Hello to you all,

I need some help.

My first born is now 3yrs and pretty much from the time she stated eating she's been very fussy. This also didnt help being 1st time parents and given in to what she wanted.

She does eat but not vegies or fresh fruits and the only fruit she does eat is the Heinz baby food fruit.

I think I'm at the point where I need to see a good Dietition for children. I live in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne and would love to hear if you know of anyone whom I could see.

I am prepared to travel.

Thanks heaps for you help.

a dietition will be able to tell you what she should eat and also give you recipies - but she cvant make your DD eat the food.

My DD will eat everything at creche but at home all she eats is spag bol (i put lots of veggies in there all pulsed in th food processor)

Good luck in finding someone!

Hey Nicole0

Thanks heaps for replying.

She does go to 3yr old kinder and I'm hoping she will catch on by watching the other kids.

I've had these conversation with a few people and I've said the same thing to them,"how is the dietitian going to make her eat it".
I thought i would give it a go as a last resort.
She's practically lived on Weetbix Kids and Heinz Muesli for the past 2 years and now she is going off it.
Now she will pretty much just eat chicken Schnitzels.

I have another daughter and we havent gone down that path.
I didnt want 2 fussy eaters in the family.

Thank you for you help.

You might be better to try learning some tactics, as like PP said, dietician should be more about what to eat, then how to get them to eat it. I know this isn't what you asked for, but thought it may help?

Maybe try something like Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious which has ways to hide the vege's, beyond putting vege's in bolognese sauce etc. (which is good trick, BTW, and it works for us!) or try these previous threads. Here are some books/ links:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-9...etables&x=0&y=0
http://members.essentialbaby.com.au/index....6&#entry6630856



There may be a class or course in your area for parents to go to about kids eating.

Or perhaps give them a vit/min supplement, like Pentavite, for the bad days when she seems to eat nothing... try putting it in a glass of juice/water, or in a banana smoothie. You can get a Pentavite with Iron one too.

You are not alone, many of us have fussy eaters, and when they go through a non-eating phase, it seems even worse than normal. This is a good website which talks about phases of kids appetites...
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/nut...tml/context/222
http://members.essentialbaby.com.au/index....howtopic=524864


Maybe try something different too... I know it can be frustating when you make foods, only for it to be rejected, but you can only try.
There are some ideas in these threads:
http://members.essentialbaby.com.au/index....howtopic=525029
http://members.essentialbaby.com.au/index....T&f=81&t=515950
http://members.essentialbaby.com.au/index....opic=456948&hl=

And other people have had success with playing 'games' with dinner, even with older kids. We found the 'horsey galloping into the stable' has worked (who knows why!) and 'better eat your dinner before Swiper gets it' works for us. Want to try your 'little green men' and ' little yellow men'?

We also found when DD was younger that if she had 'dessert' first, she then went back to eat her dinner (even though we'd offered it and she'd refused). Often if she has yoghurt/ custard/ fruit first, then dinner gets eaten. Strange but true!

we saw a dietition for my DS and it was a waste of time, the dietitan went into what he should be eating and how much of it but he just refused everything but a couple of things they don't offer tactics or ways to help with a fussy eater, DS is so fussy that he will only eat vegemite sandwiches and polony (I cant get him eating anything else) his been like this all his life too. The best place to go is a speech therapist she helped us learn tactics to deal/encourage DS to eat and to try a range of things, playing games and making him comfortable. make sure she is on a multi vitamin.

Thank you all for helping .
Looks like my thoughts of seeing a dietitian is pretty true.
She couldnt really show me how to get her to eat but only tell me what she should be eating. That part i know.

I wish she would eat pasta of any sort but she doesnt even eat that, otherwise i would load it up with veggies.

I have had her on Pentavite and i think its something that i'm going to start to give to her again.

Yes it is frusting, oh lord very frusting.
But as they say just hang in there and you'll see the light.

Thank you for the links.
I have a bit of time today so I will be doing a bit of reading.

The speech therapist was an interesting one.
Thats something to look into to.

Again thank you all for helping.
Have a good day.

I went to a talk by a dietician about fussy eaters and she said it is the parents responsibility to provide a healthy variety of food and decide the time for eating. It is the child's responsibility to decide how much to eat. So basically, only offer food at breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. If they don't eat anything at the specific meal times then they don't get anything until the next meal (even if that means going to bed without dinner) and don't offer anything as a subsitute ie if they didn't eat dinner dont give them a vegemite s/wich or dessert so that they have at least eaten something.

The dietician said that in 99% of cases in Aust a child won't starve themselves, if they are hungry they will eat (eventually) and that they will learn that if they don't eat what is provided then they will have to wait til the next meal. She also said to look at what the child has eaten throughout the day and also throughout the week.

She also recommended putting the food on the table and letting everyone serve themselves. This allows the child some "choice/power" over what they are eating.

She advocated this approach from around 12mths onwards.

eta she also said that it is fine for a child to be on the 3rd percentile or below as long as they are following the graph and not dropping off the line. just as a child on the 97th percentile or above is ok, as long as they are following the graph(approximately).

wish that was true in my DS's case

Ditto to that Only thing the dietician was able to help us with for DS2 was an NG tube

Although yes it is true that most children won't starve themselves. My 2yo is a very poor eater - his dinner is often something like 2 bites of pineapple or a bit of grated cheese. Nothing I can do about it unfortunately, but he's not fading away like his brother was!

OP I do agree the dietician would be a waste of time. All the best with it - I know the frustration!!