Catching a cookie snatcher!

[melodie_a]

You said that you talked to him when you caught him in the act... so you are absolutely sure that he is awake when he is doing it right? I know that sounds crazy, but I have an uncle who is a sleepwalker and he always raids the kitchen. He gets out food, eats, leaves stuff on the counters. He even broke their microwave by pushing the buttons too hard all while he was asleep.

My daughter has also had bouts of sleepwalking. She does it more after she has gotten in trouble for something, which the doctors say is stress related. It really used to stress me out because she would be up roaming around in the middle of the night doing all kinds of stuff. She would turn things on and try to open the doors. She also got food out frequently. She even had no trouble navigating her loft bed, never once fell off even while dead asleep. The weird thing is that her eyes would be open and you could talk to her and she would even respond sometimes. There was one time I was sitting on the couch around midnight and she walked into the room, I said "Hannah, what are you doing up?" no response.. she walked over to the middle of the room and reached up in the air and made a motion like she was pulling on something. I asked her again what she was doing and she told me she was "taking care of these things" I said her name loud and she finally woke up and looked at me like I was crazy.

 

[sheaviance1]

Quote:
I was going to ask the very same question. My husband and son are both sleep eaters. It drives me absolutely insane. They get up in the middle of the night and raid the refrigerator (my son got very ill once because he ate something that hadn't been thrown out yet that needed to be). I have to keep on top of the cleaning out of the frig because of this.

 

[SourRoses]

Video Games?

Hes 5? If it turns out not to be sleepwalking or something else medical in nature...
I'm betting hes testing you. Seeing whos in charge.

My 5 year old nephew went through quite a spate of that with his grandma (my mom). He refused to eat grandmas cooking (and shes a wonderful cook, I was always picky but love my moms food).. and would say "NO!" over and over again.. like he thought he was in charge

. He was made to sit at the table all by himself... and would go hours without having taken a bite.. then would try to get up.. only to be dumped back in his chair. Then he would start trying to break things

If she hadn't 'only' been grandma.. there woud have been spankings... and if I hadn't 'only' been auntie, there would have been spankings!

Alas.. no one in his home life (father or mother) would do anything but give in to him, neither would they back anyone else up in punishments.. so eventually, grandma and auntie gave up on having him here. I doubt he is going to get any better with age, going on un-corrected and eating nothing but mc.donalds and mac & cheese

 

[schellie69]

My rule was they had to eat one spoon full of everything on their plate and no food till the next meal. You need to get a physical done make sure that there is no medical reason for this. Time to lock up what you don't want him to eat. No special meals set clear rules for eating and stick to the rules if he doesn't eat what punishment will be used. He might not like what he eats but he will learn to eat it. He will learn that he does like more food then he says. This is him testing you if you give in or make special food for him he has won. I make one meal and that is it. This has worked on my kids. I didn't make my kids sit at the table until they ate they had to finish by the time everyone else did or they got punished. Meal time was not a fight or struggle they knew the rules and followed them. Good luck stick to your guns and don't give in to his picky eating it will only get worse. I would also put a door alarm on his door so you know when he is getting out of his room.

 

[sheila3935]

It could be the move right now. Kids dont take change well. If things are crazy right now with your moving, he may feel his is not getting attention and will do things to get it even if its negative. Kids go through food jags where they like things one day and hate it the next, or where they only want to eat one kind of food. In our house at dinner you had to try everything on your plate, then you could eat what you like. New foods you had to take one good bite. I have 5 kids and we had all kinds of tastes. One day each month each kid got to decide what they wanted for dinner. He may be sleepwalking. Had one son that wouldnt wake totally wake up when he had to go to the bathroom. We caught him peeing in the toybox,garbage can, corner etc. fortunatly that only lasted a while. He may be testing limits. Most kids will respond to guilt trips better than punishment. Tell him how disapointed you are that he is doing this. That it hurts your heart to know he is being sneaky and that as much as you hate it if it doesnt stop he will have to be punished, then DO IT. My kids knew if I said they were grounded etc it stuck. I hope all this makes sense its early and I am still trying to get moving this morning.

 

[BCBunnies]

Yeah I think most of it is testing limits we have taken him to the Dr. to rule out anything medically (he has previously had heart surgery) and the Dr. advised the baby gate and baby locks. I will talk to my DH and see if he's willing to do the door alarm that sounds like it might help out alot.

On a better note he did eat breakfast this morning but I mean what kid could resist sausage and eggs and toast with juice and milk.

We had Uncle Jon over here this morning to take him in to school so that may have helped. He's over here for the day to help us move. Yay getting the U-Haul at 11 and will be mostly moved by dinner tonight. We will be effectively camping out here at the old house for the next week so we don't have to drive 3 towns over for his last week in school. I'm really hoping once we get moved with the extra room to play outdoors his appetite (sp?) will pick up and he won't be fighting us so much.

I'll check back in after dinner and let yall know how it goes. Thank you for all the suggestions!

 

[wildorchid053]

if he continues to get up at night then i would make him a healhty snack that he can eat. put it in a tupperware container just for him.. some cheese slices, carrots, things like that. at least you know he is eating something good for him if he doesn't eat his dinner. my kids and grandkids are small and even in high school my daughter only ate 1/2 a sandwich and some chips and a drink but always in her pocket was something she could sneak into her mouth and eat in class. same with grandkids..they eat about 8 times a day but little bits and they are all nice and slim lol

 

[sourland]

Umm, I'm still raiding the kitchen at night and I'm nearing 70.

What's wrong with that? Been doing it my whole life, and NO I am not overweight.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Thats cuz you do the funky bunny dance.,...

 

[BCBunnies]

Okay sorry I couldn't get back on to update yall sooner. We are mostly moved into the new house and so far he has yet to sneak into these cabinets to get into my DH's junk stash. He has however snuck a total of 8 cheese sticks out of the fridge over the weekend....

But he is doing better by alot because all his thefts have been during the day and not in the middle of the night. Guess he's sleeping better now that we're in a the new house.

Thanks for all of the advice guys and I'll keep yall updated!