Gigi, Matilda only started when she noticed I loved cuddling Jovie, it took years for her to accept affection. Now she loves it. BUT it seriously took a good 2 1/2 to 3 years. And I would lament about it. I would get so upset that she didn't like me, that I could shower her with the affection I wanted to do. She also wouldn't eat anything. She would go weeks without eating dinner, just snacks throughout the day. She lost 2 kg at 2 yrs. Refusing foods she ate one day & refused the next. I would find something she liked like spag bol and then I would do a huge cook up & freeze portions and then she would go off it and not eat it for a week. It is the most frustrating thing.

I think what we decided to do was then the 20 minute rule, you get dinner in front of you for 20 minutes, and then we take it away. We don't get emotional about it (anymore), we enjoy our dinner and we encourage her to have a bite. Then we take it away. If she gets hungry, we offer her a choice of dinner or fruit and if she says no than thats it. She has a small glass of rice milk before bed.

She still will refuse dinner, but at 4 we have a bit more communication and a sort of bribery which gets her to eat her dinner. We say she can't leave the table until she's eaten 3 bites. But she's older. Jovie didn't eat dinner last night, we gave up and right before bed offered her a weetbix to get something in her belly before bed.

I also stopped enjoying cooking. But I've gained it back, it took a while.

Here's yesterday's breakfast:

2 eggs
1/2 cup apple puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp water
old bread

Mix everything but the bread together in a shallow dish, dip bread for a while on both sides to be coated by the mix & soaks some of it up. I pop a spray of oil in the pan & fry it up. I serve this for the girls cut into soldiers. I've hidden broccoli in there as well Sweet potato works too. What I do is puree a heap of veges & apples & pears and chuck it in the freezer to use.

So if I don't have one puree, I'll use another one.