, she'll get hungry and eat something, right?

Hope she ate something today!

Love the Wallies wish I could put Butterflies up in my room!

You won't get any advice from me as I wouldn't have the first clue about how to get a kid to eat. Good thing I don't have any or they might just starve to death.

I never really worried about missed meals since there was food available for when the kid wanted to eat again. But I also never had to deal with a kid who refused to eat meal after meal. I can imagine just how frustrating and worrying that could be.

Dude, I couldn't give you advice even if you wanted it.