sigh, tired of the picky eater

My 6.5 yo daughter eats constantly all.day.long. But she will not eat anything healthy. She won't touch ANY veggie, and she will only eat bananas and apple sauce. She would live on chicken nuggets forever. I will give her other meat when we have it for dinner, but she won't touch anything else. She used to like mashed potatoes, but now will only eat them if they come from a fast food restaurant .

She's gaining weight little by little which makes me both happy and frustrated. She has always been very little, but now I'm getting to where I'm getting concerned.

I tried the whole "if you don't eat what I serve you will starve" thing and she will actually starve! I try the "serve it to them over and over" deal yet she will still refuse to eat it. When I tell her to try it she will put it on her tongue but won't actually bite it and swallow it.

Is there anything I can do to get her to eat more variety of food? I'm afraid that she will become sick because she ONLY wants chicken nuggets, french fries, etc (I make her sandwiches and stuff but when she's at my parents they will give her corn dogs, chicken nuggets, etc every TWO hours).

Sorry, my advice is to let her starve. Seriously.

Its not uncommon for my kids to live on one meal a day. I have no problem with it at all. They like to eat breakfast, so I hit them with as healthy a breakfast as I can, knowing that it may be the only meal they eat that day. They get 95% of their calories at breakfast time. LOL.

I refuse to feed them "junk" . So, no fast food, no boxed food, no high fructose corn syrup or genetically modified foods if they can be avoided.
I wasn't always this way, we have been changing our eating habits little by little over the past 3 years, and now we are officially off fast food. Its been maybe 5 months or so since my kids have had any type of fast food.
They fought me hard on it in the beginning, it really wasn't easy, but at the end of the day, I am the one with the $, I am the one who is responsible for what they put into their bodies. If you knew what was in those chicken nuggets, chances are you wouldn't let her near another one again.

Their taste buds gradually adjusted and now they don't fight me at all when I give them homemade bread instead of wonder bread, and they actually like to help me make my home made granola and yogurt.

I found some of their favorite foods and learned to make them from scratch, so they can still have some of the things that they like to eat, only a little healthier. Like, instead of nuggets, cut up chicken breasts, bread them and fry them up a bit, maybe even bake them. Instead of french fries, bake some sliced up potatoes.

Yeah, it was my fault that shes like this. When she was about 2 and dh was in basic, we were so busy doing things that I gave her what was quick and easy to eat. From that time to now it's been a battle to get her to eat much of anything else. She will eat fajita meat, roast, and some pork, and sandwiches, but wont ever touch anything else.

Hmm, I didn't even think about making her favorite foods. I like the thought of baking the chicken breasts...what do I bread it with? Lol, I am a cooking noob so I really don't know how to make much.

I just wish she would eat some type of veggie. I mean she doesn't even want to eat corn when most ppl I know will eat at least that. Dh doesn't hardly eat any veggies either, other than corn, so dinner time has always been a challenge for me any way as far as what to cook. But I will keep on trying.

I'm not sure what to tell you. I have this problem in different ways as well. Both my girls ate all kinds of veggies/fruits and still do in some ways. Kylie still loves all the veggies/fruits, but when we found out Megan had food allergies and had to take a lot of foods out of our home, she changed. Before she mainly ate fruits/veggies for snacks, and every once in awhile had junk food. When we had to take all the junk food out of the house (since it had all the allergens in it) that is all she did/does now is want the junk food. It's like she has this serious addiction to wanting that stuff 24/7. It's almost scary. She still eats somewhat healthy, but never like she once did. I can't explain the reverse psychology getting rid of Megan's allergen foods had on her, but it did.

Now with Megan, she likes fruits and veggies, but nothing like her sister did. She has a lot of picky eater habits too and because of how sick she was before we found out about her health problems she's never been a good eater. We tried the "fine, just starve method", we tried the "if you don't eat and you lose too much weight the doc is going to put in a feeding tube" (there were a few times the doc said he'd do that if she kept losing weight). We've tried it all and she doesn't care one bit.

NOW, one thing I have noticed with my girls is what WE think are portion sizes for kids really aren't portion sizes for them. My husband is worse than me, but when I started decreasing my calorie intake and noticing how small of a meal I was eating to only get a certain amount of calories, I realized that my kids were getting 2 sometimes 3x the amount of food on their plate than I should have and then when their plate seemed full after they ate I kept thinking they didn't eat much. So now I put just a tiny bit of each food on their plate and it seems to help, SOME.

I'm just not sure what the answer is. This is a daily battle with Megan. But I think some of our problem is when she was younger the feeding team at the hospital constantly told me to give her ANYTHING she wanted to eat to get her to gain weight and to help her get over her forward tongue thrust movement. So if she'd eat just junk food they said just do it. So I think that's part of our problem, I blame the feeding team for that.

You can use all kinds of stuff for breading. Flour, potato flakes, bread crumbs, you can buy breading already in the package, even flake cereal like special K. Just crush it up fine. take your chicken chunk, dip it in some egg, dip it in the breading, put it right in the oil. easy peasy! I do it with fish some times and tell the kids its chicken. They don't have a clue.

The whole junk food thing is really hard, esp. for Ben, because he remembers when life was different. he knows I used to give him fruit snacks and things like that. he even throws it in my face some times. " You USED to give us that mommy..." I just tell him, yeah, I did, but that was before, and I have learned how unhealthy that stuff is for you, and its my job to make sure that you eat healthy, I'm just doing the best job I can. "
He hates that.

As for getting her to try different veggies, can you try putting peas or steamed broccoli into mac and cheese? incorporating veggies into things that she will already eat?
Or putting cheese or butter onto veggies? We went vegetarian for a while last summer, and I got them to eat them that way. It was either eat your veggies, or slowly starve to death. Needless to say, they didn't die.

I never use to like veggies either.

Now I eat them. Well.... except for Brussel Sprouts. I'm not going anywhere near those little balls of nastiness.

Seriously, though. I don't know that there is much you can do. I would imagine there are parents who would be jealous that your child is eating bananas and apple sauce.

Sorry that I have not came and replied to this post. I think i will try the home made chicken nugget thing tomorrow night. Tonight is a light night so I'm making sandwiches. She at least eats that .

She is developmentally delayed and has some sensory issues, so I think that's why she refuses to eat some things. She took longer to learn to eat regular food because she would gag and puke up anything that wasn't smashed until age 2.

IDK where she got the "only eat mashed potatoes from a chicken place" thing because we do not order chicken from chicken places often at all. Dh doesn't like chicken or anything healthy so when we do take out it's almost never chicken. Plus I hate the thought of eating fried foods since I don't fry anything myself when I cook at home.

A child with sensory issues is a WHOLE different thing. I didn't know that, I guess. Or didn't read your OP correctly the first time. Are you working with a occupational therapist at all? Did she ever see a feeding team? I rely heavily on our OT to help me deal with Megan's eating issues. If she tells me to push, I push. If she tells me to back off, I back off. It's so hard with kids like this. What others might do, might actually be extremely harmful for sensory kids. I would really seek help of a feeding team or a OT if you haven't. Let me know what you have done and I can see what else I can come up with for you.

She doesn't qualify for occupational therapy any more. She was receiving some at her old school before we moved here. Never saw a feeding team. They just helped her learn how to feed herself with utensils and other things. She tried some new food last night so I'm very pleased.

Well, I'd like to report that she is doing a lot better. She is only taking a bite or two of veggies, but when it comes to the main thing on the plate, she eats it. It's been easier because i have been going through the pantry and freezer to use up EVERYTHING before I went shopping because I have a habit of buying more things like chicken and meat when we have some in the freezer already. Anyway, she has eaten everything so far.

The real battle is when she is at my parents. My parents refuse to let her "go hungry" so they will give her anything she wants to eat, and then when she comes home it's starting a fight all over again.

Today we did stop by McDonald's to pick up lunch, and since I was cheap I decided on dollar menu. She usually would not ever eat a reg hamburger because she knows she can get chicken nuggets , but this time I let her know that I can't afford her nuggets (lol) and that she will eat the burger (since it's only .89 instead of paying 2 something for nuggets). She ate it without any whining .

Now, I just need to learn how to make more meals at home (meaning learning how to cook as we don't eat out but maybe once every other week) I'm not a good cook at all, so I tend to buy a bunch of crap we don't need which hurts our bank account. I need help in that department, but hopefully it will work itself out.

This post has been edited by youngmomofone on Jul 20 2010, 09:36 AM

I would sometimes make burger patty made of mushroom and carrots, my little boy thinks it is real hamburger so he would ask for it like twice a week. I made pineapple shake and when I make spaghetti, I would put in some shaved cabbage and chopped broccoli.