r/UKParenting

My son has always been a fussy eater, but he seems to be getting worse and worse with not eating what feels like, anything! He has certain things he loves, porridge, bran flakes and bananas, and goes through phases of obsessions that last a few weeks, soup, beans, potato waffles. But on the whole, he just doesn’t eat! He’s not fussy in the traditional sense, he won’t touch a ham sandwich, chicken nuggets or pizza, but he’ll sometimes eat a Thai red curry or paella? But equally could offer him that a day later and would straight up refuse so you truly never know!

We’re trying to wean him off breastfeeding and it’s been made so much harder by the fact he’s clearly hungry from not eating properly.

I feel at such a loss, and it stresses me out beyond belief and I don’t know what to do? You can’t force feed a 2yr old but equally he definitely needs to eat more!

Advise would be appreciated, thank you .

My seven year old sister is driving me insane. She does something wrong and when we try to tell her off she cries and yells back saying she didn't know and that no one told her. We tell her to not do it again but she does anyway, several times. When we tell her off again she is crying and screaming saying she sorry and is a horrible person. When we stop because the yelling is too much, she starts begging for a telling of saying she "deserves it" or that it is the only thing we do to her, tell her off. And she cycle repeats with more shouting or more violently and it is maddening. She also just storms off sometimes before we finish talking. I don't know if that is normal 7 year old behaviour, if it something we cause or if it is her just acting. Because of this I don't know whether to yell or talk calmly because this really tests my patience.

Is this normal behaviour or did I mess up horribly with trying to take care of her emotions

Hi everyone,

I'm really hoping for some advice from parents who have experienced something similar.

My daughter is 19 months old and for approximately the last two weeks, she has been refusing almost all her meals apart from breakfast.

She used to absolutely love her food, had a great appetite and would happily finish her plate. Now it's almost impossible to get her to eat anything.

She still eats breakfast at home, usually cereal, fruit and toast, and then has some more cereal at nursery. However, she barely touches her morning snack, lunch or pudding at nursery.

At home, it's exactly the same. I offer her lunch and dinner, but she barely touches either. I've tried all her favourite meals, completely new foods and even ordered different meals from Lune & Wild, hoping something might interest her. But most of the time, she refuses to even open her mouth or try the food.

She still drinks milk and will sometimes accept a banana or smoothie, but proper meals have become an absolute struggle.

We previously allowed her to watch TV during meals because it was sometimes the only way to get her to eat, but I've now removed the TV as I don't want her to become dependent on it.

I'm honestly feeling incredibly frustrated and worried. I just don't understand how a child who genuinely loved eating can suddenly lose almost all interest in food.

Has anyone experienced such a sudden change in their toddler's eating habits?

Did it eventually resolve on its own? How long did it last, and what helped?

I'd really appreciate any advice or reassurance from parents who have been through something similar. ❤️

This isn’t my own child but my brother who is 13 and profoundly autistic. My mother is unable to cope, they’ve tried everything and exhausted all options.
She’s now heavily considering to place my brother in a residential care home permanently and I’m struggling to find many experiences of this process / how it played out for a children under the age of 18 online.

If someone could share theirs, I’d be grateful.

And please, no hate comments. Unless you’ve lived with a profoundly autistic child and were subjected to years of violence and abuse as a parent, you wouldn’t understand the situation. It’s not an easy decision for her either.

My son has been friends with this boy for a few years now. Sometimes they’re best friends, inseparable. Sometimes his friend goes through phases of being a bit mean to him, but still fairly normal for kids this age.

My son’s friend (still 6) has an older brother who is 12. I know from play dates that my son has had and from stuff my son’s friend has told him that sometimes his brother is a bad influence - swearing, physical stuff, etc. Might be normal behaviour for a kid that age, sadly, but we (my husband and I) feel it has a negative influence on this boy which then comes out in things he says and does to our son.
Anyway recently our son was telling us some stuff this friend has been doing/saying. The conversation went on and I asked has your friend told you about anything his brother has done? This might sound completely out of the blue or random, but our son would sometimes tell us about things his friend has told him about his brother.
So anyway our son goes yeah… “he told me his brother puts his willy in his bum”.
My and my husband are like mouthing wtf to each other. Asked some follow up questions to gather that he’s said it a few times and that his friend, J, meant his brother puts his willy in J’s bum.
I’m going to tell my son’s class teacher about it. My husband wasn’t so sure. I am wary that it could cause a lot of drama and involvement of god knows what for the family (when it could just be a random thing the kid has said for no reason) but I really don’t know what would/could happen.
I’m not saying I think this has happened but really who knows and at the very least the boy has been exposed to something he really shouldn’t be imo.
I don’t feel comfortable talking to the mum directly about it.

Some context: we know that the boy shares a room with his older brother. We know that they both have access to some video games and tablets and things.
Also this boy does tell my son some stories that are very clearly not true (not to say he’s a liar, it’s normal kids make stuff up sometimes but just for some context) such as saying his football team have a match at midnight, or that he pooed in his hand and put it in his brother’s mouth and he swallowed it, all sorts. But yeah this really concerned me and I do get that it could be something completely untrue and random but what if it is true? Am I completely overreacting? Is there something else I should be doing?

My daughter has been on one nap for about 5-6 months now. She usually goes down for a nap at 12:15-12:30 and will nap for 1.5-2 hours. For the past few months we’ve been having consistent split nights and we’ve worked out it’s because she needs a 7 hour final wake window, but this means bedtime is at 21:00 / 21:30 which is just so late. It means we have no evening to have a bit of time to ourselves. I also do condensed hours and make back my hours after bedtime so I end up starting work really late.

She goes to nursery 4 days a week so for those 4 days she basically has to follow their nap schedule which is nap time around 12ish. At home we could try to put her down for a nap earlier so she wakes up earlier but this would only affect Friday - Sunday, where I’m not that bothered if she had a late bedtime. It’s Monday - Thursday that I want a normal bedtime.

Has anyone else been in this position? What did you do?

I’m hoping that her sleep needs reduce and she naturally starts having a shorter nap, but I don’t know if or when that will happen.

I know I could cap her nap but ideally wouldn’t do that (but could be my only choice).

Any advice please!

For the last few days, my daughter (9yo) hasn't been well, but my son (6yo) has been fine. I let my ex know Sunday night that she wasn't going to school on Monday, as she had gotten worse. Normally if one of them is ill, she'll offer to take the other one to school. She didn't on this occasion.

I don't drive, and have to walk them to school. So this left me with a conundrum. Do I make her walk, so he can still go to school. Or keep him off, so she can rest. Personally I would keep him off, but the school has been quite vocal recently about attendance.

So on this occasion, I asked her to walk with us. We left early, so she could have breaks if she needed. Because of how long I would be out, I didn't feel comfortable leaving her on her own. There are only two people (other than my ex), but it's not very often that they reply quickly. So there aren't many people I could ask on short notice.

Obviously if one of my children was so bad that they couldn't get out of bed, or was having to run to the toilet, I wouldn't take the other. But if they can walk, should I take the other, or just risk the flack from the school?

Edit to add:

Forgot to say, I tried to contact my ex, but she didn't get back to me until well after school started.

I only have contact details for a couple of their friends. One of which is usually slow to reply. The others no longer go to the same school.

Going to and from school takes about an hour. I can't really afford taxis right now. Plus most of them are usually busy doing school runs as it is.

I want to drive, but can't afford it at the moment. I've been trying to save up to move house, but after rent/bills, I'm not left with much. I'm left in that awkward grey area, I don't earn enough to save much, but I earn too much to get assistance from the council.

So I have curry and chicken pie in my freezer and an assortment of things you can make with mince. I’m struggling to know what else I can batch cook that isn’t beef to be honest. So I’m here for your tried and tested recipes as I need to stock my freezer ready for my return to work after mat leave!

Our daughter has just started reception and has been coming home with a bag of wet pants and tights every day. She’s been toilet trained for years but in the last year she will only go when reminded and has accidents every day. She’s probably autistic which I’ve heard can mean she is less likely to recognise the feeling of needing to go and I’ve heard some people have watches that beep/ vibrate every hour or so to help them remember.

Has anyone had any success with this? Any watches to recommend?

Did other kids catch on and tease them about it?

I have 2 toddlers, a daughter who is 3 later this month and a son who is 18 months. They both share a room and once they're both asleep (for the most part) they sleep through.

The issue is, before our son was born we were able to teach our daughter to fall asleep independently. Of course it didn't happen straight away but eventually the penny dropped and she's been able to do so since and goes to bed at 7.30-8pm.

Because the kids share a room, we get our son to bed in our room at 8pm and then transfer him over to his cot at around 8.30pm and then that's them done for the night.

Does anybody have any advice as to how on earth we can get our son to fall asleep independently without disturbing his sister especially as she goes to sleep earlier than him.

Thanks!!